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Chinese Scientist Says He's First To Create Genetically Modified Babies Using CRISPR (npr.org)
For the first time, a scientist claims to have used a powerful new gene-editing technique to create genetically modified human babies. From a report: The scientist, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, says he used human embryos modified with the gene-editing technique CRISPR to create twin girls. "Two beautiful little Chinese girls name Lulu and Nana came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago." He says in a video posted online. "The babies are home now with their mom Grace and their dad Mark." He says his team performed "gene surgery" on embryos created from their parents' sperm and eggs to protect the children from the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, which causes AIDS. The children' father is HIV-positive. "When Lulu and Nana were just a single cell, this surgery removed a doorway through which HIV enter to infect people," He says in the video, one of several posted online to justify and explain the work. Because the research has not yet been published in a scientific journal or carefully vetted by other scientists, many researchers and bioethicists remain cautious about the claim.
One guy was already cured of HIV through a bone marrow transplant from another individual with genetic immunity to the disease. To use CRISPR to make the genetic tweak doesn't seem all that farfetched.
I don't trust any science claims coming out of China anymore.
Parents: Grace, Mark
Are these Chinese names? Shit, am I being racist?
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
If true, I think this can be good for the human race. Not to make us all the same, but to make us different. It's accepted that species with wider gene diversity are more resilient. OK some of us may die because of mistakes and wrongdoing but that happens every day in our society anyway - traffic accidents, crime, war etc.
Indeed. Innate resistance to HIV is well known. The gene that causes it has been identified, and 23andMe will even tell you if you have that gene.
With an HIV positive dad, the benefit to these GMO babies outweighs the risks.
Will they have to have CONTAINS GMO tattoos?
The effect of gene modifying in human may not even show up for a long time. We still have to wait for at least another 20-30 years or even human life time. At least these twin girls would be the first guinea pig for the whole human race (regardless the ethical issue which may rise in the future).
Sorta what you said, but also not.
From the article you linked
The second step of virus entry and the first absolutely required for infection entails binding of Env to its primary receptor,the host protein CD4 (Maddon et al. 1986; McDougal et al. 1986). Env is a heavily glycosylated trimer of gp120 and gp41 heterodimers.
Note the "absolutely required"
The third step of virus entry, coreceptor binding, is widely thought to be the trigger that activates the membrane fusionpotential of Env. HIV strains can be broadly classified based on their coreceptor usage. Viruses that use the chemokine receptor CCR5 are termed R5 HIV, those that use CXCR4 are termed X4 HIV, and viruses that can use both coreceptors are called R5X4HIV (Berger et al. 1998). There is no compelling evidence that coreceptors other than CCR5 and CXCR4 play important roles in supporting infection of HIV-1 in vivo. With rare exception, only R5 and R5X4 viruses are transmitted between individuals (Keele et al. 2008), likely owing to multiple imperfect but overlapping host restrictions on X4 HIV transmission (reviewed in Margolis and Shattock 2006).
The NPR.org article says that the researcher blocked the CCR5 pathway, So if the father has the R5 or R5X4 HIV variant, then the genetic modification will indeed prevent the daughter's getting infected from their dad.
If I recall correctly, this "fix" would also cause the daughters to be immune to the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis). I suspect that what he did was copy the CCR5 delta 32 mutation into the embryo. it's a mutation known not to be harmful.