He Jiankui, an associate professor with the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province has sparked controversy for claiming to produce the world's first gene-edited babies who are immune to HIV.

He said in a video released on November 26 that a pair of twin girls was born in early November through in-vitro fertilization with genetic editing technology preventing them from being infected with HIV.

The National Health Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology announced that scientific research and medical activities should be carried out in accordance with laws and regulations as well as ethics and any behavior that crosses the line will be punished. China forbids gene editing for the purpose of assisted reproductions in a regulation issued in 2003.

He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2006 and a PhD in biophysics from Rice University in 2010. He studied for his post-doctorate at Stanford University from 2011 to 2012.