An inmate at the Bexar County Adult
Detention Center allegedly climbed...
piggyback a healthy copy of a mu-
tated gene onto a benign virus and
inject that into a patient. The pa-
tient’s body, in theory, can then
use the healthy gene to restore or
correct whatever functions were
affected by the defect. The brain
degeneration resulting from con-
ditions like Batten disease might
thereby be arrested.
Recent years have brought
encouraging evidence that this
approach is far more than a pipe
dream. Following a successful
clinical trial, the FDA recently ap-
proved a gene therapy treatment
for a devastating condition called
spinal muscular atrophy, which
typically kills infants. “Since hu-
mans came down from the trees,
or wherever they came from, most
patients with this diagnosis have
not lived beyond the age of one or
two,” Minassian says. “Now they’re
up and about. It’s really weird and
wonderful.” News spread this
spring that eight infants born with
the severe immune disorder com-
monly known as “bubble boy dis-
ease” had been successfully treated
with gene therapy. And Gray him-
self organized a 2015 clinical trial,
along with the National Institutes
of Health, in which a girl with giant
axonal neuropathy recovered some
mobility that she’d lost.
It’s not only rare pediatric
diseases that could someday be
helped by a onetime treatment.
Much more complex (and com-
mon) problems like Alzheimer’s,
schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s,
which involve multiple genetic mu-
tations, might also be overcome.
Researchers will learn much about
the potential to do so by first con-
fronting relatively simple child-
hood diseases. They are “our train-
ing ground to learn how we’re going
to be able to get in the brain and
manipulate genes to fix the huge
diseases,” Minassian says.
Yet producing, in volume, virus-
es of the type and purity necessary
to carry the healthy genes and im-
plant them into patients’ cells re-quires a highly specialized facility.
There are relatively few academic
institutions and commercial labs
capable of it, which often results
in waits of as long as two years for
a potential trial to obtain the re-
quired patient doses, at costs to-
taling millions of dollars per trial.
Minassian was able to recruitGray to join him in Dallas by prom-
ising that the medical center would
build its own virus production fa-
cility—which would give them
more control over both project
time lines and costs. When virus
production gets underway later
this year, Dallas will become a cen-
ter for research into pediatric ge-into the ceiling of his cell, opened a sprinkler valve, and flooded the jail’s
basement during an unsuccessful escape attempt. A man in Travis
County was filmed walking his dog alongside his car while driving. A
man fell from the eleventh floor of the Omni Hotel in Corpus Christi
and survived with non-life-threatening injuries. Robstown was named
the worst city in Texas to live in, but the city manager said it’s not true.
Laredo surpassed Los Angeles to become the leading port in the United
States. Abilene’s police chief publicly apologized to the descendants of
the victim of a lynching that took place there 97 years ago. The iconic
La Harmonia store in the Castolon Historic District of Big Bend, which
has sold sundries for nearly a century, was destroyed during a wildfire.
A middle school band director in Webb County allegedly pawned
thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen instruments. An 85-year-old
woman in Lufkin finally got to fulfill her dream of riding around town in
a Cadillac convertible. A woman allegedly threw a drink and a food
tray at her colleagues at a Denton Burger King after she was fired, then
walked outside and kicked a truck. A 72-year-old grandmother was
arrested at the customs checkpoint at DFW Airport after she was found
carrying CBD oil. A woman in Wichita Falls allegedly stole three rugs
and four vacuum cleaners from a Target, and 704 5-Hour Energy drinks
and 1,208 cigarette lighters from a Walmart. An eighth grader from
Austin won a National Geographic geography contest. —LEIF REIGSTAD5858 TEXAS MTEXAS MONTHLYONTHLY ILLUSTRATION BY LORENZO GRITTI
MEDICINE MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS