(New York Times) – He Jiankui spent three years in prison after creating gene-edited babies. Now back at work, he sees a greater opening for researchers who push boundaries.

For creating the world’s first genetically edited babies, He Jiankui has been reviled as the Chinese Dr. Frankenstein. He was sent to prison for three years, convicted in China on charges of deceiving medical authorities.

But as China ramps up ambitions to become a biotechnology superpower, the disgraced researcher, 41, has not been muzzled or pushed into obscurity. Instead, he is living and speaking openly at his home in a government-backed research hub north of Beijing, boasting about his work and insisting his country is ready to embrace him.

He can’t travel abroad because his passport has been seized, but he has become a small, but outspoken figure in China’s biotech landscape, neither silenced nor fully rehabilitated. The question is why. (Read More)