Father of Gene Therapy Sentenced to Fourteen Years in Jail for Molesting a Young Girl

W. French Anderson is a pioneer of molecular biology, professor of biochemistry and pediatrics, and more importantly the father of gene therapy. His work has been crucial to the development of treatments for many diseases, and his contribution to the benefit of mankind has been tremendous. He was a director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the University of Southern California in L.A. and a professor of molecular biology, biochemistry, and pediatrics. In September 1990, he lead the first human gene therapy clinical protocol, and successfully inserted the adenosine deaminase gene via retrovirus into the T lymphocytes of a four year old girl with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also referred to as the "bubble boy" disease.

Anderson spent twenty seven years as a gene therapy researcher at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health before he went to work at the University of Southern California.

Anderson has focused his recent research on gene therapy delivery systems. He was working to design virus-based vectors to transfer genes and better vectors to insert genes into hematopoietic stem cells. He has also focused his efforts on developing genetic therapy techniques that can be used in utero, and nanotechnology for genomic applications, such as creating a nanochip that builds a cDNA library using only one cell.

To this date, Anderson has published almost 400 research articles and been profiled by a number of publications, including the Scientific American and the New York Times. In 1995 he was runner up for Time Magazine's Man of the Year.

He's also a child molester.

W. French Anderson is guilty of having used his brilliant intellect to lure a 10-year-old girl, the daughter of one of his research colleagues, into sexual activity until she was 15 between the years of 1997 and 2001. At the time, the young girl was taking private karate lessons in his home. His impact on the helpless victim has marked her for life forever.

"Roughly three years ago, I wanted to kill myself," Said the victim, now 19, "I couldn't live with all the pain. ... He maliciously destroyed my world to fulfill his own sick pleasures."

On February 2, The Californian justice condemned Anderson to a 14 year sentence in jail. The judge also ordered him to pay her family about $52,000 in restitution for past therapy and pay for the cost of any future treatment. He also imposed fines and fees of about $16,000.

I am shocked to know that an intelligent geneticist such as Anderson could be so cruel towards a young girl. I support the judges decision and I agree that he deserves to be in jail, but this is a severe loss for science and genetic research, now that Anderson will probably never work again. If he's still alive after his 14 year sentance, his name has been tarnished and he can no longer continue his research.