William French Anderson
Encyclopedia
William French Anderson, M.D.
(born December 31, 1936) is a U.S.
physician
, geneticist
and molecular biologist
. He is considered a pioneer of gene therapy
. He graduated from Harvard College
in 1958 and from Harvard Medical School
in 1963. In 1990, he claimed to be the first person ever to succeed in gene therapy
of a 4-year-old girl suffering from SCID
(a form of an immuno-deficiency disorder called "bubble boy disease"). His claims may have been exaggerated, albeit, he was not alone. In 2006, he was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, the daughter of an employee, and in 2007 was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a journalist, writer and university professor. According to his biography, he stuttered. He eventually overcame his impediment and was recognized for his performance in track, theater, and debate. Anderson was a 1954 graduate of Tulsa Central High School
.
, where he excelled, becoming a track star and publishing several papers, including one outlining a method for arithmetic operations using Roman numerals. His school teacher had written a letter to the Harvard classics department and Prof. Sterling Dow arranged that the Oklahoma school boy be admitted to Harvard College and a freshman's paper published in Classical Philology (51, 1956). Following a year abroad in Cambridge, where he met his future wife Kathy Duncan, he returned to Harvard, to the Medical School, accompanied by Kathy. They married in 1961 and both graduated a few years later.
Dr. Anderson was employed by the National Institutes of Health
, beginning a search to find ways to repair defective genes. Using microinjection
methods, the approach was slow and inefficient. After abandoning this approach, his contributions to this field were non-existent until, in 1984, Richard Mulligan of MIT published a method to insert genes by using a retrovirus
. Dr. Anderson wanted to test this theory with a human disease. In 1988 his proposal to the Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee was denied, however his request for a hearing before the full committee proceeded, and the trial was approved.
In May 1989 he conducted the first human safety test for gene therapy, a harmless marker injected into a 53 year old man. A year later a therapeutic trial was begun, to replace a defective ADA gene in a 4-year old girl. In 2007, at the age of 21, she was stable, but still had to take regular medication. The scientific consensus on this gene therapy trial was mixed, but there is no question that his work had great impact on the emerging field.
He joined the University of Southern California
faculty in 1992 and was the director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the Keck School of Medicine
and was a professor of biochemistry and pediatrics.
He was the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy.
of a minor. He was convicted and jailed on July 19, 2006 of three counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14 for the years 1997 through 2001 and one count of continuous sexual abuse. On February 2, 2007, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $68,000 in restitution, fines, and fees; he had faced a maximum of 18 years for molesting the now 19-year-old girl, the daughter of his colleague, in his home when she was 10 to 15 years old. The jury was shown reconstructed e-mails and played an edited tape-recorded single conversation where the girl angrily confronted Anderson, who said, "I just did it, just something in me was just evil."
Following conviction, Anderson was stripped of tenure, fired from his faculty position and barred from the campus of his university.
In February, 2005 Anderson was also charged in Montgomery County, Maryland
with molesting a Silver Spring, Maryland
boy for three years in the 1980s. Prosecutors dropped those charges, citing insufficient evidence under Maryland law and credibility of the witness.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
(born December 31, 1936) is a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
and molecular biologist
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
. He is considered a pioneer of gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
. He graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1958 and from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in 1963. In 1990, he claimed to be the first person ever to succeed in gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
of a 4-year-old girl suffering from SCID
Severe combined immunodeficiency
Severe combined immunodeficiency , is a genetic disorder in which both "arms" of the adaptive immune system are impaired due to a defect in one of several possible genes. SCID is a severe form of heritable immunodeficiency...
