{"id":140980,"date":"2021-05-09T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=140980"},"modified":"2021-05-10T15:20:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T01:20:19","slug":"faculty-alum-gene-therapy-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/09\/faculty-alum-gene-therapy-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"$2.3M<\/abbr> boost puts Hawai\u02bbi gene therapy research on the map"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Jessee
Jesse Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making waves in the fight against disease at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is the Institute for Biogenesis Research<\/a>\u2019s (IBR<\/abbr>) youngest full-time faculty member, 36-year-old Jesse Owens<\/strong>. Owens, who also earned his PhD<\/abbr> in cell and molecular biology from UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, was awarded $2.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH<\/abbr>) 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<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM<\/abbr>), MIT<\/abbr> and UC<\/abbr> Davis. <\/p>\n

\"owens<\/p>\n

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.<\/abbr><\/p>\n

“Directed evolution of a sequence-specific targeting technology for therapeutic gene delivery to the human genome,” Owens\u2019 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<\/abbr> (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a family of DNA<\/abbr> sequences in genomes of organisms, are inefficient in non-dividing cells and delivering large DNA<\/abbr> cargos. However, the technology that Owens is developing can direct large pieces of DNA<\/abbr> 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.” <\/p>\n

State-of-the-art technology, new gene therapy<\/h2>\n

“This is an R01<\/abbr>, which is the coveted personal grant that people get to do research\u2026it\u2019s bringing absolutely state-of-the-art technology that he\u2019s inventing to do new gene therapy in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and this is why we\u2019re very proud of him,” said IBR<\/abbr> Director Steven Ward<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I think the schools here in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> are underestimated
—Owens<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Not only is he faculty here, he got his PhD<\/abbr> here, he was trained here, he was raised on the Big Island,” added Ward. “He\u2019s the product of that and it just shows you that Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> can do some of the world\u2019s greatest biomedical research.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the NIH<\/abbr> 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.<\/p>\n

Born on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island, Owens shares his Hilo High School alma mater with renowned Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, who developed CRISPR<\/abbr> gene therapy. He hopes to inspire other children from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to pursue a career in science.<\/p>\n

“I think the schools here in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> are underestimated really, but you can succeed coming out of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, for sure,” Owens said.<\/p>\n

Read more on the JABSOM<\/abbr> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This research is an example of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/small>), one of four goals identified in the 2015\u201325 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/small>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The R01<\/abbr> National Institutes of Health grant will help to develop a new, safer and more efficient approach to gene therapy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[679,910,598,31,1467,1363,9],"class_list":["post-140980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-cell-and-molecular-biology","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140980"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141013,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140980\/revisions\/141013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}