Gao Lab in the News

Scientists at UMass Chan Medical School will share their latest research at an inKNOWvation panel discussion, “The Return of Gene Therapy,” on Wednesday, May 11, at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in Cambridge. “When gene therapy was initially talked about, it was a simple concept: replace a bad gene with a good one. The field has become much more complicated as it has advanced,” said Guangping Gao...

Researchers in the lab of Guangping Gao, PhD, have developed a novel gene therapy that cures the rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder Canavan disease in mice and is on track to be brought to clinical trial, according to an April 28 article in Newsweek. “We have the therapy. We are ready,” said Dr. Gao, the Penelope Booth Rockwell Professor in Biomedical Research, professor of microbiology & physiological systems and director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center & Vector Core at UMass Chan Medical School. 

UMass Chan Medical School celebrated the opening of Voyager Therapeutics’ new headquarters in Cambridge yesterday. Voyager is a gene therapy company founded by four world leaders in the fields of AAV (adeno-associated virus) gene therapy, RNA biology and neuroscience to develop life-changing treatments for fatal and debilitating diseases of the central nervous system. UMMS researchers Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, co-director of the RNA Therapeutics Institute, and Guangping Gao, PhD, director of the Gene Therapy Center, are two of the scientific founders.

UMass Chan Medical School recognizes the launch today of Voyager Therapeutics, a gene therapy company founded by four world leaders in the fields of AAV gene therapy, RNA biology and neuroscience, to develop life-changing treatments for fatal and debilitating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). UMMS researchers Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, co-director of the RNA Therapeutics Institute, and Guangping Gao, PhD, director of the Gene Therapy Center, are two of the scientific founders.

UMass Chan Medical School has entered into a research collaboration with pharmaceutical company Lundbeck Inc. aimed at further development of a targeted therapy to slow or halt the progression of Huntington’s disease (HD)...Other UMMS faculty collaborating with Aronin include Guangping Gao, PhD, the Penelope Booth Rockwell Chair in Biomedical Research and professor of microbiology and physiological systems.