gene therapy

noun, Medicine/Medical
1.
the application of genetic engineering to the transplantation of genes into human cells in order to cure a disease caused by a genetic defect, as a missing enzyme.
Compare gene transfer.
Origin
1970-75
Examples from the web for gene therapy
  • The first makes sense, the second less so-particularly when it comes to gene therapy.
  • Do you want to try and cure some rare form of cancer, or a develop new gene therapy to cure a common but non fatal disease.
  • gene therapy has not advance in the spectacular ways that were promised.
  • But as in gene therapy, immune reactions are a major problem.
  • In practice, gene therapy remains difficult and the methods crude.
  • For example, a general trend in biomedicine is to use viral vectors in gene therapy.
  • It is possible that this could actually work, through gene therapy.
  • That's arguably what happened with gene therapy, a field still escaping from the legacy of a few early and rare tragedies.
  • gene therapy may be a distant dream for humans, but for rodents the future is now.
  • For years scientists doing gene therapy have had to rely on viruses to do their heavy lifting.
British Dictionary definitions for gene therapy

gene therapy

noun
1.
the replacement or alteration of defective genes in order to prevent the occurrence of such inherited diseases as haemophilia. Effected by genetic engineering techniques, it is still at the experimental stage
gene therapy in Medicine

gene therapy n.
A technique for the treatment of genetic disease in which a gene that is absent or defective is replaced by a healthy gene.

gene therapy in Science
gene therapy  
The treatment of a disorder or disease, especially one caused by the inheritance of a defective gene, by replacing defective genes with healthy ones through genetic engineering.
gene therapy in Culture

gene therapy definition


A promising technology that involves replacing a defective gene in the body with a healthy one. This can be done by removing cells from the body, using genetic engineering techniques to change defective sequences in the DNA, and then reinserting the cells. This technique has been carried out successfully, for example, on bone marrow cells, in which defective cells were successfully replaced with healthy, genetically engineered cells. Scientists hope to find an agent, such as a therapeutic virus, that will be able to correct defective DNA in situ. (See cloning vector.)