Abstract
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In keeping with the Society's mandate to train and support young researchers, the ESGCT spring school was launched in 2016. This is the third year this resource has been offered to students by the Society, which changes location by year (the previous spring schools have been held in Hannover, Germany, and Granada, Spain), and partners with the gene therapy society of the host country. For the third staging, the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (BSGCT) partnered with ESGCT to host the event in Oxford, United Kingdom, and ensured that attendance for students was again free of charge. A composite of 150 students from all over Europe descended upon Pembroke College for an intensive 3-day series of lectures and workshops. Experts in a range of gene and cell therapy specialties delivered lectures on the state of their research area. Additions to the program this year included the offering of two new workshops, random stratification of attendees in colored “houses” to foster social networking, and a guided tour of Oxford at the end of the program.
The spring school commenced with participation in the workshops followed by a warm welcome to the main event by ESGCT vice-president Hildegard Büning and LOC chair and BSGCT president Uta Griesenbach. Attendees were also treated to a special opening keynote speech by ESGCT president Robin Ali titled “Gene and cell therapy: progress to date and prospects for the future.” The proceeding lectures were uniquely organized under different themes aimed at highlighting broad topics, including gene delivery tools, cell therapies, success in gene therapy, as well as challenges in the field. There were also additional talks offered such as that of Association Française contre les Myopathies (AFM) represented by Jean-François Briand, where he outlined “How a patient association impacted the boom of gene therapy in rare diseases.” This presentation was the first of its kind in the spring school setting and provided refreshing insights into the field from a patient perspective, as well as acknowledging the power that patients have in helping to shape the work that is carried out by researchers. Additionally, students and presenters alike were also coached in the art of scientific communication, conference networking, and podium speaking by Paul Charlton (German Center for Infection Research, DZIF). Overall, the schedule was well rounded, and provided students with access to a wide breadth of knowledge to which they might not have been previously exposed.
Throughout the schedule, there was an overarching sense of achievement and progress underscored by presenters. Notwithstanding the diversity in presentation styles, charisma, and research dynamics of the various experts, students were kept engaged and were motivated to participate in insightful discussions after each lecture. Although there was a slight dominance of gene therapy talks over cell therapy, this did not abate the significance of both approaches to the field in general. Moreover, it was impressive to see that in just over two decades, there has been an exponential rise in the number of successful clinical trials being conducted, while scientists are still actively working to refine protocols to enhance safety and efficacy of the respective therapies. It was also encouraging that the cadre of leading experts heavily emphasized the benefits of working together versus competing directly. This attitude within the field has paved the way for the formation of international collaborations and consortia, enhancing the accessibility of knowledge and expertise for any given disease target.
In spite of the quantifiable achievements in the field, the inherent expense of translational research means that scientists invariably face the arduous task of maintaining funding for their programs. Hence, the generation of spin-off companies and start-ups stemming from academic preclinical successes in gene and cell therapy has allowed investment into clinical translation that academic groups are less likely to amass. This presence of commercial investment will inevitably speed up the translation of therapies to the clinic and thus benefit patients. One upshot of the significant commercial interest in the field is that PhD students and postdoctoral researchers involved in gene therapy are highly sought-after candidates in the industrial setting. This is an encouraging development. However, the field should be careful to avoid a disproportionate brain drain away from academia. The onus is on academic institutions to motivate students actively to explore career progression opportunities internally, and to ensure that principal investigators are retained within their institutions. In the coming years, it will also be important for the ESGCT to play a leading role in ensuring that a healthy balance between industrial and academic opportunities is maintained for its members. While the Society has exemplified the need for public engagement as a platform for education and sought to provide training opportunities for students, it may also fall on the Society to advocate for additional academic funding streams, from disease-specific foundations, national funding bodies, or from partnerships with relevant commercial operations, in order to keep up with the rising interest in gene and cell therapy research.
In the past 26 years, ESGCT and its members have played a crucial role in making gene therapy a clinical reality. The dividends are starting to pay off, and it is now incumbent upon the Society to foster the next generation to see that in the coming years, gene and cell therapy continues to expand, in scope, safety, and, most importantly, therapeutic efficacy. In doing so, there has to be a process of continuous evaluation of the field within the medical—and by extension global—context, so that competence is ensured to meet the demands of this evolving body of research. A key aspect to be considered is the dedication of greater resources to scientific and interdisciplinary training for young researchers. By providing educational resources such as the spring school, ESGCT can aid the personal development of students, thus increasing their ability to contribute to the field. Admittedly, there is still much left to be done, but ESGCT alongside other national societies have to be commended for the contributions they have made to date, in addition to their ongoing work to enable gene and cell therapy to “spring forward” into mainstream medicine.