Rewriting Life: The Extraordinary Promise of Gene Therapy

Talks on Tuesdays: Real lectures in your favourite venues. 45-mins + Q&A with Daniel de los Reyes Helices Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner. This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about. Event Schedule: 6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open 7pm Lecture Starts 7.45pm Q&A 8pm Talk Concludes 8.30pm Event Closes. *Please arrive close to 6.30pm A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go. Your Topic: Rewriting Life: The Extraordinary Promise of Gene Therapy What if we could treat diseases once considered incurable by rewriting the genetic instructions of life itself? Once the stuff of science fiction, gene therapy is becoming a medical reality, offering new hope to people living with rare genetic disorders. From its early beginnings to today's groundbreaking treatments, we'll explore how this revolutionary technology is transforming medicine, the challenges that still stand in its way, and what the future might hold. Drawing on my own research experience in gene therapy for rare neurodevelopmental disorders, I'll offer a glimpse into the exciting possibilities and challenges of bringing these therapies to patients. Your Speaker: Daniel de los Reyes Helices Daniel de los Reyes is a Spanish veterinarian turned neuroscientist with a slightly unconventional career path. Before diving into the world of neuroscience, he worked as a wildlife veterinarian in Bolivia, looking after monkeys and other wild animals. These days, he's traded the jungle for the laboratory, where he's pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience focused on finding new treatments for ultra-rare neurodevelopmental disorders. His research explores the exciting possibilities of gene therapy and uses miniature human brains grown in the lab (called brain organoids) to better understand these complex diseases. From monkeys to mini-brains, science has taken him on quite a journey!