Wild update to this story: Eugenics: Chinese and American Scientists Secretly “Gene-Edit” Babies
In case you missed it, last month the world found out that a Chinese researcher announced twin babies were born “whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.”
As the world recoiled in horror over He Jiankui and American researcher Michael Deem, a professor of Biochemical and Genetic Engineering at Houston’s Rice University – of which He Jiankui was a student in Deem’s program – secretive experimentation, come to find out, Chinese scientists have also been conducting human gene-editing experiments for the last several years “to edit the DNA of dozens of cancer patients.”
In one trial, Wall Street Journal reported, based on information they gathered they have “lost touch with patients whose DNA was altered, alarming some Western scientists who say subjects should be monitored for many years.”
One of the co-inventors of the tool, the Crispr-Cas9, Jennifer Doudna, said in a statement that, “since we do not fully understand the human genome and are still developing knowledge of the Crispr-Cas technology, we need to monitor the intended and unintended consequences over the lifespan of patients.”
“Any death in any clinical trial must be fully investigated,” said Berkeley’s Dr. Doudna. She said she is concerned “about reckless applications of genome editing that put the safety of patients at risk, damages the public’s acceptance of Crispr technology, and could trigger a range of negative but permanent unintended consequences.”
Wall Street Jounal
Human experimentation has no regulation in China, though the Chinese Health Ministry is said to be claiming they have “increased scrutiny.”
After two years, the University of Pennsylvania, “is one of the first in the world to publicly announce a Crispr trial.” It took “two years to receive clearance from bodies ranging from its institutional review board to the Food and Drug Administration,” along with “additional lab tests” and an examination of “the wording on consent letters, among other things, before agreeing to let the school enroll patients this year.”
NewHorizons2015: Thirteen years and 4 billion miles later on edge of our solar system.
Past Pluto at 32,000 mph and onto 2014 MU69, which is also named Ultima Thule.
Ultima, according to Space.com, is a distant object “in the Kuiper Belt,” which is “a realm of icy objects that orbit the sun well beyond the dwarf planet Pluto.”
After leaving Pluto, New Horizons made a few course adjustments and set its sights on 2014 MU69 – a 20 km x 18 km oddly shaped rock hanging out in the Kuiper belt.
— MarrowDork (@AeroDork) December 27, 2018
On January 1st, we get our first close up of this enigmatic object. pic.twitter.com/hYGI16l4AB
On New Year’s Day (Jan. 1), New Horizons will fly by the distant object Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt, a realm of icy objects that orbit the sun well beyond the dwarf planet Pluto. The flyby is a second for New Horizons, which flew by Pluto in July of 2015, and will mark the first-of-its-kind close look at a Kuiper Belt object forged during the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Space.com
Because of the government shut down, NASA’s had some of its ‘public outreach feeds initially silenced.” However, because the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), in Laurel Maryland, “oversees the New Horizons mission for NASA,” JHUAPL has taken over to provide live updates and photos of the upcoming event on December 31 and January 1 on their JHUAPL YouTube page.
“The New Horizons team provides the latest updates on the historic flyby of Ultima Thule, the farthest exploration of any world, ever.”
(Dec 28 2018)
You can also follow NewHorizons2015 Twitter feed for this upcoming historical event in our lifetime for updates and photos.
JHU Applied Physics Laboratory
Published on Dec 28, 2018