Researcher Faces Investigation for Concealing 6-Year-Old Girl’s Death in Gene-Editing Trial - Gizmodo

What the report says

Gizmodo reports that Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine has opened an investigation into neuroscientist Zilong Qiu after the death of a 6-year-old girl who underwent an experimental gene-editing procedure in China. The child, identified by the pseudonym “Mei,” died about a week after the late-March 2025 treatment, which was intended to address Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, a rare condition linked to mutations in the CHD3 gene.

According to Gizmodo, citing earlier reporting by Science Magazine and Retraction Watch, Mei’s family paid more than $800,000 to support the trial. Qiu’s team reportedly used a CRISPR-related base-editing approach delivered by viruses into her spinal fluid, aiming to edit cells in the brain. The article says her death is believed to have followed a severe immune reaction, and that a hospital involved in the procedure was fined by local health authorities for oversight failures.

The controversy centers on alleged nondisclosure. Gizmodo reports that Qiu and colleagues later published a Nature paper on preclinical work underlying the therapy, without mentioning the human trial, the child’s death, or family funding. Nature told Gizmodo it had not been informed that a human trial was planned or underway, and said it is reviewing concerns about the manuscript.

The case matters because it raises renewed questions about research ethics, safety oversight, disclosure obligations and experimental gene editing in humans. Gizmodo notes the incident follows China’s He Jiankui embryo-editing scandal, after which the country introduced tougher rules for human research.