US Nobelist stayed on as adviser to Chinese scientist He Jiankui’s firm despite disapproval over gene-edited babies
- Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello warned He that he was ‘taking a big risk’
- Mello continued as a scientific adviser for He’s Direct Genomics company until the news became public
Long before the claim of the world’s first gene-edited babies became public, Chinese researcher He Jiankui shared the news with a US Nobel laureate who objected to the experiment yet remained an adviser to He’s biotech company.
The revelation that another prominent scientist knew of the work, which was widely condemned when it was revealed, comes as scientists debate whether and how to alert troubling research, and the need for clearer guidelines.
Emails obtained under a public records request show that Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2006 for his genetics research, learned about the pregnancy in April from He in a message titled “Success!”
“I’m glad for you, but I’d rather not be kept in the loop on this,” Mello replied. “You are risking the health of the child you are editing … I just don’t see why you are doing this. I wish your patient the best of luck for a healthy pregnancy.”
Mello stayed on as a scientific adviser for He’s Direct Genomics company for eight more months, until December, just after news of the births became public and drew international scorn. The Chinese scientist’s gene-editing work was not a company experiment.