The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans

Historical Foundations of Genetics

• 💡 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) depicted a researcher creating a creature with superhuman powers, marking an early exploration of genetic themes.
• 🔬 Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1869) and Hugo de Vries' mutation theory (1901) introduced foundational ideas about genetic variation and evolutionary change.
• 🧬 The DNA double helix structure was discovered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick, building on Rosalind Franklin's work, revealing the "secret of life."

Emergence of Genetic Technologies

• 🧪 The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England in 1978, marking a significant step in reproductive technology.
• 🔑 CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) was discovered in bacteria by Yoshizumi in 1987, though its function was initially unknown.
• 🔬 In 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier demonstrated how to modify DNA with CRISPR, revolutionizing gene editing capabilities.

China's Advancements in Gene Editing

• 🇨🇳 In 2015, 15 genetically modified human embryos created with CRISPR were reported from Junio Hang's laboratory in Guangzhou, China.
• 📊 The China National Gene Bank opened in 2016 with the ambitious goal of collecting DNA from every human on Earth.
• 🚀 President Xi Jinping's "China Dream" speech in 2017 called for the country to prioritize innovation with cutting-edge frontier technologies, including genetic research.

Dr. He Jiankui's Controversial Experiment

• 👶 In January 2018, Dr. He Jiankui implanted a genetically engineered embryo into a mother's womb, which initially failed to take.
• 🤰 After further attempts, a woman known as P6 became pregnant in March 2018, leading to the birth of the world's first edited babies.
• 🧬 Lulu and Nana, the twin girls, were born in mainland China in October 2018, having had their genes edited.

Global Reaction and Consequences

• 🚨 News of Lulu and Nana's birth leaked in December 2018 during the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong, causing global shockwaves.
• ⚖️ In December 2019, Dr. He Jiankui received a three-year prison sentence for "illegal medical practice" related to his gene-editing work.