World-Renowned UF Health Biochemistry Researcher Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, Ph.D., Dies
University of Florida Health biochemistry professor Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, Ph.D., whose world-renowned work on the detailed structure of viruses led to advances in gene therapy treatments for different diseases, died Wednesday (March 3) at her home near Gainesville of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She was 57.
Agbandje-McKenna’s work with the small, infectious particles had a worldwide impact, allowing other scientists to be more precise in their use of viruses for therapeutics. She was instrumental in advancing the use of the adeno-associated virus, or AAV, as a leading method for gene delivery to treat a variety of human diseases.
“She was a special person like no one else I have ever known in the sense that she enjoyed research and loved teaching students in her lab,” said Bert Flanegan, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the UF College of Medicine’s department of biochemistry and molecular biology.
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