Title: Retroviral vectorization for ex vivo gene therapy

Abstract

Vectorization of viruses provides the approach to exploit the remarkable viral capabilities of delivering genetic material to host cells. In the past decade, viral vector mediated gene therapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic modality for multiple inherited and acquired human diseases. Following just a single application, GT is capable of providing curative treatment or achieving long-lasting therapeutic benefits, which fundamentally distinguishes itself from traditional medicine. For the last four decades, retrovirus-based genetic intervention has been the major player in the field of GT, and multiple lentiviral/γ-retroviral vector-mediated GT products have been approved for treating various pathological conditions, including immunodeficiency, blood disorders and neurometabolic disorders. However, the early development of GT had been turbulent, with unexpected devastating effects exposed linked to the genotoxicities associated with retroviral semi-random genomic insertion. Here we talk about how the iterative vectorization processes taming the retroviruses, enabling them to become the foundation of modern gene therapy. And we will also take an evolutionary perspective to understand and perceive how retroviruses shaped us in the distant past.

Biography

Dr. Xiaomo Wu is the head of Regenerative Medicine LAB and the deputy Director of theDermatology Institute of Fuzhou, China. Wu received a B.A. in Medicine in 2002 from theUniversity of Wuhan, followed by M.S. in Genetics in 2006 from the University of Fudan, Shanghai. In 2008, Wu came to Biozentrum, the University of Basel, Switzerland andreceivedPhD in Genetics in 2012 under Walter J. Gehring. She conducted her postdoctoral research in Bettler’s LAB, Department of Biomedicine (DBM), also from the University of Basel, Switzerland. In 2017, Wu was recruited as a lad head and the deputy director of a newly founded institute in the Dermatology Hospital of Fuzhou, Fujian, China. In recent years, WU Lab has been dedicated to developing therapeutic interventions based on genetic modification and alteration, namely gene therapy, for treating multiple inherited skin diseases as well as some types of blood disorders.