What Crispr-Baby Prison Sentences Mean for Research

News in focus ceiling to collapse. The walls still stand, and the Tree-ring dating of timber beams could and the crossing between the two — as well as building will eventually be restored — although reveal the year and location in which the material still on top of the remaining vaults. this is likely to take longer than the ambitious trees were felled, filling in gaps in knowledge But these are currently off-limits to people five years initially forecast, and is set to cost about the sequence of construction. “Each tree for safety reasons, Dillmann says — so robots hundreds of millions of euros. records within its tissues the environment in and drones must do all the collecting. Some But, until then, the interior of the building which it has grown,” says Dufraisse. This kind of this material might ultimately be reused in holds piles of debris: fallen stonework, of study “could never have been conducted restoration. burnt timbers and damaged metal artefacts, without the destruction of the structure by The collection and analysis will need to be all now available for scientific study. The fire”, she says. documented precisely and thoroughly. Livio absence of tourists might also make it pos- In particular, says Regert, the wood is a de Luca, a specialist in digital mapping of sible to use radar to probe the foundations, climate archive. “Isotopic analyses of oxygen architecture at the CNRS’s Mixed Research which have been little investigated before. Unit in Marseille will lead a team dedicated Even some parts of the structure that were “The burnt structure to creating a “digital ecosystem” that sum- largely undamaged are now more accessi- marizes both the scientific research and the ble for inspection, says metals specialist constitutes a gigantic current and previous states of the cathedral, Philippe Dillmann of the CNRS Laboratory for laboratory for drawing on the work of scientists, historians, Archaeomaterials and Alteration Forecast- archaeology.” archaeologists, engineers and curators — and ing in Gif-sur-Yvette, who is coordinating the perhaps even on old tourist photos of the project with Regert. structure. and carbon in the rings make it possible to “It will be like a ‘digital twin’ of the cathedral, Architectural investigations determine the temperature and rainfall over able to evolve as the studies progress,” de Luca The CNRS project will focus on seven topics: time,” she says. The trees used in Notre-Dame says. It will include online models for 3D masonry, wood, metalwork, glass, acoustics, grew between the eleventh and thirteenth visualization of the building and its attributes, digital data collection and anthropology. In all, centuries, during a warm period known as created from billions of data points, with the effort will involve more than 100 research- the medieval climate optimum, offering a the history and evolution of the structure ers in 25 laboratories and will last for 6 years. reference period for natural climate warm- superimposed on the spatial map. Gallet’s team will study Notre-Dame’s ing to compare with anthropogenic warming As well as deepening researchers’ stones to identify the quarries that supplied today. understanding of this monumental building, them and “reconstruct the supply networks Regert hopes that the scientific studies will and the economy of the site”. Studying the Access all areas? be useful when its ravaged vaults rise again. mortar used to bind the stones together could Collecting and excavating the materials for The results, she says, might “illuminate the reveal how different compositions were used analysis is challenging. There are three main choices that society will have to make for for the various structural elements — vault- piles of debris — in the nave, the north transept the restoration”. ing, walls and flying buttresses. A better knowledge of the historical materials could inform choices made in restoration, says Gallet. The team will also analyse weaknesses in the remaining structure caused by the high WHAT CRISPR-BABY temperatures of the fire, and by the fall of masonry and the water used to extinguish the PRISON SENTENCES flames. A radar study will determine how solid the foundations are before restorers erect MEAN FOR RESEARCH scaffolding to allow them to dismantle the unstable remnants of the nineteenth-century Chinese court sends strong signal by punishing spire. Meanwhile, a team of about 50 will focus on He Jiankui and two colleagues. Notre-Dame’s famous woodwork — especially the timbers in the roof space above the vaults, By David Cyranoski ease of using the most popular gene-editing dubbed the forest — which has either burnt tool, CRISPR–Cas9. But the punishments away or lies charred in the nave. These black- Chinese court has sentenced are “definitely a deterrent to similar mis- ened remains could be tremendously valuable He Jiankui, the biophysicist who conduct in China”, says Wei Wensheng, a to researchers. announced that he had created the gene-editing researcher at Peking University “The burnt structure constitutes a gigantic world’s first gene-edited babies, to in Beijing. laboratory for archaeology,” says dendrologist three years in prison for “illegal On 30 December, a court in Shenzhen Alexa Dufraisse of the National Museum of Amedical practice”, and handed down shorter announced that He and two colleagues had Natural History in Paris, who will lead the sentences to two colleagues who assisted him. flouted regulations and research ethics by multidisciplinary wood team. The punishments put to rest speculation over altering genes in human embryos that were “Wood is an extraordinary source of whether the Chinese government would bring then implanted into two women, according information,” says Regert. Initial observations criminal charges for an act that shocked the to Xinhua News Agency. One woman gave have confirmed that the ‘forest’ is made of oak, world, and they are likely to deter others from birth to twin girls in late 2018; the court said but studies will pinpoint the exact species similar behaviour, say Chinese scientists. a third baby has been born but did not say used and give researchers clues about the There has been much speculation about when, a revelation that fits with He’s claim in techniques and tools of medieval timber whether other scientists would follow in November 2018 that a second woman had been construction. He‘s footsteps, especially given the relative implanted with a gene-edited embryo.

