He Went to Prison for Gene-Editing Babies. Now He’s Planning to Do It Again
In 2018, a A nervous-looking He Jiankui took the stage at a scientific conference in Hong Kong. A silence settled over the packed audience as the soft-spoken Chinese scientist adjusted his microphone and confirmed the reports circulating in the media: he had created the world’s first genetically modified babies.
Three little girls were born with changes to their genome intended to protect them against HIV. The changes he made to their DNA were permanent and hereditary, meaning they could be passed down to future generations.
A Chinese court sentenced him to three years in prison, and the Chinese government banned genome editing for reproductive purposes. He is now trying to reestablish himself as a man determined to change history.
Since his release in 2022, he says, he has worked on gene therapy for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He has not yet published or publicly shared his results, but he says a pharmaceutical company has taken over his Duchenne research and funders are eager to help him continue his work. And He, who set up an independent laboratory in southern Beijing, recently began talking about editing human embryos again, this time to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. With germline editing banned in almost all countries, including the United States, its path forward is unclear.
Through it all, he documented his life on social media. He posted about his failed romance with so-called “biotech Barbie” Cathy Tie, a former Canadian Thiel fellow and co-founder of a human embryo publishing startup. One condition of this interview was that WIRED call him a “pioneer in gene editing,” but he described himself more colorfully on X as “Chinese Darwin,” “Chinese Oppenheimer” and “Chinese Frankenstein.”
He often posts photos of himself in a crisp lab coat, posing alone near scientific equipment. A photo of an obviously empty lab is accompanied by the text “I didn’t violate ethics, I knocked it over.” Most recently, he ditched his dour look and posted an image of himself sitting on a giant throne with prehistoric animals at his feet, a radiant rainbow on his crown and a double helix adorning his purple robe.
WIRED spoke with He about designer babies, those already born and those he hopes to one day produce. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Émilie Mullin: In 2018, the scientific consensus was that gene editing was not a mature technology. Do you think it’s mature now?
He Jiankui: Whoever is the first in the world, no one can say that he is mature. Were the Wright brothers who made the first flight mature? Of course not, but they made history.
I’m lucky that Lulu, Nana and the third daughter are in good health; they are normal. We have been observing them for seven, eight years now. So I think it’s time to move on to hundreds of genetically modified babies. We should do a trial with maybe 300 people now.
Do you stay in touch with the parents of the three babies?
Yes, we have regular contact.
And everything seems fine?
Yes, they go to primary school. Their family is very happy with it.
Did their parents tell them they were genetically modified?
No.
What is your new lab focused on?
The new lab deals with germline gene editing – editing the genes of embryos – and focuses on preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
What genes are you working on?
The APP-A673T mutation. This mutation has been identified in the Icelandic population. People with this mutation do not suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and even live longer. They are healthy and normal. So we want to introduce the mutation to the next generation, so that they have the same mutation as the Icelandic people and are free from Alzheimer’s disease.
Are you currently working with human embryos?
