During the 2017 Annual Conference of American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy held in Washington D.C., capital of the U.S., Mr. Gao Guangping, professor of the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy (West China Hospital, Sichuan University), was elected as President of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. He is the first Chinese president who lives in America in the history of the Society.

The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy is reportedly the largest and the most authoritative professional society of the world in the field of gene and cell therapy, which was founded in 1996 under the leadership of Prof. George Stamatoyannopoulos, a notable gene therapy research expert of the UW School of Medicine, with the aim of facilitating the development of relevant knowledge, understanding and education, in an effort to accelerate the fundamental researches and clinical application of human disease gene and cell therapy. Currently, it boasts nearly 2400 experts from the U.S. and all over the world, showing significant academic influences in the field of international gene and cell therapy.

Prof. Gao Guangping is the tenured chair professor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the director of the HORAE Gene Therapy Center of University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the editor-in-chief of magazine Human Gene Therapy, acting as one of the leaders in the field of current global gene therapy. Graduated from the West China College of Pharmacy, SCU, in 1982, he has engaged in gene therapy research over 20 years, especially he has made great achievements in the field of the gene therapy and research of AAV (adeno-associated virus). In cooperation with Prof. James Wilson, a pioneer of global gene therapy, and prof. Wei Yuquan, Academician of SCU, they has discovered nearly 1000 new-type AAV successively, part of which have been extensively used in targeted gene therapy and research.

Moreover, Prof. Gao Guangping has established several Sino-American international cooperation programs, selected and sent about 80 students from Chinese medical colleges and universities to the clinical hospitals of American famous medical schools' for front-line clinical skills training, selected and sent over 20 scientists engaged in fundamental and translational medicine research, including Prof. Craig Mello, Winner of Nobel Prize, to seven top laboratories in University of Massachusetts Medical School; Mr. Gao has also recommended many excellent domestic students and young scholars to the U.S. for further study, and assisted in convening the conferences like the biennial Sino-American gene and cell therapy international academic conference in SCU, making great contribution to the University’s academic communications, scientific researches, and talents cultivations, etc.