GENE therapy company Oxford Biomedica has moved to reassure the public following the death of a US teenager in a genetic engineering experiment.

The company, based at Oxford Science Park, says it is using different therapies to the University of Pennsylvania laboratory whose experiment resulted in the death of the Arizona teenager.

The US government has suspended all clinical trials by the US scientist and his team.

Many cancer researchers pin their hopes on genetic engineering, which could be used to give cancerous cells new genetic instructions to stop them multiplying so fast.

The genes are delivered using vectors. The US experiments used adenoviruses, which are disabled to weaken their ability to cause infections.

Oxford Biomedica has patented a technique developed by Alan and Sue Kingsman while they were researchers at Oxford University. It takes new genes to the site of cancer tumours using viruses which cause anaemia in horses, but not in humans.

The company says its delivery methods have been selected for their safety and efficiency.

The company said in a statement: "Unlike some other gene therapy companies and academic research groups, Biomedia has focused on developing gene transfer vectors from viruses that do not cause diseases in man, and which have been engineered so that there is no possibility of toxic viral proteins being made in the body."

Prof Alan Kingsman said: "A strong immune reaction to a high dose of vector can trigger adverse effects in patients and this may have been what happened in the University of Pennsylvania case.

"It is in part for this reason that Oxford Biomedica does not use adenoviral vectors for direct administration to patients and has instead developed vectors that do not infect man."

Jesse Gelsinger was the first patient to die from gene therapy although more than 5,000 patients have joined 350 clinical trials. Oxford Biomedica has one cancer treatment in clinical trials.

Story date: Tuesday 01 February

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