Better AAV reception

A group from Stanford University School of Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has discovered a universal receptor for adeno-associated virus (AAV) that resolves a long-standing question about how the viruses enter cells, and could lead to the design of better gene therapies.

Although AAVs are among the main workhorses of gene therapy, their selective tissue tropisms limit their use to diseases that occur in a small range of target organs...