Title: Retroviral vectorization for modern gene therapy

Abstract

Vectorization of viruses provides the approach of the exploitation of the remarkable viral capabilities of delivering genetic material to host cells. Recently, gene therapy (GT) based on viral vector has emerged as a promising therapeutic modality for multiple inherited and acquired human diseases. Following just a single application, GT is capable of achieving curative treatment or mediating long-lasting therapeutic benefits, which fundamentally distinguishes itself from traditional medicine. For the last four decades, retrovirus mediated gene therapy 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

Xiaomo Wu is the head of Regenerative Medicine LAB and the deputy Director of the Dermatology Institute of Fuzhou, China. She received a B.A. in Medicine in 2002 from the University of Wuhan, followed by a M.S. in Genetics in 2006 from the University of Fudan, Shanghai. In 2008, she came to Biozentrum, the University of Basel, Switzerland and received a PhD in Genetics in 2012 under Prof. Walter J. Gehring. She conducted her postdoctoral research in Bettler’s LAB, Biomedicine Department, also from the University of Basel, Switzerland. In 2017, she 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, her Lab has been dedicated to developing therapeutic interventions based on genetic modification and alteration, namely gene therapy, for the treatment of inherited skin diseases as well as hemophilia A.