Terence R. Flotte, MD

The Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor
Dean, T.H. Chan School of Medicine
Executive Deputy Chancellor and Provost, UMass Chan Medical School

 

Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, is provost and executive deputy chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. Dr. Flotte joined the Medical School in 2007 from the University of Florida, where he was the Nemours Eminent Scholar and chair of the Department of Pediatrics for the College of Medicine. Flotte received his undergraduate degree in the biological sciences from the University of New Orleans in 1982, and his medical degree from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in 1986. After serving his residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, he completed a pediatric pulmonary fellowship and postdoctoral training in molecular virology there in 1992, before joining the Hopkins faculty for four years.

In 1996, Flotte joined the faculty of the University of Florida and was appointed associate director of University of Florida’s Powell Gene Therapy Center. In 2000, he was named director of the Powell Center and founding director of the newly established University of Florida Genetics Institute, a cross-campus multidisciplinary unit encompassing gene therapy, human genetics, agricultural genetics and comparative genomics. In 2002, he stepped down from these roles to accept the position of chair of the Department of Pediatrics, which he led until joining UMass Chan in 2007.

Since that time, Flotte has led numerous successful initiatives elevating the academic stature of the institution, including establishing the RNA Therapeutics Institute, the Departments of Population & Qualitative Health Sciences, Systems Biology and Genomics & Computational Biology; the establishment of new residencies in neurosurgery, urology, ophthalmology and otolaryngology; recruitment of numerous department chairs; and development of the Advanced Therapeutics Cluster.

During Flotte’s time as dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, class size has increased from 103 to 225; initiated “Learning Communities” for medical students, guided by faculty members; and implemented the Vista curriculum. In 2015, the medical school opened its first regional campus, UMass Chan-Baystate in Springfield, followed in 2024 by the establishment of its second regional campus, UMass Chan-Lahey in Burlington. The research enterprise garners more than $300 million annually.

An internationally known pioneer in human gene therapy, Flotte is currently investigating the use of gene therapy for rare genetic diseases, including alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and Tay-Sachs disease. In 1995, he led the team at Johns Hopkins that became the first to use the apparently harmless adeno-associated virus, or AAV, as a vehicle to deliver corrective genes to targeted sites in the body, including the damaged airways of adults with cystic fibrosis. He is the author of more than 250 scholarly papers and his research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 30 years, and by the Alpha One Foundation. Since 2015, Flotte has also been editor-in-chief of gene therapy’s oldest journal family, Human Gene Therapy. He is currently president-elect of the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy.