Novel treatments for human diseases involve the use of human gene or stem cell therapy. This course will discuss the basics of human stem cells and gene therapy and the status of the current FDA-approved stem cell and gene therapy trials for severe combined immunodeficiency, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, cancer, macular dystrophy, diabetes, and spinal cord injury. TOPICS Human stem cells Characteristics of human stem cells Controversial issues over the derivation of human stem cells Results from FDA-approved human stem cell trials Human gene therapy Approaches for human gene therapy Results from FDA-approved human gene therapy trials INSTRUCTOR(S) Eric Wong is the John W. Hancock Professor of Animal Science in the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech, where, for 31 years, he has taught numerous courses in molecular biology, and in agricultural and human biotechnology.