The Development of Human Gene Therapy
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press $134.00, 744 pp., 1998 ISBN: 0-879-69528-5 | ISBN: 0-879-69528-5
The field of gene therapy has evolved through several stages, from its origins in molecular biology, to virus-mediated transfer of foreign genetic material, to the rapid ascent of early human clinical trials and more recently to a period of self-examination. By 1995, it became apparent that gene therapeutics was going to be far more complicated than originally hoped or perhaps anticipated. The field had gone through at least five years of highly visible and publicized clinical studies but the hype and hope clearly exceeded the accomplishments. Responding to concerns of investigators and the public alike, NIH director Harold Varmus established an advisory committee; their report (http://www.nih.gov/news/panelrep.html) had a remarkably positive effect on the field. Renewed efforts were made to understand the basic biology of gene transfer, the molecular biology of vectors and the cellular mechanisms of vector uptake and gene expression. The stampede to clinical trials abated. The field had undergone a 'market correction'.
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