{"id":128,"date":"2025-07-25T11:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/?post_type=ud_entry&#038;p=128"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:42:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:42:34","slug":"thomas-mccown-phd","status":"publish","type":"ud_entry","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas McCown, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\">The McCown laboratory focuses upon the development of safe, effective gene therapies for the treatment of neurological disorders with a focus upon improving specific therapeutic genes as well as the discovery of clinically relevant novel AAV capsids. On the therapeutic gene side, we have discovered a means to express and constitutively secrete AAV vector derived gene products into the CNS interstitial space, leading to a means to suppress seizure activity. On the capsid side, we have used AAV capsid shuffling and directed evolution to discover a novel capsid that selectively crosses the seizure compromised blood-brain barrier, and a novel AAV capsid that <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\">exhibits<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\"> a dramatic shift in in vivo AAV tropism away from neurons and towards oligodendrocytes. Using this oligodendrocyte preferring <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed GrammarErrorHighlight SCXW8186625 BCX4\">capsid<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\"> we were able to reprogram oligodendrocytes in the brain to functional neurons. With my colleague Dr. Powell, we recently <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\">established<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\"> that the AAV capsid can interact with in vivo gene expression in the brain. <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW8186625 BCX4\">Thus, the major focus of the lab entails leveraging a basic understanding of AAV vectors in order to significantly advance CNS gene therapy for neurological disorders.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":149,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ud_division":[5,4],"class_list":["post-128","ud_entry","type-ud_entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ud_division-leadership","ud_division-members","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thomas McCown, PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thomas McCown, PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The McCown laboratory focuses upon the development of safe, effective gene therapies for the treatment of neurological disorders with a focus upon improving specific therapeutic genes as well as the discovery of clinically relevant novel AAV capsids. On the therapeutic gene side, we have discovered a means to express and constitutively secrete AAV vector derived &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Center for Molecular Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T21:42:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/\",\"name\":\"Thomas McCown, PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-25T15:22:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-03T21:42:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Thomas McCown, PhD\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Directory Entries\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Thomas McCown, PhD\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/\",\"name\":\"The Center for Molecular Medicine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thomas McCown, PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/thomas-mccown-phd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thomas McCown, PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine","og_description":"The McCown laboratory focuses upon the development of safe, effective gene therapies for the treatment of neurological disorders with a focus upon improving specific therapeutic genes as well as the discovery of clinically relevant novel AAV capsids. 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With a primary focus upon intractable temporal lobe epilepsy, Dr. McCown continues to refine the use of site directed gene therapy, as well as advance the potential of an intravenous AAV gene therapy. In addition, Dr. McCown has employed AAV capsid DNA shuffling and directed evolution in order to discover novel AAV vectors that exhibit unique, therapy related properties. These studies have resulted in the discovery of chimeric AAV vectors that upon intravenous administration, can selectively cross the seizure compromised bloodbrain barrier, as well as novel vectors that exhibit unique cell specific tropism in the CNS.<\/span><\/p>\n","ud_telephone":[{"ud_location":"Office","ud_number":"9199625494"}],"ud_email":"thomas_mccown@med.unc.edu","ud_positions":[{"ud_title":"Research Professor, Psychiatry &amp; Pediatrics"},{"ud_title":"Assistant Director for Basic Research, Center for Molecular Medicine"}],"ud_options":[],"ud_sort_order":"10"},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025-300x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/07\/Thomas-McCown-400-2025-150x150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ud_entry"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ud_division","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_division?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}