Jiankui He

In February 2023, his application for a Hong Kong work visa was granted but was soon revoked after the Hong Kong Immigration Department launched a criminal investigation against him for making false statements in his application. In September 2023, He was recruited by the Wuchang University of Technology, a private college in Wuhan, Hubei, to serve as the inaugural director for the school's Genetic Medicine Institute.

Early life and education He was born in Xinhua County, Loudi City, Hunan Province, in 1984. He was the son of a family of poor rice farmers in southeastern China. As a teenager, he built a makeshift laboratory at home and became obsessed with physics in high school. His doctoral dissertation was titled, Spontaneous emergence of hierarchy in biological systems. According to the university, He was an outstanding student who specialized in mathematical modeling and computer simulations. After he received his doctorate, He went to Stanford University to work on CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique as a postdoctoral fellow with Stephen Quake, a position in which Michael Deem had recommended him. Responding to an ad, He returned to China in 2012 under the city of Shenzhen's Peacock Plan He also founded Vienomics Biotech, which offers genome sequencing services for people with cancer. In 2017, He was included in the Chinese government's Thousand Talents Plan. He Jiankui's achievements were widely revered in Chinese media, including China Central Television and the People's Daily

In August 2018, He met with Chinese-American doctor John Zhang to discuss plans to launch a company focused on "genetic medical tourism." The business was to target elite customers, operating out of China or Thailand. The business plans were shelved following He's detainment in November 2018. On 26 November 2018, he announced the birth of gene-edited human babies, Lulu and Nana. On 30 December 2019, the Shenzhen Nanshan District People's Court sentenced He Jiankui to three years in prison and a fine of three million yuan (about US$ in 2019). He Jiankui was released in April 2022 after serving the term.

On 21 February 2023, Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported that He Jiankui said his application for a Hong Kong entry permit through the Top Talent Pass Scheme had been approved. Late that night, the Government of Hong Kong made a public announcement, suggesting that after inspecting the relevant applications, the Immigration Department suspected that He Jiankui had obtained a Hong Kong entry permit by making false statements. The Director of Immigration had declared He Jiankui's entry permit invalid, and a criminal investigation would be conducted.

On 8 September 2023, Wuchang University of Technology , a private undergraduate college in Wuhan, Hubei, established the Institute of Genetic Medicine and appointed He Jiankui as the inaugural director and the Dean of the Pharmacology Laboratory.

Research In 2010, at Rice University, He Jiankui and Michael W. Deem published a paper describing some details of the CRISPR protein; this paper was part of the early work on the CRISPR/Cas9 system, before it had been adopted as a gene editing tool.

In 2017, He gave a presentation at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory describing work he did at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), in which he used CRISPR/Cas9 on mice, monkeys, and around 300 human embryos.

Human gene-editing experiment

On 25 November 2018, He Jiankui first announced on YouTube that his team successfully created the world's first genome-edited babies, Lulu and Nana. Formally presenting the story at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) three days later, he said that the twins were born from genetically modified embryos that were made resistant to M-tropic strains of HIV. His team recruited 8 couples consisting each of HIV-positive father and HIV-negative mother through Beijing-based HIV volunteer group called Baihualin China League. During in vitro fertilization, the sperms were cleansed of HIV. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing, they introduced a natural mutation CCR5-Δ32 in gene called CCR5, which would confer resistance to M-tropic HIV infection. The People's Daily announced the result as "a historical breakthrough in the application of gene editing technology for disease prevention". He was trying to create a specific mutation in the gene, (CCR5 Δ32), that few people naturally have and that possibly confers innate resistance to HIV-1, He said that the girls still carried functional copies of CCR5 along with disabled CCR5 given mosaicism inherent in the present state of the art in germ-line editing. According to He, they appeared to be healthy in all respects. In February 2019, his claims were reported to have been confirmed by Chinese investigators, according to NPR News.

