Report from the 2nd Stem Cell Clonality and Genotoxicity Retreat

Abstract

The 2nd Stem Cell Clonality and Genotoxicity Retreat was held June 1, 2005, on the eve of the 8th annual meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy in St. Louis. The meeting was organized by David Williams, Chris Baum and Christof von Kalle of Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The immense popularity of the meeting was a testament to the strong interest on the part of the gene therapy community in the topic of insertional mutagenesis and the effects of retroviral insertion on hematopoiesis. Of course, the impetus for this retreat was the need and desire to gain a better understanding of the mechanism behind the cases of insertional mutagenesis leading to leukemogenesis in patients with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) who were treated with hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) genetically modified by retroviral transduction [1,2].