Fast Facts Gene Therapy

Gene therapy has emerged as a discipline in medicine that can provide treatments for diseases that have no other therapies available, save lives of patients for whom there is no other hope and replace suboptimal treatments with lasting cures. 'Fast Facts: Gene Therapy' provides an overview of the field, looking at the main vector systems used to transfer the therapeutic gene constructs, the molecular mechanisms and the history of gene therapy, as well as the safety and ethical considerations of this important advance. Multiple examples of diseases that are already successfully treated with gene therapy are given, with discussion of treatments that hold promise for the future. This book will be informative and of value to health professionals, researchers, students and anyone with an interest in this exciting and fast-moving area. Contents: • Principles of gene therapy • Gene therapy techniques • Ethical and safety considerations • Gene therapies with proven clinical efficacy • Genome editing • Research directions – the next wave of treatments

Gene therapy has emerged as a discipline in medicine that can provide treatments for diseases that have no other therapies available, save lives of patients for whom there is no other hope and replace suboptimal treatments with lasting cures. 'Fast Facts: Gene Therapy' provides an overview of the field, looking at the main vector systems used to transfer the therapeutic gene constructs, the molecular mechanisms and the history of gene therapy, as well as the safety and ethical considerations of this important advance. Multiple examples of diseases that are already successfully treated with gene therapy are given, with discussion of treatments that hold promise for the future. This book will be informative and of value to health professionals, researchers, students and anyone with an interest in this exciting and fast-moving area. Contents: • Principles of gene therapy • Gene therapy techniques • Ethical and safety considerations • Gene therapies with proven clinical efficacy • Genome editing • Research directions – the next wave of treatments

In 1982, a meeting of unusual influence was held at the Banbury Conference Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. After an early attempt at treating clinical disease with transferred genes had ignited public attention and scientific controversy, a group of distinguished biologists and physicians came together to assess practical progress towards gene therapy and what its future might be. The geneticist Ted Friedmann wrote a narrative account of the participants' contributions to the meeting, ending with a personal discussion of ethical issues raised by genetic technologies. His book, the first on gene therapy, was widely read but has long been unavailable. It has been reprinted with a new introduction entitled Gene Therapy 1994, in which the author reviews the field's technical accomplishments and ethical dilemmas. Now that gene therapy has become part of the medical landscape, this volume is of interest as both a historical document and an assessment of the field's current challenges.

Adenoviral Vectors for Gene Therapy, Second Edition provides detailed, comprehensive coverage of the gene delivery vehicles that are based on the adenovirus that is emerging as an important tool in gene therapy. These exciting new therapeutic agents have great potential for the treatment of disease, making gene therapy a fast-growing field for research. This book presents topics ranging from the basic biology of adenoviruses, through the construction and purification of adenoviral vectors, cutting-edge vectorology, and the use of adenoviral vectors in preclinical animal models, with final consideration of the regulatory issues surrounding human clinical gene therapy trials. This broad scope of information provides a solid overview of the field, allowing the reader to gain a complete understanding of the development and use of adenoviral vectors. Provides complete coverage of the basic biology of adenoviruses, as well as their construction, propagation, and purification of adenoviral vectors Introduces common strategies for the development of adenoviral vectors, along with cutting-edge methods for their improvement Demonstrates noninvasive imaging of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer Discusses utility of adenoviral vectors in animal disease models Considers Federal Drug Administration regulations for human clinical trials

Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, integrative medicine pioneer, details what we can each do individually to keep our bodies healthy.

Genome editing is a powerful new tool for making precise alterations to an organism's genetic material. Recent scientific advances have made genome editing more efficient, precise, and flexible than ever before. These advances have spurred an explosion of interest from around the globe in the possible ways in which genome editing can improve human health. The speed at which these technologies are being developed and applied has led many policymakers and stakeholders to express concern about whether appropriate systems are in place to govern these technologies and how and when the public should be engaged in these decisions. Human Genome Editing considers important questions about the human application of genome editing including: balancing potential benefits with unintended risks, governing the use of genome editing, incorporating societal values into clinical applications and policy decisions, and respecting the inevitable differences across nations and cultures that will shape how and whether to use these new technologies. This report proposes criteria for heritable germline editing, provides conclusions on the crucial need for public education and engagement, and presents 7 general principles for the governance of human genome editing.

The CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing system is creating a revolution in the science world. In the laboratory, CRISPR-Cas9 can efficiently be used to target specific genes, correct mutations and regulate gene expression of a wide array of cells and organisms, including human cells. CRISPR-/Cas9 Based Genome Editing for Treating Genetic Disorders and Diseases is a unique reading material for college students, academicians, and other health professionals interested in learning about the broad range of applications of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Some topics included in this book are: the role of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in neuroscience, gene therapy, epigenome editing, genome mapping, cancer, virus infection control strategies, regulatory challenges and bioethical considerations.

Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration. Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.