The world’s first gene therapy – level 1

The world s first gene therapy

01-12-2025 07:00

Three-year-old Oliver Chu is the first person to get gene therapy. He has a disease called Hunter syndrome. This disease makes the boy’s body and brain slowly get sick.

People with the bad form of Hunter syndrome often die when they are teenagers. A bad gene stops the body from making a special enzyme. The doctors in the UK take Oliver’s cells and put in a good copy of the gene. This good gene tells the cells to make the enzyme.

Oliver is doing very well now. His learning and speaking are much better. He does not need other medicine. The doctors and parents are very happy. Oliver’s older brother, Skylar, has Hunter syndrome too. The parents want the same therapy for him.

Difficult words: gene therapy (putting a good gene into a patient’s cells to treat a disease), brain (the organ in the head which controls our body), cell (the smallest unit of all living things).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

What does the good gene instruct Oliver’s cells to do?

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