Precise and non-disruptive gene editing based on programmable nickases
Cell & Gene Therapy Insights 2020; 6(4), 427–435
10.18609/cgti.2020.051
Published: 23 April 2020
Interview
Manuel Goncalves
Manuel Gonçalves is a molecular biologist focusing on the development of gene delivery and gene editing systems. After a post-graduation period in a gene therapy company, Dr Manuel Gonçalves was awarded a fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology to perform his PhD research on the investigation of hybrid viral vector systems for the stable genetic modification of human cells. In 2015, Dr Gonçalves became associate professor at the Department of Cell and Chemical Biology of the Leiden University Medical Center. In this capacity, he supervises a team whose research interests are converting viral vectors into delivery agents of gene-editing tools, studying the impact of epigenetic mechanisms on the performance of different gene-editing tools and strategies, and improving gene-editing approaches by guiding specific DNA repair pathways after introducing into target cells programmable nucleases or ‘nickases’. In this context, his team has pioneered the investigation of viral vectors as delivery vehicles of TALENs and CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases.