Pictured: Dr. Jennifer Doudna speaking with some of those attending her talk at Kakaʻako last September. Deborah Manog Dimaya photo.
By Tina Shelton and Deborah Manog Dimaya, UH Med Now
It’s not a matter of if it is a matter of when and where the gene editing technology will be used in human embryos, that is what the co-creator of CRISPR technology told an audience at the University of Hawaiʻi in Kakaʻako last September. This past weekend, a Chinese scientist claimed he has used the CRISPR gene-editing science to produce two infants who will be resistant to HIV infection.
Dr. Jennifer Doudna, raised on Hawaiʻi Island, where she graduated from Hilo High School, reacted strongly to the news today from Hong Kong, where she is moderating a panel at the Human Genome Editing Summit.
“It is imperative that the scientists responsible for this work fully explain their break from the global consensus that application of CRISPR-Cas9 for human germline editing should not proceed at the present time,” Dr. Doudna said through her University of California public affairs office.
To those who heard Dr. Doudna speak at the Sullivan Center at the invitation of the University of Hawaiʻi in September, her reaction comes as no surprise:
At the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Institute for Biogenesis Research (IBR), where significant strides have been made in research improving assisted human reproduction, Dr. Steven Ward, IBR Director, joined Dr. Doudna in voicing his disapproval. “An experiment in China to alter the genomes of embryos in vitro, then implant them in the mother, is a step too far,” said Dr. Ward.