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Optimism regarding the use of RNA/DNA hybrids to repair genes at high efficiency
Author(s) -
Blaese Rm
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the journal of gene medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.689
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1521-2254
pISSN - 1099-498X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-2254(199903/04)1:2<144::aid-jgm18>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - optimism , genetics , dna , gene , hybrid , biology , dna repair , rna , computational biology , psychology , botany , social psychology
R. Michael Blaese obtained his MD degree from the University of Minnesota in 1964. In 1966 he moved to Bethesda, for what eventually became 32 years at the National Institutes of Health where he developed his career long interest in the investigation and treatment of patients with primary immunodeficiency disease. In 1990, he was the Principal Investigator of the initial human gene therapy trial which used retroviral vectors to transfer a normal ADA cDNA into the peripheral blood T cells of two girls with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). His laboratory has developed gene therapies for AIDS and cancer including the first clinical trial testing the strategy of inserting the herpes thymidine kinase (HSV‒tk) ‘suicide gene’ into recurrent brain tumors. In 1998, Dr. Blaese was appointed Chief Scientific Officer of Kimeragen, where he is pursuing his work on the correction of genetic disorders using a gene repair system based on the use of chimeric DNA/RNA oligonucleotides. In his own words he has been ‘totally seduced by this technology’. Dr. Blaese talked to The Journal of Gene Medicine , about the early results achieved using this approach and its prospects for the future. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.