Gene editing is claimed to be a revolutionary technique that can become the future of disease eradication and at the same time, the subject of gene editing is also surrounded by controversies for not being efficient enough and cause cell damage. However, a Chinese researcher just claimed that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies. He claims that he made twin girls whose DNA has been altered by him to try to help them resist possible future infection with the AIDS virus. Scientists Make Same-Sex Mice Have 29 Babies Using Stem Cells and Gene Editing, View Pics!

The researcher, He Jiankui revealed to The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that about it and also to one of the organisers of an international conference on gene editing in Hong Kong. However, there is no independent confirmation about this. This kind of gene editing technique is banned in the US citing the dangers of the procedure. It is said that DNA changes can pass to the future generation and also pose risks to harming other genes.

What is gene editing?

According to the U.S. National Library of medicines, Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a 'group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA.' These revolutionary technologies can genetic material to be edited, as in it can be removed, added, or altered at particular locations in the genome. There are several approaches to genome editing have been developed. The U.S. National Library of medicines claims that the most recent approach is known as CRISPR-Cas9, which is described as 'Short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.'

The latest approach, the CRISPR-Cas9 system has created a kind of revolution in the scientific community because it is said to be 'faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods.'

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 26, 2018 10:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).