Gene Therapy Enters New Success Story Online

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Amsterdam, 17 September 2008

Summary:
Scattered gene therapy information collected on comprehensive website.

PressReleasePoint:
Gene therapy was born with the successful treatment of a four-year old patient suffering from severe combined immunodeficiency in 1990. Thirteen years later the first commercial gene therapy medicine was available on the market in China. The field of gene therapy is growing extremely fast. Researchers experience that it is hard to keep up with new developments, whereas patients have difficulties to find suitable clinical trials to participate in. With the launch of a new online portal this year, relevant gene therapy information is now collected on a comprehensive website.

Gene Therapy Net (www.genetherapynet.com) is the information resource for basic and clinical research in gene therapy, cell therapy, and genetic vaccines, and the site serves as a network in the exchange of information and news related to above areas. The visitors of Gene Therapy Net are professionals, doctors and researchers, as well as students, patients, regulatory affairs officers, government policy officers, and everyone else interested in gene therapy.

Researchers and other gene therapy professionals can keep track of the latest published scientific papers, conference announcements, gene therapy jobs and breaking news items. Gene Therapy Net also provides a full list of gene therapy companies, research centers and international gene therapy societies. Furthermore, the website presents an overview for sponsors and researchers of the different (inter)national regulations and guidelines (i.e. FDA, EMEA) associated with clinical gene therapy trials. Patients have access to a general section explaining the concept of gene therapy, including a glossary and several video tutorials. Convinient links are included to patient organizations and clinical gene therapy trials. The information on Gene Therapy Net is updated frequently, whereas news items and online research papers are constantly refreshed via RSS news feeds.

Gene therapy is an experimental treatment that involves introducing genetic material (genes) into a person’s cells to fight or prevent disease. In most gene therapy studies, a normal gene is inserted into the body to correct an abnormal gene that is causing disease. Getting the gene into the body tissues where it is needed is a challenging and complex problem that researchers are trying to solve. Researchers are studying gene therapy for a number of diseases, such as severe combined immunodeficiency, blindness, hemophilia, Parkinson's disease, cancer and even HIV.