Scientist Facing Abuse Charges

A nationally known pioneer in gene therapy research was being held on $6-million bail Friday after being charged with child molestation.

William French Anderson, director of Gene Therapy Laboratories at USC Keck School of Medicine, was arrested Friday morning at his San Marino home.

Prosecutors accused the scientist of molesting a teenage girl, now 17, who was his karate student.

Anderson, 67, allegedly abused the girl from January 1997 until December 2001. He faces one count of continuous sex abuse on a child and five counts of lewd acts upon a child, charges that could result in a sentence of 56 years in state prison.

“We have evidence that he committed a very serious crime,” said district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. She said Anderson apparently mentored the girl over several years, and her family knew the scientist. There are no other known victims, Gibbons said.

Prosecutors consider Anderson a flight risk, because of the potential long prison term and his financial means, Gibbons said. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday at Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pasadena.

The arrest came after an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which executed search warrants Friday morning at Anderson’s home and his university office. Investigators removed computers from his lab, university officials said.

USC has placed Anderson, professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and pediatrics, on administrative leave. The search warrants came as a surprise, said Jon Weiner, director of media relations for the health sciences department.

“We’re reluctant to talk about anything without knowing the facts,” he said.

Anderson, who has been called the “father of gene therapy,” was born in Tulsa, Okla., and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1963. He came to USC after spending 27 years at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. There, he worked at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and served as chairman of the department of medicine and physiology in the NIH graduate program.

In 1990, he inaugurated the field of gene therapy by removing white blood cells from 4-year-old Ashanti DeSilva, using genetic engineering techniques to insert a missing gene, and reinfusing the cells back into her bloodstream. DeSilva suffered from a rare genetic disorder called ADA deficiency, which left her without a functioning immune system, much like the well-known Houston “bubble boy” who had died eight years earlier.

The procedure, and a similar one performed on 9-year-old Cynthia Cutshall, was successful and both girls are now healthy, although the process must be repeated periodically to renew the supply of engineered cells.

In 1992, Anderson came to USC when his wife, Dr. Kathryn D. Anderson, was bypassed for a post at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She accepted a position as surgeon-in-chief and vice president for surgical administration at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and professor of surgery at USC.

At the time, Anderson said, “Kathy subordinated her career to mine for 31 years. It’s her turn.”

At USC Keck School of Medicine, Anderson heads Gene Therapy Laboratories, which primarily conducts research on stem cells and the possibility of injecting healthy genes into cells to replace damaged, disease-causing genes. He has been working on improving the techniques. He has treated several children shortly after birth and has proposed performing the therapy in the womb.

In a USC publication, Anderson was quoted as saying: “Some babies are born with lethal defects and it is immoral not to go forward with research that can alleviate human suffering.”

He has written hundreds of research articles and won numerous prizes for his gene therapy work. He is an ethicist in the field of human genetic engineering and worked as the scientific consultant for “Gattaca,” a 1997 science-fiction film about a society with unrestrained genetic science, according to the university.

He is a 5th degree black belt in the martial art of tae kwon do and still competes. He won a gold medal in his age division at a nationwide championship in 1998. He said in an article for the USC website that karate is an important part of his life.

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.