Chinese University Probes Child’s Death in Gene-Editing Trial

Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine is investigating an experimental gene-editing trial after a six-year-old girl died seven days after receiving the treatment.

The child had Snijders-Blok-Campeau syndrome, a rare genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the CHD3 gene. According to her parents, her symptoms had been relatively mild before the procedure.

The treatment, administered at the university-affiliated Xinhua Hospital in March 2025, was the first known attempt to use this specific form of gene editing in a human patient.

The family said researchers had persuaded them to provide $860,000 (€750,000) to fund the therapy. The money was returned after their daughter’s death.

According to the parents, the hospital’s ethics committee concluded that a severe immune reaction was the likely cause of death. They also said the consent documents had not explicitly warned that the procedure could be fatal.

The family is seeking the retraction of a related mouse study published in Nature in February 2026. They said genetic data concerning them and a reference to their “participation and support” had been removed from the revised version before publication.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University has established a special working group to investigate the case, while Nature is also reviewing the matter.

(epochtimes, est)