The existence of the CRISPR baby project was uncovered by MIT Technology Review on the eve of an international genome-editing summit in Hong Kong, held in November 2018. Following our report, He immediately posted several videos on YouTube announcing the birth of the fraternal twins, who he called Lula and Nana.

The experiment was met with fierce criticism around the world and inside China. Scientists said the use of genome editing served little medical purpose and could have introduced errors into the girls’ genomes.