Chinese scientist claims world’s first gene-edited babies

HONG KONG: A scientist in China claims to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies, a move that would be a ground-breaking medical first generating a barrage of criticism. The Chinese university professor He Jiankui posted a video on YouTube saying that the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV.

The professor, who was educated at Stanford in the US and works from a lab in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said their DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. The development emerged Sunday in an article published by industry journal the MIT Technology Review, which referenced medical documents posted online by He's research team to recruit couples for the experiments.

The video then went online, prompting a heated debate among the scientific community, including from experts who cast doubt over the claimed breakthrough, and others who decried it as a modern form of eugenics.