He Jiankui also said at the Hong Kong meeting that a second mother in his clinical experiment was in the early stages of pregnancy. and the birth was confirmed from the court verdict on 30 December which mentioned that there were three genetically edited babies. The baby was later revealed in 2022 as Amy.

In February 2022, Chinese scientists called for building a special facility to care for and study the three children born with genetically edited genomes or 'CRISPR Babies'. They assert that errors could have occurred in the gene editing process. The scientists believe the children's genomes should be regularly sequenced and tested for 'abnormalities'. The proposal has received pushback from the international medical community citing invasion of the children's privacy and future abuses of power.

Gene therapy for rare diseases On 10 November 2022, He announced that he was setting up a new laboratory in Beijing for research on gene therapy for rare genetic diseases, saying on Twitter: "Today, I moved in my new office in Beijing. This is the first day for Jiankui He Lab." On 24 November, he wrote: "Gene therapy in Western countries often costs millions of dollars, which makes many families fall into poverty due to illness. With the support of social philanthropists, we will overcome three to five genetic diseases within two to three years to benefit families with rare diseases." His first plan is to make a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy that causes gradual muscle degeneration particularly in boys. He also said on a microblogging site, Weibo, that he had applied for government funding for a DNA synthesiser project, commenting: "[I will] continue the scientific research and serve the country... The biggest use of the DNA synthesiser I plan to make is for information storage. A fingernail-sized piece of synthetic DNA can store the contents of books from the entire national library."

Human gene-editing controversy

Revelation He Jiankui's human gene-editing clinical experiment was conducted without public discussion in the scientific community. It was first made public on 25 November 2018 when Antonio Regalado published a story about the work in MIT Technology Review, It was only after the story was posted that the experiment was revealed in a promotional video on YouTube by He Jiankui and the next day in the Associated Press report. Nobel Prize-winning biologist David Baltimore considered the work "irresponsible". and later, "He Jiankui's experiment was, amazingly, even worse than I first thought." Nobel prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna, of the University of California, Berkeley, a pioneer of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, condemned the research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) of United States announced a statement on 28 November 2018 signed by its Director Francis S. Collins, condemning He and his team for intentionally flouting international ethical norms by doing such irresponsible work, and criticizing that He's "project was largely carried out in secret, the medical necessity for inactivation of CCR5 in these infants is utterly unconvincing, the informed consent process appears highly questionable, and the possibility of damaging off-target effects has not been satisfactorily explored". NIH claims no support for the use of gene-editing technologies in human embryos. The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences published an announcement in the journal Lancet, stating that they "are opposed to any clinical operation of human embryo genome editing for reproductive purposes in violation of laws, regulations, and ethical norms in the absence of full scientific evaluation", and condemning He for violating relevant ethical regulations and guidelines that have been clearly documented by the Chinese government. They emphasized that the "genome editing of germ cells or early embryos is still in the stage of basic research... scientific research institutions and researchers should not undertake clinical operations of genome editing of human germ cells for reproductive purposes, nor should they fund such research", and they will "develop and issue further operational technical and ethical guidelines as soon as possible to guide and standardise relevant research and applications according to the highest scientific and ethical standards." In April 2019, genetics experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) noted, "[We] believe there is no sound scientific reason to perform this type of gene editing on the human germline, and that the behavior of He [Jiankui] and his team represents a gross violation of both the Chinese regulations and the consensus reached by the international science community. We strongly condemn their actions as extremely irresponsible, both scientifically and ethically." Arthur Caplan, bioethicist at the New York University School of Medicine, said that engineering human genes is inevitable and, although there are concerns of creating "designer babies", medical researchers are more interested in using the technology to prevent and treat diseases, much like the type of experiments performed by He. Carl Zimmer compared the reaction to He's human gene editing experiment to the initial reactions and subsequent debate over mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), and the eventual regulatory approval of MRT in the United Kingdom.

