A YEAR after 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died following experimental gene
therapy, researchers are beginning to understand what went wrong. Their work may
help to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Savio Woo of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York opened the
conference by recounting how Gelsinger died after he was injected with an
adenovirus carrying a gene to treat his liver disorder. The incident sent shock
waves through the field, and similar trials were quickly halted.
Federal agencies criticised the leader of the trial, James Wilson of the
University of Pennsylvania, for not reporting adverse reactions in…
