Express Delivery For Genes
Scientists' hopes for success in treating cancer with gene therapy soared upward this year with the development of better ways to use viruses for gene delivery. Past efforts to uses viruses as gene carriers -- called vectors -- have failed, says David Curiel, M.D., director of UAB's Gene Therapy Center.
"We have developed an advanced-generation virus to carry the payload for cancer treatment. It involves a radical conceptual shift in strategy by fundamentally changing the way the vector sees and enters the target. This dramatically improves the vector's efficiency and its specificity for tumor cells."
National Cancer Institute funding will allow the first-ever use of this new class of vectors in humans in clinical trials of head-and-neck cancer. Contact Hank Black, Media Relations, 205-934-8938 or [email protected].
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