Correcting the Code: Inventing the Genetic Cure for the Human Body

Journalist Thompson draws on interviews and research to dramatically chronicle recent breakthroughs and the work still to be done. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

In 1990 Ashanti DeSilva, a 4-year-old girl from a Cleveland suburb with a life-threatening hereditary immune disorder, underwent partially successful gene therapy. Doctors of the National Institutes of Health, led by molecular biologist William French Anderson, inserted a normal copy of a critical gene--one she had been born without--into her white blood cells, restoring her ability to make a necessary enzyme. Today more than 100 patients worldwide have had genes put into their bodies in therapeutic studies that may one day yield a cure for diseases ranging from cancer to muscular dystrophy. In this clearly written, brisk report, Thompson, a Medical News Network correspondent and former Washington Post science editor, does an excellent job of mapping the genetic engineering revolution of the 1970s and '80s which made gene therapy possible. Both supporters and critics of human bioengineering will find much to ponder in his coverage of the political battles, technical hurdles and ethical issues that beset a burgeoning field.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Seasoned science writer Thompson (The Washington Post, Medical News Network) charts the course of the first successful human experiment in gene therapy, begun in 1990. And what a complex course that has been. The prize went to NIH scientist W. French Anderson (now at USC) and colleagues who devised a treatment for ADA deficiency, a rare hereditary disease that gradually destroys the immune system because of the lack of an enzyme to remove toxic waste products from immune cells. Anderson had dreamed of gene therapy long before it was fashionable--indeed, he was dismissed as a lightweight. Here, Thompson tells all, alternating biographies of the principal players and patients with an explanation of the science of splicing genes. The result is sometimes mechanical--as though the chapters were written independently--but, overall, a warts-and-all picture of ambition and competition emerges that includes the detailed story of the rise and fall of Marty Cline. He was the brilliant UCLA investigator who violated all the rules by going abroad to try gene therapy on two thalassemia patients. When word got out (leaked by Anderson, it seems), Cline was fired, lost his grants, and essentially got out of the business. Today gene therapy has been well and truly launched with improvements in techniques and applications to cancer and hereditary disease. Creditably, Thompson elaborates on the problems and politics while also neatly outlining the genealogies of science: who studied in whose lab forging the networks (and rivalries) that are par for the course in science. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

During its brief history, genetic medicine has experienced several fits and starts. After an early period of optimism, research slowed as science and the public began wrestling with the ethical issues related to genetic therapies for human diseases. In 1990, however, a National Institutes of Health research team led by Dr. French Anderson successfully performed the first such treatment on a four-year-old girl suffering from a rare immune disorder. In telling the history of genetic medicine, Thompson covers a broad scientific territory. Although the book plods along in some passages, the most engaging section describes a scandal in which an overzealous researcher injected recombinant DNA into patients without their consent. Throughout, Anderson's work and career is central, and while it might be true that he has made a significant contribution to medicine, the hosannas seem excessive in places. Overall, this book merits a lukewarm recommendation. More balanced works on this subject may be forthcoming.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Lib., Bozeman
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.