#geneticallymodifiedorganisms

As discussed in my article “Genetic Engineering News: Super-Babies Are Here!”, He Jiankui, a biophysics researcher and associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shanghai China, shocked the world when he announced that he genetically edited a pair of human embryos that had come to term. While many may understand the ramifications of He Jiankui’s actions, I find that many do not understand exactly what he did. So I will attempt to state, as plainly as I possibly can, exactly what He Jiankui did and how he did it. But before that, allow me to introduce briefly the man behind all this world changing news.

Meet He Jiankui

Associated press He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who claims to have edited the genome of a human embryo which have come to term. Meet Dr. He Jiankui. Born in Xinhua County, Loudi, Hunan, He Jiankui began his career by earning a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Science and Technology of China. He then traveled to the United States where he earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics at Rice University under supervision of professor Michael W. Deem in 2007. After a brief post doctoral fellowship at Stanford university, He Jiankui moved back to china and opened a lab at the Southern University of Science and Technology. While there, he received angel funding which he used to opened numerous startup companies. Some, worthy of note, include Direct Genomics, which develops single molecule sequence devices for clinical use, and Vienomics Biotech, a company that developed sequence devices specifically for detecting cancer. Following his many successes in February of 2018, He Jiankui then took an unpaid leave of absence from the university to begin an unknown clinical experiment. This experiment will then go on to shock not only the scientific community, but the world.

He Jiankui’s Experiment

The experiments purpose was to reduce the unborn child’s susceptibility to the HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. To do that, He Jiankui began by recruiting individuals that wanted to conceive children. The caveat, however is that the male participating in the experiment had to be HIV positive. He then took a sperm cell from said male and a egg from the female and performed in vitro fertilization on them, a procedure used to assist the conception of a child. After the egg was fertilized He Jiankui then used CRISPR/Cas 9, a revolutionary gene editing tool, to mutate the gene CCR5 into CCR5 Delta 32. Ok so what the heck does that mean? To understand what this means you first have to understand what the gene CCR5 is and its function. Also known as C-C motif chemokine receptor 5, CCR5 is a protein embedded in the cell membrane of a white blood cell that acts as a receptor for chemokines, small proteins involved in the process of cell signaling (perhaps cell signaling could later be its own blog post, who knows). CCR5 Role in Aiding HIV Infection

HIV typically enters the body and targets your white blood cells using the CCR5 receptor as, well as a receptor. By attaching itself to this receptor HIV is able to successfully bind to the target cell without shedding of the GP120 glyco-protein envelope (GP120 is the glycoprotein HIV uses to attach to your white blood cells). CCR5 Delta 32 & HIV Resistance Surprising to many people, a small part of the population (specifically 1% of the population) display an innate resistance to HIV. This resistance to HIV seems due to a mutation in the gene that codes for the CCR5 protein. This mutation, named CCR5 delta 32, introduces a premature stop in the genetic code of the genes that code for the CCR5 protein. This premature stop causes the CCR5 receptor to become unreceptive thereby inhibiting GP120 and CCR5’s union. Now You Get It By artificially mutating the gene CCR5 into CCR5 delta 32 in the twins, Lulu and Nana, He Jiankui should theoretically have given the girls an heightened immunity of the strains of HIV that specifically uses the CCR5 protein as a receptor to infect your white blood cells.

The Outcome

The first genetic engineered babies are here. On November 25, 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui, claimed in an online video that he used CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing tool, to genetically engineer a pair of embryos to be HIV resistant. Let’s take a look at this consequential event and what it means for mankind. However, I feel it is important to first take a brief look at the history of mankind’s relationship with genetic engineering.

