Dr. Gloria González Aseguinolaza at MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosts Spanish scientist Dr. Gloria González-Aseguinolaza, a gene therapy expert for rare hereditary diseases, to discuss her research on the liver’s to treat inherited diseases.

In her seminar titled Targeting the Second Largest Organ in the Human Body to Fix Inherited Diseases, Dr. González Aseguinolaza will discuss innovative gene therapy approaches. She will focus on strategies for addressing inherited diseases by targeting the liver, which is the second largest organ in the body, after the skin. This presentation will offer valuable insights into current research and future directions in the field, followed by a Q&A session. This seminar is intended for faculty, students, and researchers in related fields.

Dr. Gloria González

Dr. Gloria González-Aseguinolaza is a prominent leader in the field of gene therapy, currently serving as the Director of the Gene Therapy Program for Rare Diseases and the Principal Investigator of the Advanced Therapies for Rare Liver Diseases group at CIMA. She is also the Coordinator of the Advanced Therapies and Diagnostic Innovation Area at the Navarra Health Research Institute (IdisNA) and the Co-founder and Scientific Director of Vivet Therapeutics.

González-Aseguinolaza holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of the Basque Country and completed her Ph.D. at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Her doctoral research took place at the Centre for Biological Research of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). After earning her Ph.D., she collaborated with renowned researchers Dr. Ruth Nussenzweig and Dr. Moriya Tsuji at New York University, focusing on malaria research. After three and a half years in the U.S., she returned to Spain to join the Department of Gene Therapy and Hepatology.

From 2014 to 2019, she directed the gene therapy and gene expression regulation program at CIMA. In November 2018, she was appointed Deputy Director of CIMA, and in September 2022, she became the Director of Innovation and Transfer.

Her research areas include gene therapy for rare hereditary diseases, the development of gene therapy vectors, and strategies to modulate immune responses. She also creates animal models for viral hepatitis and studies host-parasite interactions. González-Aseguinolaza has played a key role in coordinating the Horizon 2020 AIPGENE project, which successfully led to the first clinical trial of gene therapy for a hereditary metabolic liver disease.

As an academic, she has supervised over 20 undergraduate and master’s theses, as well as 16 doctoral dissertations. She has also served as faculty in various master’s programs related to advanced therapies and hereditary metabolic diseases. She has authored more than 110 scientific articles in international journals and presented over 100 communications at national and international conferences.

Additionally, she is a co-inventor on 20 patents, some of which have been licensed to biotechnology companies. Her collaborations include partnerships with organizations such as uniQure, Viralgene, and Askbio. Dr. González-Aseguinolaza is actively involved in several scientific organizations, currently serving as the elected President of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and as a board member of both the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).

Through her innovative research and commitment to advancing gene therapy, Dr. González-Aseguinolaza continues to make significant contributions to the treatment of rare liver diseases and the broader scientific community.