In Brief:
7/21/2010 Print E-mail Eight of nine male infants born with so-called "Bubble Boy" disease were still alive and well nine years after they underwent gene therapy, French researchers report.. Still, said William J. Bowers, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, "this is a very substantial advance. And, he added, since these procedures were performed (between 1999 and 2002), additional advances have been made in terms of the virus vectors used to insert the corrected genes which, once tested in patients, could reduce the risk of cancer.. "Bubble Boy" disease, known as X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), occurs in at least one in every 50,000 to 100,000 newborns, according to the National Institutes of Health.. "I think the field of gene therapy is starting to see clinical successes and is going to go forward fairly rapidly," Bowers said..
