The standpoint of gene therapy programs.

The 10th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy focused on the development of a wide variety of gene delivery systems, clinical trials, preclinical studies, problems related to gene expression, engineering of cell and animal models for the study of various pathological conditions, immunogenicity of adenoviral-derived vectors and use of gene transfer technology for genetic immunization purposes. A major emphasis was placed on the improvement of vector design and safety issues, such as insertional mutagenesis and host immune responses to gene delivery systems.