Gene-editing scientist kept much of his work secret

SHENZHEN, China — The Chinese scientist who says he helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies kept much of his research secret.

He Jiankui’s aspirations began to take shape in 2016, the year after another team of Chinese researchers sparked global debate with the revelation that they had altered the DNA of human embryos in the lab. He has pushed the boundaries of medical ethics even further.

The U.S.-trained scientist once confided to his former Stanford University adviser his interest in gene-edited babies. He told the Associated Press last month that he had been working on the experiment for more than two years — a period in which, by his own account, he concealed information from co-workers and, apparently, from his own bosses.

He worked his way around the loosely worded and irregularly enforced regulations and generous funding available today in China.

“The enormous ambition in China, the desire to be the first, collides with the desire to create and enforce standards,” said JingBao Nie, an expert on Chinese bioethics at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

On the eve of an international gene-editing summit in Hong Kong this week, the 34-year-old scientist stunned the world by claiming he had used the powerful CRISPR gene-editing tool to alter the DNA of twin girls born this month. He’s goal was to rewrite DNA before birth to make children less likely to contract HIV.

His claim has not been independently confirmed or been published in a journal, but it drew swift global outrage.

Mainstream scientists said the experiment should never have been tried.

“They chose to short-circuit the entire process. They went rogue,” said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene-editing expert.

It was not clear if He will face criminal charges in China.