The hunt started more than a decade ago with a pool of money, central government backing and the goal of tracking down a Chinese variant of the so-called warrior gene. But after sifting through blood samples from hundreds of children convicted of violent crimes, researchers came up empty-handed, prompting the authorities to stop the funding and abandon the controversial quest, sources said. Chinese scientist retracts research hailed as gene editing breakthroughThe Chinese research focused on DNA from inmates at juvenile detention centres across the country. The samples were compared to those from non-violent inmates as well as “ordinary” children of a similar age. Genes also tend to work in a group, and to determine a group of warrior genes we need to find a stable pattern passed down from several generations,” he said.

Source: The Star December 17, 2017 08:48 UTC