Stem-cell research and regenerative medicine in China

For stem-cell researchers around the world, 2015 was a roller-coaster year. In April, Junjiu Huang, a biologist at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, published the first paper on gene editing in human embryos with CRISPR-cas9. This sparked a global controversy—with many Western media using this as an example of China's lack of ethical standards. Subsequent discussions, which culminated in the summit in Washington, DC, last December, have eased the anxieties to some extent over this study and similar studies have now been proposed or approved in the UK and Sweden. Surprisingly, according to Nature magazine (the same magazine publishing some of the news reports on this study), Huang was one of the 10 scientists in the world that made a difference last year. In a forum chaired by National Science Review's Executive Associate Editor Mu-ming Poo, stem-cell researchers and a bioethicist discussed how they see last year's furore over gene editing, why China should streamline its oversight and regulatory processes, and where the future of the country's stem-cell research and regenerative medicine lies. Duanqing Pei Stem-cell researcher and Director General of Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Guangzhou Xiaomei Zhai Bioethicist and Executive Director of the Centre for Bioethics, Peking Union Medical College, in Beijing Qi Zhou Stem-cell researcher at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing Jianhong Zhu Neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, in Shanghai Mu-ming Poo (Chair) Neuroscientist and Director of the Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Shanghai