[Gene Therapy Webinar Series] Webinar #2 | Our Genes, Our Health: The Basics of Genetics

Our Genes, Our Health: The Basics of Genetics

Date: 11th August 2025

Hour: 3 pm EAT | 1 pm WEST

Platform: 100% virtual via zoom

Link to Zoom Recording: https://zoom.us/rec/share/P3oV40YA1V1JN_yyBK6-kh4TQ1zudQqL3Ju2H3vGsHUccDGiy3NL9nvdxXTBys1Z.CWL_qMI6_B5sxNBJ

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Speaker:

Jennifer E. Adair

Biography:

The overarching goal of Jennifer E. Adair's research is to develop novel strategies to make gene and cell therapy treatments broadly available to patients in need. Her expertise is in the clinical translation of genetically modified blood cells to treat incurable diseases. Clinical translation includes developing the genetic engineering that will provide therapeutic benefit in vitro and in appropriate preclinical models, isolating the cells to be treated, delivering the engineering cargo to these cells, returning these cells to the patient and monitoring the safety and efficacy of the gene therapy.

She translated the first successful drug resistance gene therapy trial in patients with terminal cancer of the brain (glioblastoma multiforme) in 2010. She then developed the first clinically viable manufacturing protocol for gene therapy to treat Fanconi's anaemia. She has also clinically translated blood cell gene therapy to treat inherited immunodeficiency syndromes, hemoglobinopathies and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Through this work, she identified a critical gap in the availability of gene therapies to patients who need them. To address this gap, she developed two novel technologies to enhance the global availability of blood cell gene therapy: first, a portable, automated manufacturing system to produce patient-specific blood cell gene therapies, and then a synthetic nanoparticle that can deliver gene-editing machinery passively to blood cells.

In addition, she developed a novel method to track individual genetically engineered blood cells inside the body, which has advanced blood cell gene therapy and haematology by increasing our basic knowledge of blood cell development.

In 2020, she was named the Fleischauer Family Endowed Chair in Gene Therapy Translation. She co-founded the Global Gene Therapy Initiative with Dr. Cissy Kityo of the Joint Clinical Research Centre to enable the development of cell and gene therapies in Uganda and other African nations.

In 2021, she co-founded a company, Aurada, Inc., to develop gold nanoparticles for in vivo delivery of genetic therapies for a variety of inherited, infectious and malignant diseases, and was named to the Executive Board of Directors for Caring Cross, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to make gene and cell therapies accessible to resource-limited regions around the world.