Bringing Gene Therapy to the Table | Dr. Jennifer Adair | TEDxNashvilleSalon 

Gene therapy is changing how we treat diseases such as HIV and cancer, but only in a few places around the globe. Listen to a gene therapist discuss patient stories that inspired creative solutions to globalizing this next generation of gene therapy treatments. In her Seattle lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Dr. Jennifer Adair leads a team of scientists to find ways to correct genetic code to prevent diseases such as HIV and cancer. But the cutting-edge therapy has a problem: it can only be done in high-tech, sterile labs that exist in just a handful of clinics in elite, developed countries. To make it accessible and affordable worldwide, Adair developed a mobile “gene therapy in a box” technique by combining commercially available technologies with practical molecular and cell biology approaches and then proved the method can be delivered in resource-constrained clinics. Adair’s scrappy point of view comes from her everyday experience in leveraging available resources to meet a diverse set of needs. At age 19, she was newly married and a new mom. With the help of her family, a corporate scholarship and the U.S. welfare system, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and then a PhD in genetics and cell biology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx