Dr Uta Griesenbach

Uta Griesenbach is Reader in Molecular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute.  She joined the Department of Gene Therapy, NHLI, in 1997 having earlier graduated from the University of Bonn (Germany) with a First Class degree and having completed a PhD degree at the University of Toronto (Canada).

Since joining Imperial College in 1997, Dr Griesenbach's research has focussed on gene therapy, mainly but not exclusively related to cystic fibrosis (CF). As part of this work she has gained substantial experience in viral and non-viral in vivo gene transfer to lung and myocardium in a variety of in vivo models (mice, ferrets, sheep). In 2002, her group, together with a group in Oxford and a group in Edinburgh (all previously competing with each other) formed the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium with a clear "mission statement" aimed at assessing if gene transfer to airway epithelium can ameliorate clinically relevant endpoints in the CF lung. The formation of the UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium brought together approximately 80 scientists, clinicians, nurses, technicians and clinical trial organisers with an annual budget of approximately £3 M. Dr Griesenbach is a member of the Consortium strategy group (total of 8 people from 3 sites) who directs research and finances for the Consortium.

The formation of the Consortium required significant restructuring of research efforts to avoid duplication across the three sites and increase efficiency of research. To date, the Consortium works more like a small biotech company than a traditional academic research group. There are clearly defined translational research programme with well defined milestones. In 2005, the Consortium identified its leading wave 1 gene transfer vector, a cationic lipid. Since then, it has worked hard to get the approval for using the vector in a clinical trial, which has started in early 2009. While the clinical trial is ongoing the Consortium is working up two additional wave 2 vectors, in case the wave 1 vector is not as efficient as required. Dr Griesenbach is responsible for the development of one of the wave 2 vectors, an integrating lentivirus, which shows great promise in pre-clinical studies.