God wants babies to contract HIV
Comment on Get on that grindset
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Is this the guy who cured HIV in two embryos by gene editing and was then shunned by the scientific community for not following regulation and procedure and playing god?
manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
No, it’s a guy who edited the genes of some embryos in the hopes that a particular gene mutation would give resistance to HIV.
Only: the gene editing didn’t actually give the specific version of the gene studied to have an effect on HIV susceptibility, the gene is also associated with memory and other brain function, and the gene was incompletely edited so that there are multiple versions of the genes in both kids, when the studied mutation needed to be present in both chromosomes of the chromosome pair in order to show some kind of effect on HIV.
Even if you believe that the evidence is strong enough to support the idea that a mutation in this gene can give HIV resistance, this guy didn’t actually do it in a way that was scientifically sound, and now two real human beings have to live their lives with the effects, including any off target effects, whatever they might be.