Last year, a six-year-old girl died after undergoing an experimental gene-editing therapy. Now, the neuroscientist in charge of the research, Zilong Qiu, is facing questions following his decision to not publicly disclose the death. Science Magazine, in collaboration with Retraction Watch, was the first to report the incident last week. On Monday, the AFP reported that the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China, where Qiu works, is formally opening up an investigation into the matter. The girl’s family reportedly paid over $800,000 to help fund the trial, which was intended to test out a treatment for her rare genetic condition. “The School of Medicine has always attached great importance to scientific research integrity and research norms, and firmly opposes conducting medical scientific research in violation of scientific research ethics,” the university said in a statement to the AFP. An experimental hope and failure The girl, identified under the pseudonym Mei, was born with Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome; she was diagnosed in 2013. This condition is caused by mutations in the gene CHD3. Symptoms can vary in severity but include intellectual disability, a larger-than-usual head, and an increased risk of seizures and heart problems. Mei reportedly had a relatively mild version, though she was starting to fall behind her peers in school and there was the possibility that she would never be able to live independently.