History of Humans and Genetic Engineering

Despite the futuristic overtones of “genetic engineering”, humanity has actually had a long history with the process. Even in prehistoric times, man would use selective and cross breeding techniques to engineer better crops and livestock! One example is the mule, which is a cross-breed between a male donkey and female horse, and has existed since 3000 BC. The techniques we have used to genetically engineer organisms has always been rudimentary at best but our techniques has improved over time. So much so, that now we are able to specify exactly what traits we wish an organism to exhibit. And upon examining key milestones throughout history, we can hone in on the events that paved the way for such specificity and were a precursor to the November 25, 2018 incident, the day the first genetically engineered humans were announced. Genetic Engineering Timeline •1859- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. It’s release exposed humanity to the fact that populations evolve through a process called natural selection. •1865- Gregory Mendel developes a model of heredity, by cross breeding pea plants. His experiments garnered him the title of the father of modern genetics. •1866- The discovery that genetic materials (the blue print to heredity) resides in the nucleus of a cell by Ernst Haeckel. •1910- T.H. Morgan proves genetic material resides in chromosomes, which in turn resides in the cell’s nucleus. •1931- The discovery of physical recombination of DNA by scientist Rosalind Franklin. •1944- Oswald Avery discovers the role of DNA in Genetics. •1966- Marshall Nirenberg and Har Gobin Khorana deciphers the genetic code. •1976- Prenatal genetic diagnosis based of DNA discovered. •1978- The worlds first “test tube baby” born. A landmark achievement in the field of genetic engineering in humans. •1990- The human genome project launches. Our attempt to map the human genome. •2000- The completion of the Human Genome Project. •2018- He Jiankui, Chinese scientist, releases video claiming to have genetically modified human embryos which has come to term. ( Confirmed by the Chinese authorities)

He Jiankui, Chinese Scientist who claims to have genetically engineered humans. Photo curtosey of Wikimedia Commons Genetic engineering is not something new to mankind. However, we have never had more control of the process than we do today. And these contributions all led to the day that we were able to genetically engineer the first man.

November 25, 2018

On november 25, 2018, He Jiankui sent tremors through the world when he announces, through a well-coordinated media campaign, that two babies he genetically engineered had came to term. The story was first published in an MIT Technology Review article, then he strategically released a promotional video on YouTube the next day. In the video, you can watch here, He Jiankui claims “two beautiful little Chinese girls, named Lulu and Nana (the names, for obvious reasons, are pseudonyms) came crying into this world as healthy as any other baby a few weeks ago.” (no doubt, an attempt to alleviate the coming fears from this bombshell). He then states that the twins were born via IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), a medical procedure in which the female’s gamete (basically her sex cells..so her eggs) are fertilized outside of the human body. Then after insemination of the fathers sperm, when the then future twins were just a single cell, He Jiankui then genetically modified the DNA of the cell. We can discuss the specifics of that modification in another post, which I will place here via hyperlink, but till then lets focus on the fact that genetically engineered humans are here.

The Reception

The problem is that the topic of genetic engineering is a controversial one, much less genetic engineering done on humans. When He Jiankui performed his controversial gene-editing experiment, he did not consult the scientific community. As a result, the fallout from the scientific community was swift. Scientist world wide condemned his actions and none more so than those in his home country of China, where scientist are already concerned with their image of being the “wild west” of genetic engineering research. Fall out from the government was equally as swift. On revelations of his experiment, a statement was issued from China’s National health Commission in Beijing, “the incident is a serious violation of national laws, regulations and ethical guidelines”. The country’s Ministry of Science and Technology took it a step further and pledged to “work with relevant departments to jointly improve relevant laws and regulations and improve the scientific research ethics review system.” Despite the wide spread condemnation does this mean that genetically engineered super babies are here?

Super Babies, Are They Here?

Does this mean that genetically engineered super-babies are here? Actually no. When people envision a future where we are able to utilize genetic engineering to create “designer babies”, typically it is one in which humans are engineered to be stronger or smarter. These traits however, are not dictated by a single gene, which is all genetic engineering is capable of changing. For example, there are an estimated 93,000 different genes that code for height alone and only 697 of those genes having been identified! So while we are able to make changes to a single gene, to edit a embryo to develop into a human with hightened physical or mental abilities is far out of our reach at the moment. It also should be noted that genetic engineering done to humans is illegal in almost all countries accross the world. We are still a long way of from genetically engineered “ super babies”.

What It Actually Means For Mankind