Newsweek: The Innovators

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In 1989, the frontiers of genetic therapy expanded when researchers treated a dying cancer patient with genetically altered cells.  In theory, genetic therapy could introduce cells that would perform the functions that the body needed but wasn’t supplying.  For our package on “Innovators,” I profiled a scientist at the National Institutes of Health named W. French Anderson, one of the world’s pioneers of gene therapy.  Taped to his office was a sign one of his colleagues had put up:  “That was a small step for a gene, but a giant leap for genetics.”

(A pathetic postscript to Anderson’s scientific achievements:  he was convicted of child molestation charges in 2006.)