The most disturbing question in science today remains unanswered: are the first genetically modified babies okay?

The two biggest questions about the creation of the first three humans whose genomes were deliberately modified by another human remain unanswered five years later.

How could something like this happen without the Chinese authorities knowing about it?

And even more relevant, how are the three girls who were born as a result of those delusional experiments by He Jiankui, a scientist repudiated by the international community who continues without giving explanations?

Several hundred gene editing experts from around the world are meeting this week in London to seek answers about what happened in 2018, when the Chinese researcher went to this same forum to announce the birth of the first genetically modified babies.

"China has passed several laws that limit the editing of the human genome," Yaojin Peng, director of the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology and a member of the country's Academy of Sciences, told attendees.

The researcher outlined the new measures, which include a new type for these acts in the penal code and the creation of several ethics committees to supervise research in this field.

“With these regulations, our laws are in line with those of other countries.

Perhaps in the future we can explore how to establish forms of international governance,” he added.

Neither Yaojin Peng nor her counterpart Ping Yang, from Dalian University of Technology, wanted to answer questions from this newspaper.

Sociologist Joy Zhang, a researcher of Chinese origin at the University of Kent (United Kingdom), warns of the problems that these laws are creating in the Asian country.

“Human gene editing has become a matter of national security,” she explains.

“These laws limit the export of human cells, but it is not clear which ones, and such strict limits may make it impossible for scientists in the country to collaborate with foreign colleagues.

Many scientists in the field of biomedicine have protested to the Government against these laws.

There is no point in trying to bring order to science by preventing science from being done”, highlights the researcher.

For a year, Zhang has searched for any information about the three babies that were born after Jiankui's experiments.

"It's a national secret," sums up the researcher.

It is not known who they are, where they are and, even worse, if they are still alive and healthy, although the scientist ventures: "We assume they are fine."

This is undoubtedly the most disturbing and thorny issue of He Jiankui's experiments.

On the one hand, it is a priority to protect these three girls so that no one can identify them and allow them to live as normal a life as possible.

On the other hand, it is not known to what extent his health is being monitored and, above all, if his genome has been analyzed and unwanted mutations have been detected, since the gene editing technique that He Jiankui used, CRISPR, is far from be perfect.

Months after his release from prison, He Jiankui attempts to return to scientific research, in this case developing purported affordable cures for genetic diseases.

But he does not provide any real proof of how he intends to do it, beyond the photos with patients that he shares on his social networks.

The scientist said that he would come to London to explain, but then backed out.

Molecular biologist Robin Lovell-Badge, organizer of the conference held at London's Francis Crick Institute, says He Jiankui was never invited to the conference or registered to attend.

“The only thing we know about him is from his participation in a previous online congress in which his attitude was atrocious.

He did not answer a single question about what he did, ”he explains to this newspaper.

The researcher believes that China “has not given all the necessary explanations.

The country was supposed to carry out an exhaustive investigation that would reveal the complete genetic sequence of the babies and clarify all the effects of gene editing, but the truth is that this analysis was never carried out and we still do not know what exactly happened, ”he denounces.

Contacted by this newspaper, He Jiankui has declined an in-person interview, but invites you to visit his "laboratory" in Beijing.

Robin Lovell-Badge, third from the right, with the rest of the organizing committee of the III International Conference on Human Genome Editing.Royal Society

The scientists gathered here this week hope to issue a joint statement on all the unknowns that remain about the case and the real risks of something like this happening again.

Lovell-Badge explains that He Jiankui is probably not the only "rogue scientist."

His biggest concern is that other impostors sell the public "false cures" for their diseases of genetic origin, something that may already be happening in countries that do not have regulations in this regard, he alerts.

Each country is responsible for regulating the gene editing of human cells, including the most delicate: that of sperm, eggs and embryos.

If a pregnancy is induced by assisted fertilization with this biological material, the changes in the DNA would pass from generation to generation and would change the genetic inheritance of our species.

“The only thing we can do is denounce these impostors publicly so that people are aware that they have no idea what they are doing,” Lovell-Badge ditch.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University in the United States, is one of the world's leading experts in gene editing of human embryos.

Mitalipov, of Kazakh origin, says this is “too attractive a goal to abandon.

Our stated aim is to be able to edit human embryos to correct errors in an effective and safe way, which would partly prevent millions of children from continuing to be born with fatal or disabling hereditary diseases”.

The problem, he acknowledges, is that current gene-editing techniques like CRISPR are still a long way from being viable to ensure they don't introduce unwanted bugs.

“Human embryos often reject the DNA templates we use to edit their genome, and we don't know why,” he explains.

Mitalipov publishes a study today in

that adds even more uncertainty to gene editing.

Knowing if a human embryo has a genetic defect requires taking a small sample without causing it to die, something already delicate.

What the new work shows is that this technique, known as genomic amplification, is unable to detect the unwanted DNA flaws that CRISPR gene editing leaves behind.

This makes it even more difficult to achieve embryo editing safely and effectively, something that will probably take many years of work, Mitalipov points out.

Dieter Egli, from Columbia University (USA), has investigated the unwanted effects of Jiankui's editing of the CCR5 gene, supposedly to confer immunity against the AIDS virus.

“We have shown that this process introduces additional errors at the chromosome level;

many of them incompatible with life, ”he explains.

The lack of information makes it impossible to know if the Chinese scientist's gene editing really happened or if the embryos simply rejected it and moved on.

In any case, Egli points out, the technique is not yet safe for generating genetically modified babies, although it is worth further investigation.

“This problem is like editing a book,” he explains.

And he continues: “You read the galleys and correct the errors before printing it.

It would be unfeasible to send corrections for each and every one of the millions of copies once the book is printed.

The same is true of human cells.

If we manage to safely and effectively correct the few cells of an embryo, we will eliminate a disease that after birth would be impossible to avoid."

Lluis Montoliu, a researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC) and the only Spanish speaker at the congress, believes that this congress has been a "lost opportunity to find out exactly what happened" with He Jiankui's experiments.

“The Chinese delegates have talked a lot about what the country did after the experiments, but nothing about what he did before.

I think it is impossible that the authorities were unaware of what he was doing.

They were up for a bit of controversy, thinking the rest of the world would follow in his footsteps, but it wasn't, and the outrage was far greater than they could allow.

I have tried to ask the Chinese delegates about the girls that were born, but my question was not accepted.

They have left without answering, ”he denounces.

Beyond the long shadow of He Jiankui, the congress has also focused on success stories, such as the first cases of curing hereditary diseases thanks to gene editing, in this case using stem cells from the patient's own blood.

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