(Hong Kong Comprehensive News) The Chinese scientist He Jiankui involved in the gene-edited baby incident was reportedly brought back to Shenzhen by the president of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) after giving a public speech at the University of Hong Kong last Wednesday (28th).And hand it over to the school to take care of it.
He Jiankui, an associate professor in the Department of Biology at South University of Science and Technology, was caught in a storm of public opinion last week after he announced that the world's first gene-edited baby immune to AIDS was born healthy in China.After that, He Jiankui attended the International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong last Wednesday and gave a speech. He apologized for the controversy caused by the incident, but insisted that he was proud of the experiment.
Apple Daily quoted sources yesterday as saying that after He Jiankui attended the summit on Wednesday, Chen Shishi, the president of SUSTech and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, went to Hong Kong for a six-hour interview with him to learn more about gene-edited babies.Chen Shishi then brought He Jiankui back to Shenzhen South University of Science and Technology, where he is currently under house arrest on campus.The report also said that a few days ago at South University of Science and Technology, the campus was heavily guarded, and a police car drove directly to the campus outside the gate.
Relevant parties currently characterize this incident as a human embryo gene editing experiment conducted by several domestic and foreign life science experts colluding with each other to evade Western laws, academic regulations and regulatory systems.
Report discloses research team members and funding sources
On the other hand, the report also disclosed the team members and funding sources of this controversial research.In addition to He Jiankui's doctoral supervisor, Tim (Michael Deem), a professor of biology at Rice University in Texas, and He Jiankui's postdoctoral supervisor at Stanford University, it is reported that he also participated in the research.
As for the main source of funding for the research, it is reported that the fund is about more than 200 million yuan (RMB, SGD 39 million) of social capital raised in the name of Hanhai Genetic Testing Instrument Company.Hong Kong 01 pointed out the day before yesterday that after He Jiankui returned to Shenzhen from the United States to teach at South University of Science and Technology in 2012, he founded Hanhai Gene and served as the chairman. He has held shares or served as an executive in eight gene-related companies, and is the legal representative of six of them.
On the other hand, the identity of He Jiankui's wife, Zeng Yan, was also exposed.According to reports, Zeng Yan once worked for the California government in the United States, is a master's student at Texas Southern University, and is also He Jiankui's fellow Hunanese.After returning to China with her husband, she played an important role in his business kingdom. Earlier report: Behind He Jiankui received 300 million yuan investment from Putian Department
The two companies founded by He Jiankui are Shenzhen Yinhe Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yinhe Biotechnology), a tumor early screening company, and Shenzhen Hanhai Gene Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hanhai Gene), a gene sequencer development company.
The investment institutions behind these two companies include Zhengwei Group.In July 2014, Hanhai Gene obtained the Pre-A round of investment from Amer Group and Tengye Venture Capital, with an undisclosed amount.On November 20, 2018, Synbiotech received RMB 50 million in Series A investment from Amer Group and Qianjiang Capital.
According to public information, Lin Zhitong is the president of Amer Group's medical division.He also holds 10% of the shares of Health Industry Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Amer Group, and the other 90% of the shares are held by Amer Group.
The enterprise information query tool Qichacha shows that Lin Zhitong also served as the general manager of Shenzhen Hemei Women and Children's Hospital and the director of Hanhai Gene.
Lin Zhitong also holds a 0.83% stake in the listed company Harmonicare Medical (1509.HK) and an 8% stake in Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital.The hospital was previously reported to have undertaken a clinical trial of gene-edited babies, but the hospital quickly denied it, and Harmonicare Medical holds the remaining 92% of shares in Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital.
Harmonicare Medical is a private medical institution in Putian.According to the prospectus, the chairman, executive director and president of Harmonicare Medical is Lin Yuming, who holds 56.14% of the shares of Harmonicare. Lin Yuming's brothers Lin Yuguo, Lin Yurong, Lin Yuhua, and Lin Zhitong and other 18 people jointly invested in the offshore company Honeycare International Investment Limited (hereinafter referred to as Honeycare) holds a 25.48% stake in Harmonicare Medical.
There is no public information on whether Lin Zhitong belongs to the Lin family of the Putian family. It can be found that Lin Zhitong registered and established the offshore company Honeycare in August 2014, one year before Harmonicare went public, and ranked together with Lin Yuming's brother.Shareholder seats.
The investment institutions participating in Harmonicare Medical also include CDH Investment, which held a 30.75% stake in Harmonicare Medical at the time of IPO.In July 2015, Harmonicare Medical was listed on the Hong Kong stock market at a price of HK$6.6 per share. In November 2016, Taikang Insurance took over part of the shares held by CDH, CCB Capital, Honeycare and Lin Yuming at a price of HK$6.54 per share.About 200 million shares, accounting for 26.44% of the total share capital.At present, the share price of Harmonicare Medical is fluctuating around HK$2.2 per share.
