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Who Is Chinese Scientist Jiankui He And Why Do Memes Have Him Conducting Genetic Experiments? The Contentious Figure Explained
Chinese scientist Jiankui He is a famous yet controversial figure in the scientific community, known for his 2018 "genetically edited babies" experiment. More recently, his scientific ambitions have spawned increasingly bizarre memes that have him conducting morally ambiguous genetic experiments to create new types of people and ethnicities.
Could Jiankui He be the man who finally delivers us genetically engineered catgirls, or will he let his true fate slip through his fingers? Meme makers have been trying to provide an answer.
Let's learn more about who Jiankui He is, about the experiment that made him famous, and find out where all these memes come from.
Who Is Chinese Geneticist Jiankui He?
Jiankui He (born 1984) is a Chinese biophysicist who is best known for his research in gene editing in humans. He achieved notoriety for his controversial 2018 gene-editing experiment which involved editing genes in human sperm during an in vitro fertilization.
In particular, during the experiment, a natural mutation granting resistance to a specific variant of HIV infection was introduced to the sperm of several HIV-infected males. Following the experiment, twin girls known by pseudonyms Lulu and Nana were born in October 2018. Jiankui He himself first presented the results of his experiment in a video uploaded to YouTube.
While Jiakui He initially achieved worldwide fame and was even featured in Time's "100 Most Influential People of 2019" list, he was deemed controversial by the scientific community due to his disregard for scientific standards and the potential endangerment of the lives of the babies involved.
In 2019, a Chinese district court found Jiankui He guilty of illegal practice of medicine, sentencing him to three years in prison. He served the sentence and was released in 2022, after which he continued his work in the field of gene editing.
How Did Jiankui He Become A Meme?
In 2022, following his release from prison, Jiankui He launched his X / Twitter account @Jiankui_He, where he has been advocating gene editing.
Browsing through, one can find He's opinions on gene editing, its potential applications, and its moral, societal and legal aspects.
Jiankui He gradually accumulated a significant following on the platform, reaching next to 30,000 followers as of early 2025. That's about when some of his posts first started gaining traction on the app. For example, the one below gained nearly 350,000 views and 500 reposts since it was posted in late December 2024.
But it wasn't until early March that Jiankui He truly became a meme. On that day, he posted a photograph of himself in his usual attire with the caption, "Human will no longer be controlled by Darwin's evolution," a somewhat typical He post for a long-time follower.
The post, however, went viral thanks to sounding a bit too much like a villainous cliche said by an evil or crazy-type movie scientist.
The post opened a Pandora's box of evil-scientist-posting as more users got familiar with Jiankui He's posts on Twitter and started parodying them. To some, he sounded quite familiar to somebody they already knew …
… while others were inspired to envision a new world shaped by rogue scientists operating in a grey zone where morals and ethics don't always apply.
Finally, many saw in Jiankui He a figure of Yakubian proportions. Could he be the legend incarnate?
For the full history of Jiankui He, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
