Binghamton University Professor Receives $1.9M Award to Address Gene Therapy Challenges

A professor at The State University of New York at Binghamton has received a five-year, $1.9M Maximizing Investigators&rsquo; Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators (ESI) to address a major challenge related to genetic therapies. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences&nbsp;Kuo-Ching (KC) Mei&nbsp;will lead a team on ways to tackle immunity barriers in delivering genetic medicines to patients.
Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) vectors are commonly used in delivering gene therapy. Gene therapy with AAVs has demonstrated safety and long-term efficacy in multiple trials. However, immune responses that limit durable therapeutic gene expression and cause clinically significant inflammation in the patient remain a major barrier to broadly successful development of AAV-based human gene therapies