Meet Rachel Bailey, PhD: ASGCT Volunteer Rockstar
May 05, 2023
In a May 2023 installment of our series highlighting ASGCT member volunteers, meet Rachel Bailey, PhD, chair of the Society's Patient Outreach Committee.
ASGCT is a volunteer-led organization, and it could not effectively pursue its mission and strategic vision without the commitment of its volunteers. The Society does so through 32 standing, scientific, and board committees supported by more than 400 member volunteers. We recognize our committee leaders for their time, commitment, and expertise, and appreciate their willingness to help ASGCT advance the field of gene and cell therapy in a unique and meaningful way.
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Rachel Bailey, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Pediatrics at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Bailey has a broad background in studying disease mechanisms, modeling neurological diseases in rodents, and developing therapies to treat those disorders. Dr. Bailey’s lab focuses on the development of gene therapies for neurological disorders and facilitates the translation of these treatments for use in humans.
Dr. Bailey first began working with patient foundations and advocates as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Steven Gray in the Gene Therapy Center of UNC Chapel Hill. As part of this work, Dr. Bailey works closely with patient foundations to drive preclinical and clinical efforts to understand disease mechanisms, generate tools for research, and develop treatments. She is also the Deputy Director of the UTSW Rare Disease Center of Excellence and serves on the scientific advisory board for the CMT4B3 Research Foundation.
Dr. Bailey leads the Patient Outreach Committee to educate patients and families affected by diseases that may be treatable by gene therapies by developing patient- and public-facing materials to ensure they are both accurate and at an appropriate educational level. The committee also plans programming for the Annual Meeting, Lunch and Learns, and more.
ASGCT thanks Dr. Bailey for her service on the ASGCT standing committee. Our members serve as subject matter experts for Society-led projects, including Annual Meeting programming. and we could not do the work we do without them.
For questions on ASGCT committees or volunteer process, please contact Dani Gale (dgale@asgct.org).
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