Back in China, JK’s profile and reputation were growing fast. The Central Government selected JK for its top multidisciplinary science program, Qianren Jihua (the Thousand Talents Plan), self-described as one of the world’s most prestigious science awards. CCTV-13, the biggest news channel on Chinese state television, aired a fawning four-minute video showcasing JK based on a Chinese idiom, “The waves behind drive on those before.” JK is shown joking with colleagues, and proudly displaying an encyclopedia of books he had published containing a complete human genome sequence, dozens of volumes stacked in a double helix tower configuration. There were also scenes of him enthusiastically playing five-a-side soccer as his wife and baby look on.34
Early in 2018, JK was back in San Francisco. He told DeWitt over dinner that he had received approval from his institutional review board (IRB). He also met Stanford’s Matthew Porteus, revealing in confidence that he was starting work on implanting genetically edited human embryos. A stunned Porteus berated JK, telling him it was a terrible idea. “I told him he was putting the entire field at risk through his reckless actions,” Porteus recalled, and he needed to talk to more experts.35 JK sat poker-faced; he had expected a more supportive reaction. In retrospect, Porteus says he wishes he’d raised the alarm more publicly. Between a trio of Stanford faculty, Deem, Mello, DeWitt, Ben Hurlbut, and presumably others, JK took a significant number of American scientists into what Ferrell called his “circle of trust.”36 He was popping up everywhere like Zelig, Regalado said.
JK visited William Hurlbut several times throughout 2017 and 2018, enjoying some lengthy and intense ethics discussions. JK wanted to understand the objections to heritable genome editing in the West. On one occasion, JK brought his thumb and forefinger together and asked Hurlbut if something that small could be as important as a baby? Hurlbut thought JK was “humble and well-meaning,” trying to advance science and help others. But Hurlbut didn’t suspect that JK was seriously contemplating clinical work. “He’s an idealist,” Hurlbut said. “He’s an inexperienced, perhaps naïve, optimist. I kind of knew [He] was involved in something of significance. But it’s unfortunate that it had to happen this way. Sad, really, because he seems like a guy with good intentions.”37
Hurlbut’s sympathetic assessment was not widely shared.
In February 2018, JK took unpaid leave from his university. He was a man on a mission. He wanted to make his mark on the world stage, and to help his fellow citizens, especially those at risk of HIV. And he wanted to deliver a victory for Chinese science. He later told Ben Hurlbut that he had no interest in waiting for an international societal consensus that in his view was never going to happen. “But once one or a couple of scientists make [the] first kid, [it’s] safe, healthy, then the entire society including science, ethics, law, will be accelerated… So, I break the glass.”
Following IVF, JK’s team implanted thirteen embryos into five of the seven women enrolled in the trial. Two women became pregnant. In April 2018, JK had some exciting news to share with a few of his American confidants. He sent virtually identical emails to Mello, Quake, and DeWitt, with an emphatic subject line: “Success!”
Good News! The women [sic] is pregnant, the genome editing success! The embryo with CCR5 gene edited was transplanted to the women [sic] 10 days ago, and today the pregnancy is confirmed.38
Quake decided to share JK’s email with a colleague but didn’t receive any concrete advice. Mello was also put in an awkward position. “I’m glad for you,” he replied, “but I’d rather not be kept in the loop on this. 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.”39 Mello’s disapproval was tempered by his respect for JK. “I know you mean well,” he wrote. Meanwhile, DeWitt was in shock and didn’t know what he should do.
In August 2018, JK made another quick trip to the United States. In Boston, JK finally got to meet Feng Zhang, seeking advice on methods to reduce off-target effects in mouse and human embryos. “He was having the same challenges as other researchers around lack of efficiency and lack of precision,” Zhang told a reporter in Hong Kong.40 “I told him that the technology is neither efficient nor precise enough for real-world application in embryos, including in human IVF applications.” From there, JK traveled to New York, where he visited Chengzu Long, a Chinese CRISPR scientist at New York University. He made quite the impression. “It was hilarious,” the fast-talking Long recalled. “He had a male personal assistant open the car door for him and carry his briefcase. Very Chinese!”41
JK also traveled to Pennsylvania to meet executives of Geisinger, a leading healthcare company. The two-hour meeting on August 16 was hosted by two distinguished geneticists, Hunt Willard and David Ledbetter. JK’s team was interested in starting a project called “Gene Achieve” in China, based on Geisinger’s MyCode precision medicine biobank, in which volunteers opt in to receive genetic and other medical results. Willard said JK discussed his CRISPR research without mentioning his embryo work. “It wasn’t obvious to me how [or] why Geisinger would want to get involved in any collaborations with either Direct Genomics or the hospital system,” Willard told me.42
Despite his reservations, Mello traveled to China to attend a Direct Genomics scientific advisory board meeting. On November 19, 2018, a smiling Mello, sitting next to JK, posed for a photograph with company staff in a boardroom. As usual, JK posted the photograph on WeChat. It was just ten days before his scheduled appearance at the Hong Kong summit. But JK was keeping a massive secret.
A few weeks earlier, in late October, a visibly nervous JK had taken a flight north from Shenzhen to an undisclosed destination. Ferrell noticed there was a distinct look of relief upon his return. He carried the news that, by emergency caesarean section, not one but two CRISPR babies had been born.
I. Sadly it was Connor’s last major scoop; he died of prostate cancer a few months later, aged sixty-two.
II. If Mitalipov’s observations on the DNA repair mechanism hold up, then investigators will have more work in cases where both copies of the gene are mutated. They will have to figure out a way to coax the embryo to accept the externally provided repair patch.
III. The Watson portrait was removed 18 months later after Watson uttered racist comments in a PBS documentary. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory subsequently cut all ties with its former president and chancellor, removing his name from the graduate school.
CHAPTER 17 A MACULATE CONCEPTION
On November 27, 2018, I walked from my hotel to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus for the opening of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Ethics. Campus is a bit of misnomer, as the university is squeezed into the precious real estate of Hong Kong Island. Entering the university, I hurried past the Pillar of Shame, an arresting statue that commemorates the Tiananmen Square protests.