Chinese University Reviewing Gene Editing Research As Family Discloses Daughter's Death

Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

A top-tier Chinese university said on July 26 that it is investigating gene editing research by one of its researchers following reports that scientists treated a 6-year-old girl as part of their research, who died during the unprecedented human trial.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, one of China's Ivy League-level institutions, said in a statement that it "attaches great importance to the matter and has established a special working group to conduct a comprehensive investigation."

New York-based nonprofit science watchdog Retraction Watch and peer-reviewed journal Science disclosed on July 23, on behalf of her grieving family, the death of the 6-year-old girl, who underwent an experimental gene editing procedure in a clinical trial conducted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers at the affiliated Xinhua Hospital.

The girl had been diagnosed with global developmental delay in March 2023, her parents told Science. Genome sequencing later pointed toward a single-base mutation in her CHD3 gene as the cause. The rare mutation, which causes Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, impacted a vital protein essential for brain development, leaving her with challenges in her motor and language skills that became more eviden