Is HIV the hero that’ll help gene therapy rise above the hype?

AJ Cann HIV
Credit: AJ Cann/Flickr

In technology, it is called the hype cycle: what initially seems a promising breakthrough leads to inflated expectations – until it becomes clear that a great deal of time, money and effort will be needed to realise that promise. Disillusionment sets in until the first real successes are reported, and then the hype is on again.

So it has gone with gene therapy. When, in the late 1980s, the genes for debilitating inherited diseases began to be identified, many believed that cures were within reach, by replacing the faulty genes with working ones. But getting the right gene into the right place without doing more harm than good proved tricky. Now, 23 years after the first gene therapy trial for a rare immune disease called ADA-SCID, researchers finally have some successes to report.

Still, a major barrier remains: cost.

Read the full, original story here: Gene therapy needs a hero to live up to the hype

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