Health Editor’s Note: CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Bacteria use CRISPR to dissect DNA of invading bacterial viruses that could kill them. Most experiments using CRISPR use mouse embryos or cells grown in petri dishes in a fluid that is similar to blood.  Some research is being done using stem cells that are modified and placed into patients to repair damages organs. He Jiankui, Chinese biophysics researcher, used embryos (dividing cells which are the combination of a egg from female and sperm from male and a potential fetus/baby…..Carol  

CRISPR Babies Scientist to Face Charges?

By Greg Portz/MedPage Today Healthcare Investigations

Chinese investigators say that scientist He Jiankui — who claims to have been involved in making the world’s first CRISPR-edited babies — acted alone, fabricated an ethical review of his research, and will be punished for any  of the country’s law, according to theNew York Times.

While the investigators’ report doesn’t say what specific law he broke, it said the scientist violated Chinese guidelines when he organized and funded the gene-editing experiment — three embryos were reportedly altered (a pair of twins have already been born). He, who has since disappeared from public view, said he used CRISPR in an effort to make the babies resistant to HIV/AIDS.

In a report from Xinhua, China’s state news agency, investigators said that “this behavior seriously violated ethics, scientific research integrity and relevant state regulations,” and their report argued that he had conducted the research “in pursuit of personal fame and gain.”