Jiankui He

Jiankui Heis a controversial Chinesebiophysicist and geneticist known for creating the first humangenetically edited babiesin 2018, an experiment that was initially applauded in the press, with He being listed in Time's "100 Most Influential People of 2019." Following scrutiny, the experiment was found to have violated established scientific community norms. He was then fired from his university and was later sentenced to three years in prison. In 2022, Jiankui He became active on social media, often advocating gene editing and scientific advancement in his posts. In 2025, He's posts on X / Twitter inspired memes, with users humorously captioning his photographs and posts. Notable tweets from him read, "Tinkering with human embryos will certainly be worth the risk," and, "Ethics is holding back scientific innovation and progress."