GENE therapy has proved one of medical research’s greatest disappointments.
Not only has it failed to make many people better, it’s made a significant
number worse. And following the exposure of activities at the University of
Pennsylvania, we now know that unethical use of gene therapy has killed at least
one patient.
But researchers haven’t given up hope of finding ways to treat inherited
diseases. “We were frustrated that not much was happening, that it was
short-term, and that even if we succeeded we would not be able to reverse the
disease,” says Charles Coutelle, a leading researcher in gene…