The Southern University of Science and Technology stated that He Jiankui had been on unpaid leave since February 2018, and his research was conducted outside of their campus; the university and his department said they were unaware of the research project and said it was inviting international experts to form an independent committee to investigate the incident, and would release the results to the public. According to news reported on 7 January 2019, he could face severe consequences. William Hurlbut, Stanford University neuroscientist and bioethicist, reported that he was in contact with He who was staying in a university apartment in Shenzhen "by mutual agreement" and was free to leave; often visiting the gym and taking walks with his wife. Nonetheless, He may have been under some form of surveillance.

On 25 February 2019, some suggested the Chinese government might have helped fund the CRISPR babies experiment, at least in part. Later reports showed that the fund for He's project was entirely raised by himself to evade regulation, and no Chinese government funds were involved.

Court ruling On 30 December 2019, the Shenzhen City Nanshan District People's Court found He Jiankui guilty of illegal practice of medicine (equivalent to the crime of "practicing medicine without a license" in many other jurisdictions), sentencing him to three years in prison with a fine of CN¥3 million (about US$). According to the district court's judgment, He Jiankui's gene editing was deemed medical practice by the court. He had never obtained a medical degree or held a medical license in any jurisdiction. The court also found that he deliberately concealed crucial information and failed to disclose any details or risks associated with the program to the parents of the gene-edited babies. He recruited other people to impersonate the parents to undergo physical examinations. He also evaded government and university regulations through forgery and other means, and committed several other illegal acts. In its judgment, the court stated that He Jiankui, in pursuit of fame and profit, crossed the bottom line of scientific research and medical ethics by rashly applying gene-editing technology to human assisted reproductive medicine, violating national regulations concerning practicing medicine and research, disrupting medical management order, and the circumstances were serious.

His collaborators received less penalty: Zhang Renli of the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences and Guangdong General Hospital, a two-year prison sentence and a 1-million RMB (about US$) fine, and Qin Jinzhou of the Southern University of Science and Technology, an 18-month prison sentence and a 500,000 RMB (about US$) fine. The three were found guilty of having "forged ethical review documents and misled doctors into unknowingly implanting gene-edited embryos into two women."

Aftermath The SUSTech announced a statement on its website on 21 January 2019 that He Jiankui had been fired. In December 2019, MIT Technology Review reported an overview of the controversy to date, including excerpts of the unpublished research manuscript.

In February 2019, scientists reported that the gene modification made in Lulu and Nana likely also confers cognitive benefits.

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global registry to track research on human genome editing, after a call to halt all work on genome editing.

Personal life As of 2025, He Jiankui is active on X, formerly known as Twitter, making English-language posts that are mostly about his genetic research. His posts had various reactions and adaptations on the platform.

In July 2025, He Jiankui revealed on social media that he has two daughters.

In April 2025, He Jiankui, 41, married Cathy Tie, 29, shortly after naming his new company "Cathy Medicine". Tie declined to say if He and she were legally married, but emphasized that her relationship with He was genuine.

In popular culture

He Jiankui's life and his CRISPR experiment were presented in the documentary Make People Better, released in 2022. The film described, "A Chinese scientist disappears after developing the first designer babies, shocking the world and the entire scientific community, but an investigation shows he may not have been alone in his experiment to create 'better' human beings." Directed by Cody Sheehy, the expert panel included Antonio Regalado and Benjamin Hurlbut of the Arizona State University. The documentary originated from a Rhumbline Media project on genetic engineering titled Code of the Wild: The Nature of Us started in 2018 by Sheehy and Samira Kiani, a biotechnologist at Arizona State University. His account is depicted in The CRISPR Generation: The Story of the World's First Gene-Edited Babies, a 2019 book by Kiran Musunuru, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania. His story is narrated in the 2020 book The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans, written by Eben Kirksey, an anthropologist at the University of Oxford. A documentary book CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans, written by Henry Greely, was published in 2021. In the 2022 manga "Rikujou Jieitai Tokumu Chouhou Kikan - Beppan no Inu", a fictitious version of He Jiankui is responsible for the creation of super soldiers.