The gene mutation that protects against HIV could also shorten lives... Genetics is never so simple.

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CRISPR acts like a scissors for DNA.
Sam Ward
▼ Death comes to us all—but those with a specific genetic mutation may hear the Grim Reaper come knocking earlier than most. The naturally occurring mutation that rogue Chinese researcher He Jiankui was trying to replicate when he permanently edited two human embryos has the potential to do more harm than good, according to new research published this weekin the journalNature Medicine.
In the fall of 2018, He Jiankui astonished geneticists and bioethicists worldwide when he announced the birth of twin girls Nana and Lulu. He and his team altered their genomes using the relatively easy-to-use gene-editing technique known as CRISPR when they were embryos. This marked the first such babies born in the world to have their genomes altered in this way. He’s stated intent in editing their embryos was to replicate a mutation that exists in just 11 percent of Northern Europeans, on a specific piece of a gene known as CCR5. The mutation doesn’t naturally occur among those of Asian descent and when He’s University announced the twins’ births, they portrayed the tweak as a genetic advantage.
Known as the delta-32 mutation after the allele it resides in, the mutation is quite famous, according to study author Rasmus Nielsen, an evolutionary biologist at UC Berkeley. One reason, he says, is the evidence its geographic distribution provides of historic diseases in Europe; another is the fact that it makes those who have it either completely or partially immune to infection with the HIV virus; and the last, of course, is the fact that it was the mutation He Jiankui chose to tweak in Nana and Lulu.
Researchers first identified the mutation in the early nineties when a population of men who had unprotected sex with other men never seemed to get HIV,  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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