Thread by @kakape

In London at @TheCrick to attend the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing. Should be an interesting three days. #HGESummit

@TheCrick "China has considerably improved its legislation and regulations regarding life sciences, including human genome editing, over the last several years", says Yaojin Peng at #HGESummit.

@TheCrick China is increasingly approaching governance of biotechnology research from a precautionary perspective, he argues.
And: "China's legislation regarding human genome editing is basically in line with internationals standards." #HGESummit

@TheCrick Great talk by @DrJoyZhang.
She sees three major trends in Chinese regulatory landscape around human genome editing:
- securitisation
- ethicisation
- bottom-up participation

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang Securitisation:
"I think the most important regulatory change China had since 2018, is the fact that genetic research now is a matter of national sovereignty and national security and this has led to the introduction of a number of gatekeeping policies"

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang "I think securitization as such, may not necessarily introduce a safe, orderly development of science. On the contrary, I think it can be quite obstructive", says @DrJoyZhang

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang Ethicisation:
Idea that "ethics precedes technology" has been officially adopted in China: "This officially overturns what I termed the post-hoc pragmatism that used to trivialise ethical debates as a distraction and has dominated China's science for almost 40 years."

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang BUT: industry-led research largely left out. "I think all those new policies although they introduced a very significant upgrade, are not sufficient and I worry that very soon, they're gonna struggle with burgeoning market-led research"

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang Bottom-up participation is also becoming more important in China, says @DrJoyZhang. "A fragile process but it CAN make a difference"

@TheCrick @DrJoyZhang "In the West there's still a very dominant misconception that all academics in China are submissive and uncritical. Well, they're not and they can make a difference. I think the best way to promote good governance in China is to have these diverse voices, at least acknowledged."

Good overview of the state of gene editing technologies in mammalian cells by @davidrliu

@davidrliu Gene editing techs are "the fruits of an ongoing 70+ year old quest to develop one of the most fundamental capabilities of humanity: the ability to have some say in the sequence of our genomes so that we are no longer so beholden to the misspellings in our DNA", says @davidrliu

@davidrliu There was a brief press huddle with Victoria Gray in the break just now, a mother of four who has undergone gene therapy to cure her sickle cell disease.
I asked her what influenced her decision: "In the end, really, my decision to do it was based on my kids", she said.

@davidrliu "I want to be here to be a part of their lives", she said. "Because I have four children and I want to be able to dress my daughters for their weddings, be there when they sign up for college and just experience life with them. So that outweighed all of my other fears" #HGESummit

@davidrliu Research itself has to be equitable, says Jantina deVries. "If we do not include everyone in the science that we do, we simply will end up and have historically ended up with innovations that work for some and not for everyone."
#HGESummit

Natacha Salomé Lima in the following talk gives an example: 79% of all participants in genome-wide association studies are of European descent, yet they only make up 16% of the global population.

.@FilippaLentzos starts her talk on security aspects of gene editing with a photo of Macron/Putin meeting at a large table last year and notes Macron refused to take Russian PCR test apparently out of fear his DNA would be "stolen".

@FilippaLentzos Scientists "are not blind to these security risks and to the risks of working with the wrong people", says Lentzos. But few researchers think the risks apply to their research. "We need to gently cautiously responsibly raise awareness of the security dimension of genomic science"

@FilippaLentzos Main points Ping Yan makes in her talk:
- there is broader involvement than commonly appreciated in China
-"China with its experiences of coping with the event, is an indispensable parter for global governance."
("the event" = He Jiankui's work)
#HGESummit

Can’t access the wifi anymore, so no live tweeting for now… :/

At least my cellular network is back. Powerful talks in the meantime by Victoria Gray, Melissa Creary, Gautam Dongre amongst others
Here is a thread on Victoria Gray’s talk:

https://twitter.com/ewanbirney/status/1632749339310268416