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Nature 449, 270 (20 September 2007) | doi:10.1038/449270b; Published online 19 September 2007

Gene therapy might not have caused patient's death

Meredith Wadman

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Case was complicated by immunosuppressant drug regime.

A patient with arthritis who died in July during a gene-therapy trial may have succumbed to an infection she had before the viral vector was administered, experts said on Monday at a meeting of an advisory panel in Bethesda, Maryland, investigating the incident.Little of the evidence presented to the panel seemed to indicate that the injected viral vector had a key role in 36-year-old Jolee Mohr's demise.