(a form of an immuno-deficiency disorder called "bubble boy disease"). His claims may have been exaggerated, albeit, he was not alone. In 2006, he was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, the daughter of an employee, and in 2007 was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Childhood
Anderson was born in Tulsa, OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a journalist, writer and university professor. According to his biography, he stuttered. He eventually overcame his impediment and was recognized for his performance in track, theater, and debate. Anderson was a 1954 graduate of Tulsa Central High School
Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Central High School is the oldest high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1906 as Tulsa High School, and located in downtown Tulsa until 1976. The school now has a campus in northwest Tulsa. Tulsa Central is part of the Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma's largest school district, and is a...
.
Career
He entered Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he excelled, becoming a track star and publishing several papers, including one outlining a method for arithmetic operations using Roman numerals. His school teacher had written a letter to the Harvard classics department and Prof. Sterling Dow arranged that the Oklahoma school boy be admitted to Harvard College and a freshman's paper published in Classical Philology (51, 1956). Following a year abroad in Cambridge, where he met his future wife Kathy Duncan, he returned to Harvard, to the Medical School, accompanied by Kathy. They married in 1961 and both graduated a few years later.
Dr. Anderson was employed by the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
, beginning a search to find ways to repair defective genes. Using microinjection
Microinjection
Microinjection refers to the process of using a glass micropipette to insert substances at a microscopic or borderline macroscopic level into a single living cell. It is a simple mechanical process in which a needle roughly 0.5 to 5 micrometers in diameter penetrates the cell membrane and/or the...
methods, the approach was slow and inefficient. After abandoning this approach, his contributions to this field were non-existent until, in 1984, Richard Mulligan of MIT published a method to insert genes by using a retrovirus
Retrovirus
A retrovirus is an RNA virus that is duplicated in a host cell using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome. The DNA is then incorporated into the host's genome by an integrase enzyme. The virus thereafter replicates as part of the host cell's DNA...
. Dr. Anderson wanted to test this theory with a human disease. In 1988 his proposal to the Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee was denied, however his request for a hearing before the full committee proceeded, and the trial was approved.
In May 1989 he conducted the first human safety test for gene therapy, a harmless marker injected into a 53 year old man. A year later a therapeutic trial was begun, to replace a defective ADA gene in a 4-year old girl. In 2007, at the age of 21, she was stable, but still had to take regular medication. The scientific consensus on this gene therapy trial was mixed, but there is no question that his work had great impact on the emerging field.
He joined the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
faculty in 1992 and was the director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the Keck School of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of USC
The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California is a major center of medical research, education and patient care. Founded in 1885, the Keck School of Medicine is the oldest medical school in Southern California.Located on the university’s Health Sciences campus three miles ...
and was a professor of biochemistry and pediatrics.
He was the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy.
Sexual abuse conviction
Anderson was arrested on July 30, 2004, on allegations of sexual abuseSexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
of a minor. He was convicted and jailed on July 19, 2006 of three counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14 for the years 1997 through 2001 and one count of continuous sexual abuse. On February 2, 2007, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $68,000 in restitution, fines, and fees; he had faced a maximum of 18 years for molesting the now 19-year-old girl, the daughter of his colleague, in his home when she was 10 to 15 years old. The jury was shown reconstructed e-mails and played an edited tape-recorded single conversation where the girl angrily confronted Anderson, who said, "I just did it, just something in me was just evil."
Following conviction, Anderson was stripped of tenure, fired from his faculty position and barred from the campus of his university.
In February, 2005 Anderson was also charged in Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
with molesting a Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
boy for three years in the 1980s. Prosecutors dropped those charges, citing insufficient evidence under Maryland law and credibility of the witness.
Trivia
- Anderson was runner-up for Time magazine's 1995 Man of the YearPerson of the YearPerson of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."- History :The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year...
. - King Faisal International Prize for Medicine 1994
- Anderson holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do
Further reading
- Burke, Bob and Barry Epperson, W. French Anderson: Father of Gene Therapy, Oklahoma Heritage Association (2003) ISBN 1-885596-25-1
- Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner, Altered Fates: Gene Therapy and the Retooling of Human Life, W. W. Norton & Company (1995) ISBN 0-393035-96-4