Peking. A Chinese researcher who was jailed for giving birth to the first genetically modified babies in history sparking condemnation from the scientific community said on Tuesday he was looking for new collaborators after obtaining a visa to settle in Hong Kong.
He Jiankui was sentenced in December 2019 by a court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where he carried out his work, to three years in prison for “illegally genetically manipulating embryos for reproductive purposes.”
In November 2018, she announced that she had managed to give birth to twin girls with modified DNA to make them resistant to the AIDS virus that their father was infected with.
“I am contacting Hong Kong universities, research organizations and companies,” the 39-year-old scientist, who was released from prison in April 2022, told reporters in Beijing.
“If interesting opportunities arise, I will consider moving to Hong Kong to work” on “gene therapy projects for rare diseases,” he added.
Last weekend He Jiankui had announced that he had obtained a visa under a program designed to attract talent to Hong Kong.
Kiran Musunuru, professor of genetics at the American University of Pennsylvania, was “appalled” by Hong Kong’s decision.
“He Jiankui is a convicted criminal,” he told AFP. “Experimenting on children by causing genetic changes like he did is, in my opinion, mistreatment.”
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