Jesse Gelsinger
Male, Deceased Person
1981 – 1999
Who was Jesse Gelsinger?
Jesse Gelsinger was the first person publicly identified as having died in a clinical trial for gene therapy. He was 18 years old. Gelsinger suffered from ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, an X-linked genetic disease of the liver, the symptoms of which include an inability to metabolize ammonia – a byproduct of protein breakdown. The disease is usually fatal at birth, but Gelsinger had not inherited the disease; in his case it was apparently the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation after conception and as such was not as severe – some of his cells were normal, enabling him to survive on a restricted diet and special medications.
Gelsinger joined a clinical trial run by the University of Pennsylvania that aimed at developing a treatment for infants born with severe disease. On September 13, 1999, Gelsinger was injected with an adenoviral vector carrying a corrected gene to test the safety of the procedure. He died four days later, September 17, at 2:30 pm, apparently having suffered a massive immune response triggered by the use of the viral vector used to transport the gene into his cells, leading to multiple organ failure and brain death.
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- Born
- Jun 18, 1981
- Also known as
- Джелсинджер, Джесси
- Education
- University of Pennsylvania
- Died
- Sep 17, 1999
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Jesse Gelsinger." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/jesse_gelsinger>.
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