On 14 September 1990 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, a four-year-old girl, Ashanti DeSilva, who had a rare inherited immune deficiency (ADA-SCID) and was prone to fatal infections, received an infusion of her own white blood cells which had been modified in the laboratory to carry a working copy of the missing gene. The team of W. French Anderson, Michael Blaese and Kenneth Culver performed the first approved gene therapy in humans. The result was only partly successful because the cells did not last, and gene therapy suffered setbacks, notably the death of a patient in 1999, but modern versions now cure inherited diseases such as sickle-cell disease.
Before and after
- from 2 August 1990 to 28 February 1991Gulf War
- 12 August 1990Discovery of Sue
- 15 August 1990Birth of Jennifer Lawrence
- 12 September 1990Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
- 14 September 1990The first gene therapy treatment is given
- from 1 October 1990 to 4 August 1993Rwandan Civil War
- 3 October 1990German reunification
- 6 October 1990Launch of Ulysses
- 17 October 1990Founding of IMDb
More in Science & technology
- 1945Invention of computer
- 29 October 1969Invention of Internet
- 1971Email
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- 15 January 2001Wikipedia
- 20 October 2004Creation of Ubuntu
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.