Gene therapy: lessons learnt from the past decade

If is more than a decade since the first approved clinical trial to put gen es into the tells of human beings was initiated, In that first trial, inves tigators at the US National Institutes of Health used a modified mouse leuk aemia virus to insert a DNA marker into lymphocytes being used to treat can cer(1). A year later, a similar viral technique was used as treatment for t wo gills who had severe combined immunodeficiency with mutant adenosine dea minase,(2) Ten years and more than 3000 patients later, it is appropriate t o ask, "Where are we now?"