Advisory Board

The following people have generously agreed to be on the Stop ALD Foundation's Advisory Board:

Click on the names below for more information...
Patrick Aubourg, M.D., Hospital Saint-Vincent de Paul, Paris, France
Jim Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., Institute for Human Gene Therapy

Patrick Aubourg, M.D. Professor of Pediatrics Hospital Saint-Vincent de Paul Paris, France

Dr. Aubourg's clinical specialty is neurology and pediatrics.  He is the team director at the Research Unit INSERM U342.  As well, he is the Director of the Ph.D. program.  His research interests include gene therapy and genetics of neurodegenerative diseases including  adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD).  His main publications include Nature (1), New England Journal of Mediine (2), Lancet (1), Trends in Neuroscience (1), PNAS, (1), Human Gene Therapy, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
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Jim Wilson, M.D., Ph.D Director Institute for Human Gene Therapy Department of Molecular and Cellular Engineering University of Pennsylvania Medical Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Wilson's research focuses on the understanding of basic pathogenesis of human inherited diseases in the development of novel therapies based on somatic gene transfer. One disease model under investigation in his laboratory is cystic fibrosis. Previous work involves characterization of CF gene expression in the human lung, the development of an animal model for CF, and creation of recombinant viruses for lung-directed gene therapy. Current efforts attempt to understand the biology of airway epithelium with respect to development, lineage relationships and stem cells, biogenesis of normal and mutant CFTR, and submucosal gland morphogenesis and function. His attempts to understand the basis for bacterial infection in the CF lung has lead to the discovery of a number of new molecules called human defensins. These are antibiotic peptides secreted by epithelial cells and constitute an important part of innate immunity. A particular interest to the effort in gene therapy for cystic fibrosis is the immunology of in vivo administration of recombinant viruses. Dr. Wilson's laboratory studies specifically the basic cellular and molecular biology of host response to a recombinant virus with the goal of delineating mechanisms of antigen-specific immunity, as well as developing strategies to overcome these potential barriers.

Critical to the success of effective in vivo therapies is the development of viral based vectors. Dr. Wilson's laboratory has taken a broad-based approach to vector development utilizing both DNA and RNA viruses. Substantial efforts have been placed in the study of vectors based on human adenoviruses. Included in this work is the interaction of the vector with the host with respect to antigen and nonantigen specific immune mediated processes. A new area of pursuit is the use of vectors based on lentiviruses. These RNA viruses are capable of transduction in non-diving cells. Initial work is focused on vectors based on HIV, although future studies are moving towards lentiviruses isolated from other species.
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