Jeffrey Fox
 

The lawsuit brought by Jesse Gelsinger's father and family members against several gene therapy researchers and administrators at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn; Philadelphia, PA) was settled early in November. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in September this year (Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 1136, 2000), was triggered following Gelsinger's death a year earlier while he participated in a gene therapy clinical trial (Nat. Biotechnol. 17, 1153, 1999;MEDLINE). Although the settlement amount remains confidential, the family praised the university for "taking seriously the need for research universities to improve the conditions under which clinical research is conducted" and said that this attitude "meant a great deal in resolving this case." As part of the negotiations, the family also dismissed claims against UPenn bioethicist Arthur Caplan and former medical dean William Kelley.