W. French Anderson

W. French Anderson is director of Gene Therapy Laboratories and professor of biochemistry and pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Dr. Anderson's research is focused on developing advanced gene therapy delivery systems. Specifically, to design virus-based vectors that can be injected directly into patients in order to accomplish gene trasfer. The long-term goal is to engineer vectors that would target the correct tissue, insert into a safe site in the genome, and be regulated by normal physiological signals. The initial objectives are : a) to study retrovirus/receptor interactions in order to learn how to make retroviral vectors that can target a specific tissue (cancer and hematopoietic stem cells are the initial targets) and b) to study the mechanism of gene regulation in order to optimize the expression of transferred genes in targeted cancer cells and hematopoietic stem cells. His work also includes collaborating with other programs to develop gene therapy clinical protocols for a range of human diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, AIDS, and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, through collaborations, to use gene transfer technology to study a range of problems in immunology including transplantation biology, cancer immunotherapy, and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Anderson holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He has published extensively and holds many Board and Editorial positions, including Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy.