Chinese university investigating girl’s death in gene-editing trial

BEIJING : A Chinese university is looking into reports that a gene-editing trial caused the death of a six-year-old girl, which was not disclosed in the published research, the school said on Sunday. The girl, given the pseudonym “Mei”, died last year around a week after receiving a spinal infusion of trillions of viruses designed to penetrate the brain for treatment, according to a joint investigation by Science and Retraction Watch.

The experimental gene therapy was meant to fix a rare genetic condition that caused a delay in cognitive development, the report said on Thursday.

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