Creating Lower Cost, Accessible Cell & Gene Therapies: Jen Adair on The Long Run

Jen Adair is today’s guest on The Long Run.

Jen is a professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Genetic and Cellular Medicine, and Associate Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Her laboratory develops tools and methods for safe and effective delivery of gene therapy.

Jen Adair, professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Genetic and Cellular Medicine, and Associate Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

In this conversation, you’ll hear about Jen’s rise from humble beginnings to the top echelon of biomedical science. I think it’s fair to say that reducing the cost and expanding the access to these groundbreaking cell and gene therapies is the next major generational challenge for the field – and that Jen is one of the people in the trenches seeking to make it happen.

I’ve known Jen for years, going back to her time at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She participated in an Everest Base Camp trek I organized for cancer research in 2022. She is currently training for Summits for Sickle Cell. It’s a series of challenging high-altitude hikes in Colorado in late September 2025, to benefit Sickle Forward. It’s the same nonprofit I supported with a Timmerman Traverse on Kilimanjaro in 2024.

Listeners who want to support Jen and Sickle Forward can donate to her Summits for Sickle Cell campaign.

Please join me for a thought-provoking and inspiring conversation with Jen Adair on The Long Run.