The CRISPR-baby scandal: what’s next for human gene-editing

As concerns surge after a bombshell revelation, here are four questions about this fast-moving field.

1. David Cyranoski
   1. David Cyranoski reports for Nature from Shanghai, China.

   You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

   

   In the three months since He Jiankui announced the birth of twin girls with edited genomes, the questions facing the scientific community have grown knottier.

   Access options

   Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

   Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

   cancel any time

   Subscribe to this journal

   Receive 51 print issues and online access

   196,21 € per year

   only 3,85 € per issue

   Rent or buy this article

   Prices vary by article type

   Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

   Nature 566, 440-442 (2019)

   Updates & Corrections

   • Clarification 11 March 2019: Since the story was first published, a comment has been added from Michael Deem’s lawyer saying that Deem was not a senior author on the human-gene-editing paper describing He’s experiments.

   References

   1. Liang, P. et al.Protein Cell6, 363–372 (2015). ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
   2. Tang, L. et al.Mol. Genet. Genom.292, 525–533 (2017). ArticleGoogle Scholar
   3. Ma, H. et al.Nature548, 413–419 (2017). ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
   4. Fogarty, N. M. E. et al.Nature550, 67–73 (2017). ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
   5. Daley, G. Q., Lovell-Badge, R. & Steffann, J. N.Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1900504 (2019). ArticleGoogle Scholar
   6. Charo, R. A. N.Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms1817528 (2019). ArticleGoogle Scholar
   7. Lovell-Badge, R. Development146, dev175778 (2019). ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar

   Related Articles

   Subjects

   Latest on:

   

   Deciphering the impact of genomic variation on function

   Perspective 04 SEP 24

   

   Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the amylase locus

   Article 04 SEP 24

   African scientists must not be priced out of mental-health research" />

   African scientists must not be priced out of mental-health research

   World View 03 SEP 24

   

   Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the amylase locus

   Article 04 SEP 24

   The heart is put at risk of rupture by cells bordering damaged tissue" />

   The heart is put at risk of rupture by cells bordering damaged tissue

   News & Views 28 AUG 24

   of cancer genomes could improve kids’ leukaemia treatment" />

   How a trove of cancer genomes could improve kids’ leukaemia treatment

   

   Intellectual property and data privacy: the hidden risks of AI

   Career Guide 04 SEP 24

   

   Why I’m committed to breaking the bias in large language models

   Career Guide 04 SEP 24

   

   Publishing nightmare: a researcher’s quest to keep his own work from being plagiarized

   Jobs

   Faculty Positions in School of Engineering, Westlake University

   The School of Engineering (SOE) at Westlake University is seeking to fill multiple tenured or tenure-track faculty positions in all ranks. Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Westlake University

   Postdoctoral Associate- Genetic Epidemiology

   Houston, Texas (US) Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

   NOMIS Foundation ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship

   The NOMIS Foundation ETH Fellowship Programme supports postdoctoral researchers at ETH Zurich within the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life . Zurich, Canton of Zürich (CH) Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich

   13 PhD Positions at Heidelberg University

   GRK2727/1 – InCheck Innate Immune Checkpoints in Cancer and Tissue Damage Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE) and Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (DE) Medical Faculties Mannheim & Heidelberg and DKFZ, Germany