Q&A

AUBREY GEMIGNANI/NG IMAGES/ALAMY GEMIGNANI/NG AUBREY Wanda Diaz Merced

Astronomy is inextricably associated with colourful images of the cosmos. But Wanda Diaz Merced says that neglecting senses other than sight can mean missing out on discoveries. Diaz Merced, an astronomer at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Office for Astronomy Outreach in Mitaka, Japan, is a pioneer of sonification,

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK a technique that converts aspects of data, He Jiankui stunned the world when he declared that he’d created the first gene-edited babies. such as frequency, into audible elements. It could help astronomers to avoid biases The court fined He 3 million yuan government would not bring a criminal case from interpreting data only visually, argues (US$430,000). Collaborators Zhang Renli and against He because of the increased media Diaz Merced, who lost her sight in her Qin Jinzhou received less severe punishments. attention it would generate, says Tang Li, a twenties. At an IAU meeting on equality The health ministry has also banned the science-policy researcher at Fudan University and diversity in Mitaka last December, researchers from working with human repro- in Shanghai. Discussion of He’s experiments Diaz Merced spoke to Nature about the ductive technology again, and the science was widely censored on Chinese social media. approach. ministry has banned them from applying for But Tang says the disclosure of the court’s research funding, according to Xinhua. result demonstrates China’s commitment on How did you begin working on sonification? Scientists in China who are currently research ethics. This is a big step forward in As an intern at NASA in 2005, I created a researching into CRISPR’s potential to treat promoting responsible research, she says. tool to map astronomical data into sound various genetic diseases by modifying cells Although an unpublished manuscript — pitch, rhythm and volume. In my 2013 other than those of embryos say that they fear describing the experiments lists ten authors, PhD dissertation, I proved that it is useful. He’s actions might have a detrimental effect on according to MIT Technology Review, He, Zhang their work, too, even though it is not as ethically and Qin are the only ones to face penalties so How did you do that? contentious. He shocked the world’s scientists far. The manuscript says Zhang “performed I presented users with spectral data and in November 2018 when he announced that his the human embryo microinjections”, MIT asked them to look for a double peak that team at Southern University of Science and Technology Review reports. Zhang, who was indicates a black hole. People tried to Technology in Shenzhen had used CRISPR to affiliated with the Guangdong Academy of identify signals using vision only, audio edit DNA in human embryos to make them less Medical Sciences and Guangdong General only and by combining vision and sound. susceptible to HIV. The edits were designed to Hospital in Guangzhou at the time of the We found that combining audio with visual disrupt a gene that encodes a protein allowing experiments, has been sentenced to two interaction was the most sensitive way. HIV to enter immune cells. years in prison and fined one million yuan. Scientists condemned He’s actions, saying Qin, an embryologist at Southern University How can sonification be used? that gene-editing technology was too prema- of Science and Technology who was named It can help us to study the habitability ture to be used for reproductive purposes. as the applicant on the experiment listed on of an exoplanet, by understanding how They also said the experiment was problem- China’s clinical-trial website, was given an high‑energy rays interact with its magnetic atic because it risked introducing a mutation 18-month suspended prison sentence and field or atmosphere. Such interactions cause with potentially harmful effects while offering fined 500,000 yuan, according to Xinhua. Wei fluctuations of electromagnetic emission little benefit — the babies were not at high risk says it is unlikely that He will work again as a from the star that vary with frequency. of contracting HIV. In the wake of the scandal, researcher at a Chinese institution. researchers called for a moratorium on gene The trio’s punishments send a powerful Are astronomers using this approach? editing in embryos and germline cells. message to other researchers doing any type People are making a bit more of an effort. At the time, Chinese law academics told of gene-editing work in clinical trials in China, My collaborators and I are analysing and Nature that He could face a range of criminal says Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan Univer- developing sonification software designed charges, including practising medicine with- sity in Chengdu. His team was the first to test around the user’s experience. Now we have out adequate qualifications, forging ethics CRISPR gene-editing in humans, in a clinical to provide the field with the evidence to documents and skirting laws banning the trial that modified adult — not embryonic — help researchers to change their mindset. use of assisted reproductive technologies in cells taken from people with lung cancer (see people with HIV. He was fired by his university page 156). “If I was a newcomer, a researcher Interview by Elizabeth Gibney in January last year. wishing to start gene-editing research and This interview has been edited for length The court’s announcement puts to rest clinical trials, the case would be enough to and clarity. the suspicions of some researchers that the alert me to the cost of such violations,” he says.