Making waves in the fight against disease at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ is the ¡¯s (IBR) youngest full-time faculty member, 36-year-old Jesse Owens. Owens, who also earned his PhD in cell and molecular biology from UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹, was awarded $2.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next five years to develop a new, safer and more efficient approach to gene therapy. He leads a team of collaborators from UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯s (JABSOM), MIT and UC Davis.
The $2.3 million grant is significant because it was a first-time submission and received a score in the 1st percentile, higher than 99% of grants submitted from institutions across all 50 states in the U.S.
“Directed evolution of a sequence-specific targeting technology for therapeutic gene delivery to the human genome,” Owens¡¯ grant addresses drawbacks to current genome editing technologies that randomly insert a therapeutic gene, which can disrupt important host genes and potentially cause cancer. Methods like CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a family of DNA sequences in genomes of organisms, are inefficient in non-dividing cells and delivering large DNA cargos. However, the technology that Owens is developing can direct large pieces of DNA to a safe location in the genome that can be used in all body tissues, both dividing and non-dividing, “which will allow us to cure more types of diseases.”
State-of-the-art technology, new gene therapy
“This is an R01, which is the coveted personal grant that people get to do research¡it¡¯s bringing absolutely state-of-the-art technology that he¡¯s inventing to do new gene therapy in Â鶹´«Ã½ and this is why we¡¯re very proud of him,” said IBR Director Steven Ward.
I think the schools here in Â鶹´«Ã½ are underestimated
—Owens
“Not only is he faculty here, he got his PhD here, he was trained here, he was raised on the Big Island,” added Ward. “He¡¯s the product of that and it just shows you that Â鶹´«Ã½ can do some of the world¡¯s greatest biomedical research.”
In addition to the NIH funding, Owens recently signed a sponsored-research agreement with a private company specializing in non-viral gene therapies called SalioGen Therapeutics. The goal of this collaboration is to advance the tools he is developing in the lab into clinical-stage gene therapy candidates.
Born on Â鶹´«Ã½ Island, Owens shares his Hilo High School alma mater with renowned Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, who developed CRISPR gene therapy. He hopes to inspire other children from Â鶹´«Ã½ to pursue a career in science.
“I think the schools here in Â鶹´«Ã½ are underestimated really, but you can succeed coming out of Â鶹´«Ã½, for sure,” Owens said.
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This research is an example of UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.