John F. Engelhardt, Ph.D., is a leading expert in the area of submucosal gland biology, as well as in gene therapy of cystic fibrosis and other genetic diseases. He directs the center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis and Other Genetic Diseases and is an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Iowa.

Over the past 8 years, Dr. Englehardt has published 57 research articles in peer-reviewed journals. He currently is principle investigator of five National Institutes of Health grants, including one for a large cystic fibrosis center, and has two grants from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He has served as an ad hoc reviewer for over 10 scientific journals and currently is a member of a NIH study section. Over the past five years, he has mentored five graduate students and nine postdoctoral associates.

About the lecture

"Gene Therapy with DNA viruses in the 21st century: A walk through the past and look into the future."
"Gene therapy is quickly becoming a reality of molecular medicine. Over the past decade, research had focused on engineering efficacious vectors for gene delivery, which provide prolonged persistence of transgenes in vivo in the absence of immune responses. Innumerable barriers to gene transfer in vivo are increasingly being delineated, and methods of overcoming these obstacles are now a reality. Recombinant adenovirus and adeno-associated virus are two examples of vectors currently being used successfully in the design of gene therapies for many inherited and acquired disorders.

Studies evaluation mechanisms of adeno-associated virus transduction have uncovered several key features which will greatly increase the utility of this vector system for gene therapy of inherited diseases. Although gene therapy for inherited and acquired disorders had exploded in the last decade, the application of gene therapeutic approaches for transient pathological conditions resulting from environmental stress is just beginning to be recognized."

Quoted from the 1999 Philip C. and Ethel F. Ashby Lecture Announcement Brochure.