Bro, I was just pretending that I know a thing or two in chemistry...
News on China's scientific and technological development.
- Thread starter Quickie
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China needs more visionary leaderships like Jinkui He. Talk big, do big, aim for the best of the best. It would be great if China divert some of the money and human resources from semiconductor/ev industry to bio/genetic-tech/medical sector. China needs some BYD/CATL of biotech.
I really don't think calling him a visionary or a leader is particularly accurate.
Using crispr to modify embryos is not something which required unique innovation or advanced technology that only he possessed -- what he did possess was recklessness, a lack of ethical approval by a scientific body, and an inability to consider whether directly modifying embryos and having them released into the general population's gene pool has created a risk of genetic diseases that are new to science.
He Jiankui is a perfect example of someone who doesn't understand risk and has sought notoriety and fame at unknown costs to the participants he recruited for his experiment and the embryos his team edited and the kids they have grown up into, and potentially to unknown costs to the population at large in the long term.
This is an avenue of scientific research that he let out of the lab into application to human participants and out into the real world far too early, and he deliberately forged ethical papers and raised his own funds all to avoid oversight, and for even the most basic of healthcare/medical science that involves human participants, approval and review by an ethics board is standard... meaning he knew from the beginning what he did was wrong.
Frankly I am surprised he still has the ability to participate in scientific research of any kind. You would think he would have been ashamed and stopped trying to advertise himself rather than putting his face and name on things.
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I think CN has some projects on Biotech, in shenzhen(?) If i remember correctly.
I don't think it was particularly surprising that He is doubling down, given the effort he has invested into his experiment. It looks like he is proud of the result of his experiment and his notoriety too, so in the end I think this wasn't unexpected of him.
Crispr is just a tool but he was smart and brazen enough to do what he did. The problem is that China and its medical community was unable/unwilling/good enough to set up its own regulation, rules and standards to govern the sector so they just get dictated by other countries what can, should and allowed to be done. Once China have its own clear, concise and progressive regulations then people like Jiankui will push China to the forefront of biogenetics. Now that Jiankui have paid for this wrong doings and here is a chance for him to contribute to China development again. EV and EUV are two important sectors but I think Biogenetic is just as important if not more.