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Dr. Inder Verma |
Scientific Advisory Board |
Inder M. Verma, a professor in the laboratory of Genetics and American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology, is one the world's leading authorities on the development of viruses for gene therapy vectors. Dr. Verma uses genetically engineered viruses to insert new genes into cells that can then be returned to the body, where they produce the essential protein whose absence causes disease.
Dr. Verma and Salk Colleagues developed a gene therapy vector, based on a stripped-down version of HIV, a lentiviral vector, that can deliver genes to non-dividing cells, which constitute the majority of cells in our bodies. They have used this vector successfully to deliver clotting factor gene to laboratory animals and to transfer a therapeutic gene to retinal cells to mice with an inborn deficiency. Dr. Verma's group is also studying two genes implicated in familial breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, and recently demonstrated that their action is linked to the cells division cycle and that BRCA1 regulates gene activity.
Dr. Verma serves on the board of directors of Celgene (NASD: CELG) and is chairman of the Biotech Advisory Committee reporting to the prime minister of India.
Education:
M Sc., Biochemistry Luckow University, India Ph.D.,
Biochemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Postdoctoral fellow, Biology, (with David Baltimore), MIT.
Awards and honors:
NIH Outstanding Investigator, 1988.
The Third World Academy of Sciences. National Academy of Sciences. March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Franklin D. Roosevelt Investigator, 1997.
Institute of Medicine.
President American Society for Gene Therapy 2000-2001 |
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