Somewhere in China, two girls are about eight years old. The world knows them only as Lulu and Nana, pseudonyms for the first children born with edited genomes. In November 2018, their genetic editor, Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui, announced that he had used CRISPR to alter a gene called CCR5 in their embryos, intending to make them resistant to HIV.
The announcement shocked the scientific world. In December 2019, a Chinese court sentenced Jiankui to three years in prison; he was released in April 2022. Scientists found his edits had not reproduced the intended naturally occurring mutation. Lulu and Nana live in anonymity with the uncertain consequences of an experiment they could never consent to, its genetic alterations potentially affecting future generations.
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