‘They don’t want me to rise again’: China’s gene-editing scientist on why he’s back in the lab

Before he agrees to be interviewed, He Jiankui has one request: that he is introduced as a ‘gene editing pioneer’. This may come across as grandiose, but it is also indisputable. No one else in history, after all, can say they have created genetically edited human beings.

In 2018, He dropped the mother of all scientific bombs when he announced that he had used Crispr, a gene-editing technique, to alter the DNA of two babies. In a YouTube video, He explained that the twins, ‘two beautiful Chinese girls’, codenamed Lulu and Nana, had been born safely just a few weeks before in Shenzhen. Both had had their embryos edited to prevent them catching HIV from their father. Later, it emerged that another woman was pregnant with a genetically modified baby. She gave birth to a girl in 2019.

With almost no debate or warning, a single biophysicist in Shenzhen had crossed a new line in scientific history. While he undoubtedly understood the significance of his discovery, it is obvious that He was unprepared for the fallout. Crispr can easily damage other parts of a DNA strand, causing unknown effects that cascade down someone’s genetic code. He was accused by the scientific community of going rogue and risking the safety of the girls. After his experiment was made public, he was stripped of his university position and was sentenced to three years in jail by a Chinese court. In news reports around the world, He was labelled ‘China’s Frankenstein’.

It would not have been a surprise if that was the last we heard of He. Yet after serving his time, He revealed last year that he had opened a new laboratory in Beijing. He can’t say exactly where it is for security reasons, but it is funded by Chinese investors and donations.