FEATURE ARTICLE
Gene Therapy
Investigators have been searching for ways to add corrective genes to cells harboring defective genes. A better strategy might be to correct the defects
Eric Kmiec
It has been the hope of biomedical researchers to find ways to fix the genes that cause disease. Over a decade ago, when researchers at MIT realized that viruses could be modified to carry corrective genes into cells, gene therapy seemed to be an eventuality. But to date, no one has found a way to reliably control the therapeutic genes to make them clinically useful. Our author surveys the history of this field and gives us a peek at the future of gene therapy, where the emphasis may be less on replacing defective genes and more on correcting them.
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