According to a study in New York, gene therapy has been able to cure a particular form of "bubble boy disease" in 8 out 10 sufferers. Severe combined immunodeficiency, as its formally known, was made famous in the late 70s.
It became known as "bubble boy disease" because of David Vetter, a boy in Houston who lived his whole inside plastic barriers so that he didn't come into contact with germs. He died aged 12 in 1984.
While the gene therapy proved to work towards that most common form of SCID, it also had the risky side effect of contracting leukemia. The form of SCID researchers treated involved the sufferers lacking the enzyme adenosine deaminase.
