Vectorized antibodies are taking gene therapy beyond rare disease

After long being considered irrelevant for cancers, infectious diseases and large inflammatory conditions, gene therapy is increasingly seen as a promising treatment modality for these indications — in the form of vectorized antibodies. This year’s ASGCT meeting brought several new vectorized antibody designs.

Use of gene therapy has traditionally been restricted to rare genetic diseases, where viral vectors deliver a functional copy of the gene that’s lost or mutated in the disease to restore expression, thereby treating the underlying disease pathology...