Introduction to Lost in Translation

Within the past six months, a fifth patient developed a lympho-proliferative disorder in an X-SCID gene transfer trial.  The RAC has all but cleared AAV vector as a causal agent in the death of Jolee Mohr in a rheumatoid arthritis study.  A Merck HIV-vaccine trial involving adenoviral vectors was terminated after a data safety monitoring board found that volunteers receiving placebo had lower rates of sero-conversion.

I created this blog to establish a forum to report and comment on developments in gene transfer—and other areas of translational clinical research— that raise interesting or important ethical questions.  The first several posts will contain some introductory material that provides definitions and describes the scope of this blog.