International media has dubbed [He Jiankui] “China’s Frankenstein.” He has no academic affiliations. He declines to reveal where his funding comes from or who his backers are. It isn’t helping that he won’t repudiate his controversial approach. On March 11, He posted on X that “Ethics is holding back scientific innovation and progress.”
At his Beijing home in a gated compound, a relaxed He outlined his plans for a scientific comeback. He can’t travel—he said China won’t renew his passport—but hopes to send two Chinese colleagues to the U.S. to conduct research on mice and monkeys for the Alzheimer’s project. After that, he hopes to conduct human trials, and he has identified South Africa as a place where that might be possible.
He says his new research aims to mimic a genetic mutation found primarily in the Icelandic population responsible for making a protein that protects against Alzheimer’s. Researchers found the mutation is more common in Icelanders than in other populations.
