Photographs by William Taufic.
Barbara with members of Swim Across America’s top fundraising teams. ACGT has been the swim’s recipient for nine years.
In 2001, after losing their daughter-in-law to breast cancer, Ed and Barbara Netter founded the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT). “Ed went to a symposium and came back so excited about the potential of gene therapy,” explains Barbara. She attended a conference to learn about it and was equally impressed. “We decided we wanted to put our energy and resources into this.” They joined forces with gene therapy expert Dr. Savio Woo at Mt. Sinai and set up a scientific advisory council.
“The mission of the Alliance is to support research looking for new and novel ways for gene therapy in a safe and effective manner,” explains Barbara. “We felt radiation, chemotherapy, surgery—they are not the answers. Gene-therapy treatment harnesses the immune system’s power to conquer cancer.”
“Barbara and Ed founded the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy at a time when gene therapy was not considered a viable approach to cure cancer,” says friend and Greenwich resident Martha Zoubek. “Their support of this research has resulted in groundbreaking discoveries, such as that by Dr. Carl June last year that cures a form of leukemia. Barbara continues to chair the foundation, even after Ed’s passing, as it grows in monies raised and grants awarded to young researchers, and as immunotherapy comes to the forefront of cancer treatment.”
ACGT has raised $25 million for research and funded approximately forty-five grants, at $300,000 to $1,000,000 each. “We have been very pleased,” says Barbara. “There has been a lot of progress. There are at least 155 people treated with gene therapy, who have survived for at least three years. There is a lot of hope now.
“In 2004, we gave a grant to a scientist at Penn, which the NIH would not give him. We were a small organization and able to take risk, so we did. He was then able to treat the first three patients with T-cell therapy for lymphoblastic leukemia. By 2011, in the New England Journal of Medicine, that doctor reported that T-cell therapy is creating overwhelming results. T cells are your immune cells. In this therapy, they are removed, bioengineered and infused back into the body, where they kill the cancer cells. We had our gala this spring, and one of the first pediatric patients attended. She was dying and is now back at school, like a normal child. A sixty-year-old patient is back playing golf.”
In addition to her role as president of ACGT, Barbara has enjoyed a long career as a counselor and psychotherapist. Barbara also worked at Greenwich’s Family Centers for twelve years, and she and her late husband funded the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. Barbara also sits on the advisory board for the School of American Ballet and is a Patron of the Arts, supporting Alvin Ailey and Connecticut Ballet. A Westchester native who has lived in Greenwich for thirty-five years, Barbara has received the YWCA Spirit of Greenwich Award, among numerous other accolades honoring a woman devoted to making a difference.