Dr. Jennifer Adair inaugural recipient of the Fleischauer Family Endowed Chair in Gene Therapy Translation

Dr. Jennifer Adair, research associate professor (Medical Oncology) is the inaugural recipient of the Fleischauer Family Endowed Chair in Gene Therapy Translation at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The new endowed chair will help advance Dr. Adair’s research, which focuses on developing safe, cost-effective gene therapies that can be delivered worldwide.

Adair has spent years researching ways to help gene therapy go global. In 2016, Adair’s team developed a portable “gene therapy in a box” device that could produce genetically modified blood stem cells without the need for multimillion-dollar clean rooms. More recently, Adair and her team developed a gold nanoparticle to deliver very precise DNA edits into blood stem cells. This technology could greatly simplify delivery of gene therapy and could pave the way for global availability.

The Fleischauer family decided to create the endowed chair to support Adair’s work and help ensure that the cutting-edge therapies developed at the Hutch are not only curative, but accessible as well.