A gene therapy experiment has been halted in the US after the death of a teenager from Arizona who volunteered for the study to help others suffering from his rare metabolic disease. The death is the latest in a series of setbacks for a promising but experimental technique in which...
Lord Sainsbury has publicly expressed his support for a change in legislation to allow research that could lead to tissue therapies for numerous degenerative disorders. Sainsbury was invited to speak at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party conference last week by the Bio Industry Association. He shared a platform...
A study of census figures has shown that about one in five white British people has a direct black ancestor. The well-known Professor Steve Jones, an academic geneticist at University College London, said that Afro-Carribean people had lived in Britain for so long that they were now part of the...
The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe last week approved a recommendation that 'neither plant, animal nor human derived genes, cells, tissue or organs' should be regarded as inventions and thereby be subject to patents. This declaration is in direct conflict with last year's European Union directive which allows...
In the US, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to delay a debate in the Senate over whether to allow federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cells. The Senate panel voted to drop from the Labor-Health and Human Services bill language originally added to create within the existing...
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A tragic death that should not deter gene therapy researchers
by Juliet Tizzard
Jesse Gelsinger's parents are no doubt still reeling from the news of their son's death. But as they try to get on with the rest of their lives, a public and professional debate about why he died is raging in the United States. Jesse, who was 18 years old, died...