Girl's death in China: Does gene editing therapy need better regulation?

In Focus by The Hindu · Aug 10, 2026 · 29m

The scientific world was rocked last month, when the case of a six-year-old girl who died in China, surfaced. The child was believed to have Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a mutation in the CHD3 gene. The condition affects intellectual development, but its severity varies widely. The girl’s parents sought an experimental treatment led by neuroscientist Zilong Qiu at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

What happened then was the child underwent base editing therapy, a specialised form of gene editing therapy. The therapy was directed at her brain to…