Gene Editing
STAT+: At genome editing summit, experts worry that rule changes on embryo research in China fall short
LONDON — The first gene-edited children were born in China five years ago, but it’s unlikely to happen again there anytime soon. That was the message Chinese scientists delivered Monday on the opening day of the Third International Genome Editing Summit in London.
While the widely condemned experiment conducted by He Jiankui violated two existing Chinese regulations dating back to 2003 — which prohibit genetically altered embryos from being implanted into people for reproductive purposes — rulemaking in China accelerated significantly after the scandal, which broke on the eve of the last genome summit in Hong Kong in 2018.
