International Bubble Boy cure, based on Israeli research

The film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble opened America's eyes to the rare genetic disorder -- severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) -- afflicting up to 100 babies every year in the US. David Vetter, whose story the movie is based on, was a Texas boy who succumbed to the fatal disease known as Bubble Boy disease at the age of 12, after living years behind plastic barriers that protected his immune system from germs.

Thanks to research developed by an Israeli doctor, Prof. Shimon Slavin, babies and children everywhere may be spared from this fatal disease. Recent research based on Slavin's ground-breaking gene replacement approach developed in Israel, was tried and tested by a team of scientists from around the globe. The results were a success.

Using Slavin's patented approach, the international team, including researchers from Italy, found and then reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that Slavin?s gene therapy protocol -- reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) -- does not only treat, but appears to have cured eight out of the 10 children they treated for the fatal Bubble Boy disease.