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Terence R. Flotte, MD

Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, Dean of School of Medicine
Provost and Executive Deputy Chancellor

"This is an exciting time to be pursuing a career in medicine and applying to the University of Massachusetts Medical School"

About the Dean

Since joining UMass Medical School in 2007, Dean Flotte has led numerous successful initiatives elevating the academic stature of the institution, including establishing the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences; establishment of neurosurgery, urology and ophthalmology as academic departments; recruitment of numerous department chairs; and development of the Advanced Therapeutics Cluster. During Flotte’s time as dean of the School of Medicine, class size has increased from 103 to 162; a revised curriculum has been developed and implemented including “Learning Communities” guided by faculty mentors. in 2016, the medical school opened its first regional campus in Springfield, Mass. The research enterprise of the institution has grown to more than $280 million and a new 512,000-square-foot multiuse facility was built to accommodate the growing clinical and translational research laboratories as well as provide a new educational home for faculty and students.

An internationally known pioneer in human gene therapy, Flotte is currently investigating the use of gene therapy for 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 and the Alpha One Foundation. Since 2015, Flotte has also been editor-in-chief of gene therapy’s oldest journal family, Human Gene Therapy.

Oct 25, 2019

WBUR reports on early results for gene therapy trial for two young children with Tay-Sachs disease

Two young children with Tay-Sachs disease were treated safely at UMass Memorial Medical Center with a gene therapy developed at UMass Medical School and, in one case, the child’s condition has stabilized, according to an interview published by WBUR with Terence R. Flotte, MD.
Oct 23, 2019

First evidence of clinical stabilization in Tay-Sachs presented at European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Congress

Preliminary data from an expanded access study of an investigational gene therapy in two patients with infantile Tay-Sachs disease indicates the potential to modify the rate of disease progression, according to a recent report presented in Barcelona by Terence R. Flotte, MD.
Mar 25, 2019

Chancellor Collins, colleagues propose reforms to medical residency matching program

Reforms are needed to ensure the integrity of the medical residency program selection process, according to commentary in the journal Academic Medicine by Chancellor Michael F. Collins and colleagues at UMass Medical School.
Nov 6, 2018

Blu Genes Foundation gives UMMS $1.4M to bring Tay-Sachs gene therapy to clinical trial

The Toronto-based Blu Genes Foundation, which is dedicated to developing gene therapies for rare disease, has given $1.4 million to UMass Medical School to advance a Phase I/II clinical trial for Tay-Sachs. Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, Terence Flotte, MD, Heather Gray-Edwards, PhD, DVM, and colleagues at Auburn University are leading the research.
Nov 14, 2017

AAMC: No tolerance for sexual harassment in academic medicine

Dean Terence R. Flotte served as senior author on a call to action published in Academic Medicine, titled, “It is time for zero tolerance for sexual harassment in academic medicine.”
Oct 11, 2017

UMass Medical School announces The Li Weibo (李伟波) Institute for Rare Diseases Research

A new institute for rare diseases research at UMass Medical School will build on the school’s already substantial accomplishments in the fields of gene therapy, RNA biology and RNAi technology to accelerate the development of novel therapeutics for a host of disorders.
Sep 26, 2017

Terence Flotte, Guangping Gao attend International Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Drugs in China

Terence R. Flotte, MD, and Guangping Gao, PhD, attended the 12th Annual International Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Drugs in Bejing, China.
Jun 6, 2017

Data show five-year response for AAT deficiency gene therapy

Data demonstrating sustained protein expression five years after a single intramuscular injection of a gene-based therapy for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency also shows improvements in multiple indicators of AAT biological activity. The study, led by Dean Terence R. Flotte, appears in the June issue of Molecular Therapy.
Feb 16, 2017

Dean Flotte delivers 221st Annual Oration to Worcester District Medical Society

Terence R. Flotte, MD, delivered the Worcester District Medical Society’s 221st Annual Oration, “A Glass (more than) Half Full: Top Ten Reasons to Be Optimistic About the Next 220 Years of Medicine in Worcester,” on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Beechwood Hotel.
Aug 25, 2016

Safe-opioid prescribing working group details success in AAMC journal Academic Medicine

Terence R. Flotte, MD, and colleagues from the Medical Education Working Group published a paper in the AAMC journal American Medicine about the collaboration to develop cross-institutional core competences for the prevention and management of prescription drug misuse.