David Vetter's The Bubble Boy

Imagine living your entire life inside a sterile, plastic bubble and having to hug your loved ones through a padded, NASA space suit. This was reality—not science fiction—for David Vetter, also known as “The Bubble Boy,” who grew up in Texas in the 1970’s. While his story has been publicized and parodied in different ways, most famously in a Seinfeld episode, it is a tragic one (1).

David Vetter, who was diagnosed with a genetic disease called SCIDS, or Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome. He lacked a functional immune system that would otherwise defend his body against diseases (2). Even the common cold, which for most people would be a minor annoyance, could spell death for him. It is a dreaded condition that steals away the most basic and fundamental needs and comforts of a human being. Indeed, his permanent quarantine – in which he was deprived of physical contact with his family – started when he was a mere twenty

But progress is being made every day. Scientists are starting to learn how to overcome the challenges that were previously present, such as the patient’s counterproductive immune response to viral vectors and the limited size of the genes that a viral vector can contain. The development of viral vectors is once again, a decade and a half later Gelsinger’s case, an exponentially growing field. Auspiciously, viral vectors have even started to demonstrate effectiveness against genetic disorders beyond X-SCIDS. For example, Choroideremia – a genetic disorder that causes progressive vision loss – had no effective treatment options for sufferers. However, in a recent clinical trial earlier this year, six patients with this dreaded condition were treated with viral vectors and for the first time in medical history, showed significant improvement in vision, demonstrating the potency of this new tool of gene therapy