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Jason Mast is a general assignment reporter at STAT focused on the science behind new medicines and the systems and people that decide whether that science ever reaches patients. You can reach Jason on Signal at JasonMast.05.

The first child to receive a new experimental gene therapy for a rare neurological disorder died a few days after dosing, the company sponsoring that trial said Wednesday.

The company, Capsida Biotherapeutics, is one of a group of companies and labs engineering new viruses potentially capable of safely ferrying genes deep into the brain. Its first effort was designed to treat STXBP1 encephalopathy, a condition that can cause seizures, developmental delays, and other symptoms.

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The STXBP1 Foundation said in a note to community members that the company and investigators were still working to understand what happened. 

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