Deal Is Reached in Gene Therapy Death

The University of Pennsylvania announced it had reached an out-of-court settlement with the family of Jesse Gelsinger, a Tucson man whose death in a gene therapy experiment 14 months ago prompted a national reassessment of protections for research volunteers. Details of the settlement, which grew out of a civil suit the family filed in a Pennsylvania state court in September, were not disclosed. Gelsinger, who was 18 and who had an inherited liver disorder, died Sept. 17, 1999, just four days after getting an experimental infusion of genetically engineered viruses.