JSGCT2020

The 26th Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (JSGCT2020)
President　Yoshikazu Yonemitsu, MD, PhD, FAHA
Professor, R&D Laboratory for Innovative Biotherapeutics Science, Kyushu University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences

I am deeply grateful to you for your kindness to the Japan Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (JSGCT). I was recommended as the President of the JSGCT’s 26th Annual Meeting, which will be held in Fukuoka for three days from July 13 to 15, 2020.

The first year of Japan’s newest era, Reiwa, marks thirty years since the world’s first gene therapy trial on ADA deficiency was performed in the United States in May 1989 and 25 years since the JSGT (predecessor of the JSGCT) was established. Gene therapy, which was initially launched to great fanfare, did not demonstrate the desired clinical results and had been plagued by a series of side effects since 1999, including a death at the University of Pennsylvania and the onset of leukemia in a patient with X-linked SCID, and subsequently triggered a slide into a long period of hardship.
While many researchers have abandoned gene therapy, some who believed in its potential persevered in their studies, finally resulting in the approval of Luxturna^® (prescription gene therapy for diseases resulting from mutations on the RPE65 gene) in 2017, Kymriah^® (CAR-T cell therapy) the following year, and Zolgensma^® (gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy) in 2019 in the United States. Today, the spotlight is on prescription gene therapy as a new type of pharmaceutical drug with enormous potential for pharmaceutical companies around the world, and that will be successively streamed into actual clinical settings in the future.

It is during these changing times that we will hold the JSGCT2020, our 26th annual meeting. Through a start with bright future and a multitude of hardships that have happened subsequently, a ray of hope has started to emerge just as we reach the end of the first quarter of a century. In other words, 2020 is the year that JSGCT will stand on the threshold of its 2nd Quarter, a new starting line.

For this reason, we have selected the tagline, “What is the NEXT?”, as the main theme for JSGCT2020. We often hear, “Shouldn’t it be ‘What is next?’”, but we have purposely added the article, “the”, to this phrase to intimate the questions: What is the next breakthrough? The next concept for treatment? The next vector or the next technology? We hope that the presentations at JSGCT2020 will be made with the theme of “the next…” in mind.

Vector technology has already reached maturity, although it is no more than a tool. Shifting away from the conventional concept of treatment of “adding genes”, breakthrough techniques to “treat genes”, such as genome editing, are also coming closer to practical use. And who will be taking on leading roles in the 2nd Quarter of gene and cell therapy? I hope that the younger generation of researchers, in particular, will present their research results. For this reason, we would like for all general presentations to be delivered orally and more time to be allotted for discussions with the introduction of electronic posters.

During the JSGCT2020, the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival will be in full swing in the Hakata. At 4 AM on the last day of the meeting, you will be able to enjoy the thrill of the Oiyama float races on the streets of the city. We look forward to the enthusiastic and heated discussions that will be a perfect match for Hakata’s hot summer days.