Welcome to our Gene Therapy Center! 

We are excited to announce that Dr. Jennifer Adair will be joining UMass Chan Medical School (UMMS) as a Professor and Associate Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center (HGTC)! Dr. Adair is a world-leading scientist whose research focuses on isolating stem and immune cell populations, genetically modifying them with cutting-edge CRISPR technology, and then delivering them to patients as a "living drug" as well as using nanoparticles as a platform to deliver gene therapy to patient cells. She is an internationally recognized expert in using these approaches to develop novel treatments for genetic, malignant, and infectious diseases as well as in the advancement of gene therapy vector technologies and manufacturing. 

In addition to her work in the scientific community, Dr. Adair is a leading advocate to improve global healthcare equity and improve access to medicines for patients in developing countries. Along with Dr. Cissy Kityo-Mutuluuza, Dr. Adair established the Global Gene Therapy Initiative working group to overcome barriers to genetic medicine being available to patients in low- and middle-income countries, such as limited resources, lack of infrastructure, and regulations governing international transfer of technologies. Dr. Adair has pioneered an innovative technology platform called “gene therapy in a box” as a portable and low-cost system for manufacturing living drugs to make therapies more globally accessible.

In its 15-year history, the HGTC at UMMS has been a leading institution in the development of recombinant adeno-associated virus-based in vivo gene therapy approaches to treat human disease. As the Associate Director, Dr. Adair will oversee the establishment of an Ex Vivo Gene Therapy and Editing Core and lead the development of lentiviral and nonviral platforms in the HGTC to complement the established expertise of using in vivo approaches. Dr. Adair’s exceptional scientific expertise and leadership will help guide and grow the HGTC as a world-leading center for both in vivo and ex vivo approaches to create new genetic medicines for patients with inherited and acquired diseases.