Investigation Launched After Girl's Death in Controversial Therapy

WHO:

Gizmodo - Zilong Qiu is the neuroscientist in charge of the research.

Gizmodo - The girl, identified under the pseudonym Mei, was born with Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome.

Gizmodo - Mei's family paid over $800,000 to help fund the trial.

NY Post - The parents of the girl are from China.

WHAT:

Gizmodo - Mei died after undergoing an experimental gene-editing therapy.

Gizmodo - The Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine is formally opening an investigation into the matter.

Gizmodo - The hospital where the procedure took place was fined $3,600 by the local health department for failing to properly oversee the trial.

Gizmodo - Qiu and his team injected hundreds of trillions of viruses into Mei’s spinal fluid.

Gizmodo - A study detailing the therapy was published in Nature in February, which contains no mention of the human trial.

WHERE:

Gizmodo - The research was conducted at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China.

Gizmodo - The procedure took place in a hospital in China.

WHEN:

Gizmodo - Mei was diagnosed with Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome in 2013.

Gizmodo - Mei died just a week after the procedure performed in late March 2025.

Gizmodo - The study detailing the therapy was published in February 2026.

WHY:

Gizmodo - The therapy aimed to correct a single mutation responsible for Mei’s condition.

Gizmodo - Mei's family sought the treatment after hearing about Qiu's research in a private WeChat group for parents of children with developmental disorders.

HOW:

Gizmodo - The therapy used a type of CRISPR-based gene therapy known as base editing to attempt to edit cells directly in Mei’s brain.

(UPDATED July 29, 2026 18:26 UTC)

A tragic incident has emerged involving a girl known as Mei, who died after undergoing an experimental gene-editing therapy at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China. Mei, who was born with Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, had her family invest over $800,000 into the trial led by neuroscientist Zilong Qiu, which involved injecting hundreds of trillions of viruses into her spinal fluid. Following her death just a week after the procedure in late March 2025, the hospital was fined for failing to properly oversee the trial, and an investigation has now been launched into the matter.