Bro, I was just pretending that I know a thing or two in chemistry...
News on China's scientific and technological development.
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China needs more visionary leaderships like Jinkui He. Talk big, do big, aim for the best of the best. It would be great if China divert some of the money and human resources from semiconductor/ev industry to bio/genetic-tech/medical sector. China needs some BYD/CATL of biotech.
I really don't think calling him a visionary or a leader is particularly accurate.
Using crispr to modify embryos is not something which required unique innovation or advanced technology that only he possessed -- what he did possess was recklessness, a lack of ethical approval by a scientific body, and an inability to consider whether directly modifying embryos and having them released into the general population's gene pool has created a risk of genetic diseases that are new to science.
He Jiankui is a perfect example of someone who doesn't understand risk and has sought notoriety and fame at unknown costs to the participants he recruited for his experiment and the embryos his team edited and the kids they have grown up into, and potentially to unknown costs to the population at large in the long term.
This is an avenue of scientific research that he let out of the lab into application to human participants and out into the real world far too early, and he deliberately forged ethical papers and raised his own funds all to avoid oversight, and for even the most basic of healthcare/medical science that involves human participants, approval and review by an ethics board is standard... meaning he knew from the beginning what he did was wrong.
Frankly I am surprised he still has the ability to participate in scientific research of any kind. You would think he would have been ashamed and stopped trying to advertise himself rather than putting his face and name on things.
I don't think it was particularly surprising that He is doubling down, given the effort he has invested into his experiment. It looks like he is proud of the result of his experiment and his notoriety too, so in the end I think this wasn't unexpected of him.
Crispr is just a tool but he was smart and brazen enough to do what he did. The problem is that China and its medical community was unable/unwilling/good enough to set up its own regulation, rules and standards to govern the sector so they just get dictated by other countries what can, should and allowed to be done. Once China have its own clear, concise and progressive regulations then people like Jiankui will push China to the forefront of biogenetics. Now that Jiankui have paid for this wrong doings and here is a chance for him to contribute to China development again. EV and EUV are two important sectors but I think Biogenetic is just as important if not more.
China might, but
(at 2020)
The largest one is Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine which is at rank 38.
That is not good at all. Given China's size and advance development in many other sectors it needs at least 2 to 3 in the top 10.
On the contrary, China already had existing guidelines for genetic studies, however He Jiankui went far and beyond what current science, ethics and regulations allowed.
Once the ethical and regulatory concerns for genetic editing are sufficiently mature, people like He Jiankui won't be needed because he didn't offer anything useful that other scientists in this domain can offer. All he did was act brashly, deliberately flaunting ethical considerations and ignorant of the potential harm he was doing not only to the embryos he edited but to the population as a whole by introducing these people into the gene pool.
He does not possess the integrity and reasoning to be a biophysicist let alone someone that should have access to treating participants or patients (he isn't a medical doctor, for one).
He Jiankui should be considered a disgrace. If the one thing that he should be commended for, it is for making the Chinese authorities to better recognize the threat that rogue scientists pose to participants, patients, and the general population.
There is a pathway to pursuing the role of genetic editing for human applications. Directly editing human embryos and letting them reach term, be birthed, and enter the human population all while avoiding ethical oversight, is far beyond the pale of what is acceptable.
It's not a surprise that the guy is doubling down, and if you look at his twitter account he is unrepentant, vain, and trying to exploit his notoriety for media coverage and funding.
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Do you think that nobody else thought about doing the same human experimentation? Everyone could see the potential but they also deeply understood the consequences so they didn't do it
And for whoever is praising him, do you also know that his actions actually significantly affected research worldwide with scientific and ethical boards scrambling back, pausing research projects to re-review or whatever.. His actions didn't accelerate or help research in any way, he actually cost the world at least a year of delayed research. What a great achievement!
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Genetics is my profession and I really don't like to mix work and pleasure but I'll have to chime in here a bit. I agree with @SDtom. First of all, He did not just edit people; that's what he's famous for but he also conducted very critical genetic sequencing research.
