He Jiankui

He Jiankui (; ; born 1984) is a Chinese biophysicist. He was named as the inaugural director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Wuchang Technical College, a private undergraduate college in Wuhan, in September 2023. Before January 2019, He served as associate professor at the Department of Biology of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Earning a PhD from Rice University in Texas on protein evolution, including that of CRISPR, He learned gene-editing techniques (CRISPR/Cas9) as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California.

In November 2018, He announced that he had created the first human genetically edited babies, twin girls who were born in mid-October 2018 and known by their pseudonyms, Lulu and Nana. The announcement was initially praised in the press as a major scientific advancement. But following scrutiny on how the experiment was executed, He received widespread condemnation. His research activities were suspended by the Chinese authorities on 29 November 2018, and he was fired by SUSTech on 21 January 2019. On 30 December 2019, a Chinese district court found He Jiankui guilty of illegal practice of medicine, sentencing him to three years in prison with a fine of 3 million yuan. He was released from prison in April 2022.

He was listed as one of ''Time'' 100 most influential people of 2019, in the section "Pioneers". At the same time he was variously referred to as a "rogue scientist", "China's Dr. Frankenstein", and a "mad genius". Provided by Wikipedia