Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine has launched an investigation into neuroscientist Zilong Qiu after a joint investigation by Science and Retraction Watch revealed that a six-year-old girl died in March 2025 following an experimental gene-editing treatment he led. The child, identified by the pseudonym Mei, received a spinal infusion of trillions of viruses carrying a base editor designed to correct a mutation causing Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. She died of a severe immune reaction one week later; an internal hospital review concluded the therapy was linked to her death.

The university said in a statement that it “attaches great importance to the matter” and has formed a special working group, vowing “serious action” if violations of research ethics are found. Mei’s parents, who contributed more than $800,000 to fund the trial, told Science and Retraction Watch they were not adequately informed of the risks. Qiu subsequently published a paper on related animal studies in the journal Nature that omitted any mention of the human death or the family’s financial support. Nature’s chief biological sciences editor, Francesca Cesari, said the journal was not informed of the clinical trial or related administrative penalties during peer review, and that such information “would absolutely have been central to our decision-making.”

The case has drawn comparisons to the 2018 scandal involving Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who created gene-edited babies, and highlights persistent enforcement gaps in China’s regulatory framework. The treatment proceeded as an investigator-initiated trial at Xinhua Hospital, a route that does not require review by the National Medical Products Administration. Preclinical toxicology studies in monkeys, completed in February 2025, reportedly showed that all treated animals developed liver injury and one suffered kidney damage, yet the trial moved forward. Independent experts quoted in the investigation, including Steven Gray of UT Southwestern Medical Center and James Wilson of Gemma Biotherapeutics, said such data should have halted progression to human testing or triggered low-dose safety studies.

Local health authorities fined Xinhua Hospital approximately 24,000 yuan (US$3,500) in September 2025 for failing to register the study as commercially sponsored research, but Qiu faced no public sanctions at the time. The parents have filed a complaint with the university, which initially replied in April 2026 that it would not take action against Qiu and that the Nature paper was unrelated to the family-funded experiment. The university’s new working group is now conducting a comprehensive investigation. No retraction of the Nature paper has been announced.