Advisory Committee (RAC), the FDA, and other ethics/regulatory committees. The media followed every step closely. Anderson teamed with Michael Blaese, a prominent immunologist in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Steven Rosenberg, a prominent cancer surgeon and immunotherapy advocate, also in the NCI. The initial protocol was a safety study where only the N2 vector, previously shown to be safe when used in non-human primates, was administered to cancer patients, on Rosenberg's NCI clinical cancer service, who volunteered for the study. A full "gene therapy" regulatory review was carried out. The clinical protocol began on May 22, 1989, and included 10 patients. The procedure was shown to be safe. Rosenberg went on to develop gene therapy/immunotherapy clinical protocols for cancer. Anderson and Blaese carried out the first gene therapy protocol, on a 4-year-old girl, named Ashanthi DeSilva, who was critically ill with adenosine deaminase deficiency severe combined immunodeficiency disease (ADA SCID). Preliminary studies included development of a retroviral vector containing the ADA gene together with additional safety features, creation of ADA deficient human T cell lines used for testing ADA vectors, and creation of a biotechnology company, Genetic Therapy Inc., to manufacture the ADA vector, called LASN, under strict GMP FDA requirements. Anderson also created, and became editor-in-chief of, a new journal, Human Gene Therapy, in 1990. This new journal published not only original scientific research papers but also articles on ethical and regulatory issues relating to gene therapy. Ashanthi received her first infusion of cells on September 14, 1990, with no complications. She received 10 more infusions over the next 2 years. Her immune evaluation studies became normal and she became healthy with no major infections. A thorough immune status follow-up was done after 12 years: she remained healthy with 20% of her lymphocytes still carrying an active retroviral ADA gene – a sufficient percentage to ensure immunologic protection. She is now 33 years old, married, and works as a journalist and writer. Late career research projects In 1992, Anderson followed his wife to Los Angeles, where she accepted the position of chief of surgery at Los Angeles Children's Hospital. He became professor of biochemistry and pediatrics at the University of Southern California (USC). Anderson maintained his intense interest in gene therapy and was able to develop a retroviral gene therapy vector that could target the collagen matrix surrounding cancer nodules. He wrote a number of reviews of gene