Experts Split on Huidagene Gene Editing Data Before Boy's Death
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- A young boy died in Huidagene's gene editing trial last year, prompting renewed scrutiny of the company's earlier decisions.
- Alvin Luk, Huidagene's former CEO, presented the trial's early data at the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy's Presidential Symposium — one of the field's biggest stages — roughly three months before the death.
- STAT solicited reviews from several experts in gene editing and muscle disorders by watching video of Luk's presentation.
- The reviewers came away divided, often starkly, on both the quality of Huidagene's science and the wisdom of its chosen approach.
- Dongsheng Duan, a University of Missouri researcher who has spent about a decade studying gene editing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, wrote simply in an email: "I'm not impressed."
Why it matters: The pre-death disagreement among senior gene editing researchers means the case that killed the boy wasn't vetted as obviously sound inside the field — Huidagene's go-ahead decision now sits against an outside record of split, and in places openly skeptical, expert opinion.
Ask SkimNews
