Criticism pours in on gene editing claim

Suspicious approval

Many experts, including Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, were shocked and wondered how He's research project could have passed a preliminary ethics inspection before being carried out.

"It is horrible and beyond belief, if it is not fake news," he said. "No organization's ethics inspection committee would give a nod to such research."

Researcher He sought and received medical ethics approval for his project from Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital, the AP reported on Monday, and an approval document from the hospital has been released online.

However, on Tuesday the hospital denied any involvement in the research and said it suspected the document was fabricated. The hospital had reported the case to the police, it said in a statement on its website.

Cheng Zhen, general manager of the hospital, told local media on Tuesday that all the members of its ethics committee denied having signed their names to the report, although their signatures are similar to those on the report.

Speech expected

He has remained silent over the past two days after breaking the news.

He is expected to give an academic speech on Wednesday at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong.

Professor David Baltimore, chair of the organizing committee of the summit, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the committee may release a report on its opinion about gene editing after He's expected speech.

"The committee is certainly open to gene editing applications to human medicine, absolutely. Open means that we are going to decide what we think is appropriate, and when it's appropriate to move ahead," he said.

Baltimore said he believes He will attend the meeting and give a speech as expected, but he is uncertain about what He will say.

Before he returned to China in 2012, he took part in postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.

He was a well-known researcher in his area and had stakes in several life science companies, according to media reports.

"I understand my work will be controversial, but I believe families need technology, and I'm willing to take the criticism," he said in video footage released on Monday morning on YouTube.

"We believe ethics are on our side of history," he said.