On a Friday evening in late April, entrepreneur Cathy Tie performed Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 at New York’s Carnegie Hall on a Steinway grand piano with orchestral accompaniment. She wore a floor-length pink tulle gown with gold sequins. The event marked her 30th birthday, which she hosted by renting the venue. Most attendees had recently met her or did not know her previously. Since early 2025, Tie has started three biotech companies and resided in Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York. She was barred from entering China, her birthplace, while traveling there to join her then-husband. A year earlier, Tie had married biophysicist He Jiankui, who served prison time for creating the first gene-edited babies. The couple separated after three months. Last summer, Tie moved to New York and announced a startup to edit embryo genes for preventing diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s, and hereditary cancers. She stated her work would proceed openly with regulatory approval and private investment. Germline gene editing for reproduction remains banned in the UK, US, and China. Tie noted that private funding supports such research and aims to build public acceptance. She seeks to address inherited diseases through transparent methods.
