Slideshow: Perils of Gene Experimentation

Despite the death of an 18-year-old in 1999, the FDA and other regulatory agencies have done little to increase protections for people who participate in gene-therapy experiments. Kristen Philipkoski reports from Monterey, California.
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Paul Gelsinger's son Jesse died at 18 after participating in a gene-therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn researchers told the Gelsingers the experiment was safe.Kristen Philipkoski

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Dean Hamer, chief of the gene structure and regulation section of the National Cancer Institute, says one way to make gene-therapy research safer is to reform the process by which subjects are informed of a study's risks and benefits.

Kristen Philipkoski