The thing that Chinese genetics needs most now is its own reliable sequencing platform. Apart from Illumina's systems, most notably the Novaseq, the only other commercially viable platforms are also Western, like Ion torrent. If there is a ban on genetics equipment to China, we will feel the burn, but unfortunately, I think we probably need that burn to make our own systems. He saw that ahead of time and began work. It was never completed and turned into China's domestic platform but he was good enough to try and he can keep pushing it through. To me, this is his most important contribition and just for that I would keep him immune to prison. Or maybe it's just our fate to be too stupid to pre-empt American tech embargos as it is American fate to be too stupid to stop spurring Chinese innovation with these embargos.
On the issue of ethics, do not expect your enemies to have them, no matter how much they pretend they do. Therefore, neither can we afford to have them. If an American geneticist went to the Pentagon and demonstrated an ability to create soldiers that could drastically alter a war in favor of the US and against China, what do you think they would do? Refuse because of ethics? Throw him in jail? No; he'd given possibly unchecked budget to conduct his science in secret, all his mistakes wiped from the books and potentially be elevated to the most powerful genetics position in the US. Hell, I don't even think he needs to be that good; if he could edit athletes to win more medals at the Olympics without getting caught, he'd be head honcho because that's just how desperate the US is these days for any kind of win over China. That's the kind of ethics our enemies have and I couldn't agree with them more because when let loose, we Chinese are the most creative and driven scientists in the world and we will win. So if we can genetically edit snipers to be more accurate, SEALs to hold their breathes longer under water, pilots to resist more G's, we need to do it. If the consequences are that we screw up some people, that's what we pay because if we don't pay that way, we might pay by losing WWIII. Then what do we say? That we lost but they won by poor ethics so it doesn't count?? Then there'll be real ethics problems to think about but you won't be able to do anything about them because it will be your enemies writing your ethics and laws in your country. Until then, while the fight is still on, there are no ethics. Do anything you can to move forward in science and realize the only way to defeat your enemy is through superior science. After we win, we can write the ethics of the world. Until then, in a struggle against a traditionally more powerful foe, it is a bad joke to tie your own arms with your own ethics.
The thing that Chinese genetics needs most now is its own reliable sequencing platform. Apart from Illumina's systems, most notably the Novaseq, the only other commercially viable platforms are also Western, like Ion torrent. If there is a ban on genetics equipment to China, we will feel the burn, but unfortunately, I think we probably need that burn to make our own systems. He saw that ahead of time and began work. It was never completed and turned into China's domestic platform but he was good enough to try and he can keep pushing it through. To me, this is his most important contribition and just for that I would keep him immune to prison. Or maybe it's just our fate to be too stupid to pre-empt American tech embargos as it is American fate to be too stupid to stop spurring Chinese innovation with these embargos.
On the issue of ethics, do not expect your enemies to have them, no matter how much they pretend they do. Therefore, neither can we afford to have them. If an American geneticist went to the Pentagon and demonstrated an ability to create soldiers that could drastically alter a war in favor of the US and against China, what do you think they would do? Refuse because of ethics? Throw him in jail? No; he'd given possibly unchecked budget to conduct his science in secret, all his mistakes wiped from the books and potentially be elevated to the most powerful genetics position in the US. Hell, I don't even think he needs to be that good; if he could edit athletes to win more medals at the Olympics without getting caught, he'd be head honcho because that's just how desperate the US is these days for any kind of win over China. That's the kind of ethics our enemies have and I couldn't agree with them more because when let loose, we Chinese are the most creative and driven scientists in the world and we will win. So if we can genetically edit snipers to be more accurate, SEALs to hold their breathes longer under water, pilots to resist more G's, we need to do it. If the consequences are that we screw up some people, that's what we pay because if we don't pay that way, we might pay by losing WWIII. Then what do we say? That we lost but they won by poor ethics so it doesn't count?? Then there'll be real ethics problems to think about but you won't be able to do anything about them because it will be your enemies writing your ethics and laws in your country. Until then, while the fight is still on, there are no ethics. Do anything you can to move forward in science and realize the only way to defeat your enemy is through superior science. After we win, we can write the ethics of the world. Until then, in a struggle against a traditionally more powerful foe, it is a bad joke to tie your own arms with your own ethics.
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I wonder if it is similar to microwave holography method but applied to much higher frequencies.