Overview

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The Tulane Center for Gene Therapy was formed in July of 2000.

The major aim of the Center is to develop new therapies for a series of common diseases that include osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, Parkinsonism, spinal cord injury, stroke, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The primary strategy of the Center is to use adult stem cells that can easily be obtained from a patient and then used for therapy of the same patient. The Center also provides educational programs for career development, job training and life-long learning of citizens; establish a forum to evaluate the social, legal and ethical implications of gene therapy; and develop commercial applications of gene therapy with an emphasis on commercial developments within the State of Louisiana. The Center is supported by research funds from the federal government via National Institutes of Health grants, from the state of Louisiana via the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium and the Louisiana Board of Regents, from the Tulane University Health Sciences Center, the HCA - Healthcare Company and several private foundations. The Center is a major participant in the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium that includes gene therapy centers at the LSU Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and in Shreveport. The Center has a staff of over 30 with plans to increase the staff to about 50 within the next year or two. The Center is housed in approximately 20,000 sq. ft. of modern laboratory space in the Tulane University Health Sciences Center's J. Bennett Johnston Building, located at 1324 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana and other Tulane owned buildings. In addition, the Center has laboratory space and resources at the Tulane National Primate Research Center.

The therapies being developed by the Center are based on the discoveries that adult stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow can be gene engineered and then potentially used in the same patient to target the genes of the central nervous system, the bones, cartilage and many other tissues. The Center staff is doing research both on the basic biology of adult stem cells and developing procedures for use of the cells in patients with devastating diseases. The Center provides well characterized adult stem cell preparations to academic researchers worldwide, under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

For general information about the Center, contact Dr. Brian Butcher at bbutcher@tulane.edu