Eben leads Oxford University’s Medical Anthropology program, where he teaches future physicians, health professionals, and entrepreneurs how to engage with patient perspectives. He is an expert on the ethical dilemmas that have emerged with revolutionary new applications of gene editing in clinical medicine.
Scientists have been speculating about creating genetically modified babies at least since the 1950s when Watson and Crick described the structure of the DNA double-helix. Eben was on the ground in China, studying biotechnology ventures with an anthropological lens, as this speculation became reality.
Eben’s latest book tells the story of Lulu and Nana, the world’s first babies with “edited” DNA. It follows a Chinese scientist named He Jiankui who used a molecular tool called CRISPR to delete a gene from these twin girls, hoping to make them resistant to HIV. Over 1.8 million people watched the news about this experiment break from the International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong. Eben spoke about gene editing ethics from the Summit’s main stage. After the dust settled, he traveled to mainland China to interview parents who signed up for the experiment. Their stories offer critical perspectives about a scientific enterprise that put a quest for fame and fortune ahead of patient health and well-being.
Veteran members of the HIV-positive community in the United States also taught Eben about earlier gene editing ventures that tried to cure their viral infections. His book features the stories of leaders from the ACT UP movement, who became the world’s first “edited” people before the controversy emerged in China. Eben is interested in ways that patient-led research initiatives are opening up new horizons in science and medicine.
Eben has been published in The New York Times, Wired, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, as well as leading academic journals. He has written earlier books about human rights, the environment, and art. He is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford and has previously taught at some of the most renowned and innovative higher education institutions like Princeton University and New College of Florida.
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 The Mutant ProjectInside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans
St. Martin's Press
An anthropologist visits the frontiers of genetics, medicine, and technology to ask: Whose values are guiding gene editing experiments? And what does this new era of scientific inquiry mean for the future of the human species? |
Does Gene Editing Have A Future in Reproductive Medicine? China sentenced He Jiankui to three years in prison for using CRISPR to create the world’s first babies with “edited” DNA. The surprising birth announcement on YouTube seriously misled the public: “Two beautiful little Chinese girls, named Lulu and Nana, came crying into this world as healthy as any other babies, a few weeks ago,” Dr. He said. The twins were actually born prematurely, and spent their first weeks in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. This talk will offer an in-depth account of the medical problems experienced by the twins at birth and consider some basic questions: Were the health problems experienced by Lulu and Nana the result of known risks of twin pregnancies and fertility treatments, or were they the result of unknown risks associated with CRISPR gene editing? Did Dr. He successfully create children who are resistant to HIV infections? If his technique worked, broad ethical questions need to be addressed, not brushed under the rug: If we can make effective edits to the DNA of human embryos, should we?
Can We Afford the Cure? Volunteers who signed up for early gene therapy clinical trials have opened up new horizons of hope for chronically-ill patients. Cures for cancer and HIV are in sight. But, now a new problem has emerged: can society afford to pay for personalized genetic medicine? This talk features the stories of children who participated in the experiment that produced Kymriah, the first gene therapy approved by the FDA. This drug set records with a $475,000 price tag and now new gene therapies are on the market for upwards of $3 million per dose. Perspectives from patients who were early pioneers in these experiments are important as insurance providers, clinicians, and families make decisions about using this new cutting-edge medicine.
Eben for The New York Times on gene editing and reproductive medicine.
Read Eben’s articles on gene editing in The Atlantic, Wired, and Somatosphere.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed Kirksey’s The Mutant Project.
Listen to Eben Kirksey on NPR’s “Tech Nation” podcast.
Read Eben’s article about Indonesian troops in The Sunday Times.
Read Eben’s warning about the damming of the Mamberamo River.
From Princeton University:
“Eben was incredible—one of the best professors that I have had at Princeton.”
“HE IS AMAZING!”
“Eben is the best. Highest quality seminar in which I've ever participated.”
Praise for The Mutant Project "Kirksey is not afraid to venture into the unknown. Whether it is the microscopic realm of CRISPR or the fast-mutating milieu that is Shenzhen, China, he plunges into it with courage, care, and most importantly, a sense of wonder. The biological, financial, legal, and ethical entanglements that bind scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, governments, hackers, artists, journalists, patients, and parents together are as unsettling as they are generative. Taking us through this deeply moving journey filled with unexpected twists and turns, Kirksey shows us that it is possible to imagine, even create, a world more livable than the one we inhabit. Such an inspiring book!"
—Fan Yang, author of Faked in China
“The issues currently raised by CRISPR and the potential genetic engineering of humans may seem incredibly new, but in fact they are the oldest of all - what it means to be human, and what our relationship is with technology. From the domestication of fire to the smartphone, humans as a species cannot exist without our technologies. In this thought-provoking and well-researched book, Eben Kirksey wrestles anew with this oldest of questions - there are no easy answers, but the journey could change your life.”
—Mark Lynas, author of Seeds of Science: We We Got it So Wrong on GMOs
"The Mutant Project is an engaging, lively and well-written account of recent advances in gene editing technologies in humans. Eben Kirksey provides a fascinating tour of the world behind the headlines, illuminating the science, politics, personalities, money and moral challenges involved."
—Robert Klitzman, MD, Director of Masters of Bioethics Program, Columbia University, and author of Designing Babies: How Technology is Changing the Ways We Create Children