Talk on Gene and Cell Therapy

Updated on: Monday, December 14, 2009

Inder M Verma, Professor at the Laboratory of Genetics, SALK Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, USA delivered a lecture on “Gene and Cell Therapy:

Medicine of 21st Century” at the University of Hyderabad as part of Distinguished Lecture series.

Prof. Verma explained the ways of introducing genes into the bodies—physical and chemical methods as well as biological methods.

He also explained as to how the viruses act as a vehicle for gene transfer.

He spoke on the introduction of stem cells into the body which can produce proteins and talked about the application of vectors, gene therapy, etc. for the Alzheimer's Disease, Leukaemia and various types of cancers.

He mentioned the various mechanisms relating to combining gene therapy with cell therapy. He gave a brief on the action of Stem cells for correction of genetic difficulty.

Prof. Verma, has made outstanding advances in research ranging from cancer biology to development of gene transfer technologies.

He is one of the world's leading authorities in gene therapy, having developed a gene therapy vector, based on a stripped-down version of HIV, which successfully delivers genes for therapeutic purposes.

His group also studies two genes implicated in familial breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, and recently demonstrated that their action is linked to the cell division cycle, and that BRCA1 regulates gene activity.

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