Gene and Cell Therapy in Germany

It is a particular pleasure hosting the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) when celebrating its 25th anniversary. Berlin seems to be an ideal place for this anniversary, since the capital of Germany in many ways represents the idea of a unified Europe. This will be the third time in which the two Societies jointly co-organize their annual meeting (1999 in Munich, 2009 in Hannover and 2017 in Berlin). During that time, the Society has changed from the European Working Group on Human Gene Transfer and Therapy to the ESGCT, illustrating that the Society has found its designation as an association of scientists and clinicians working in the different areas of gene and cell therapy.

The German Society for Gene Therapy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gentherapie e.V. [DG-GT e.V.]) was founded in 1994, only two years later than the ESGCT. Since those early days, experts from and in Germany have made important contributions to the progress of our Society and of the whole field of gene and cell therapy. Thus, when Terry Flotte approached us, offering a Special Issue of Human Gene Therapy to present examples of gene and cell therapy research from Germany, we were excited by this idea. We contacted scientists and clinicians as well as companies active in very different fields—from vector development to disease models to immediate translation in biotech. The response was overwhelming, resulting in two instead of the initially planned one Special Issue.

Today, we present the first part of this Special Issue, consisting of six review and six original research articles. It covers several areas representing traditional research foci in Germany, such as hematopoietic stem-cell research, virotherapy, and vector development, as well as novel fascinating areas such as chimeric antigen receptor technology and genetic barcoding.

This and the follow-up issue (expected in December) might serve not only as an illustration of the high-level research in gene and cell therapy in Germany, but also as a demonstration of the great engagement and enthusiasm of the members—European and German—of both our Societies.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our active members for the continuous support of our Society and of the field as a whole. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the authors and in particular the whole team at Human Gene Therapy who have supported us with great commitment and patience.