American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy PA-21-151 PROJECT SUMMARY This application by The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) requests $15,000 for 10 travels award and 20 underrepresented minority travel awards ($500 per award) for students and post-doctoral fellows to attend the ASGCT Annual Meetings in 2022, 2023, and 2024—for a total of $45,000 and 90 travel awards. To determine awards, ASGCT run a report from our abstract presenter database that pools abstract applicants who are students or post-doctoral fellows. Those with the top 15 scoring abstracts receive an Excellence in Research Award (not supported by this grant), and those scoring over 3.5 receive a $500 travel award (such as those supported by this grant). Then, remaining applicants who identify as underrepresented individuals are ranked by score, and the top 20 are given travel awards (also to be supported by this grant). ASGCT abides strictly by the NIH’s definition of underrepresentation populations in selecting awardees. ASGCT’s mission is to advance knowledge, awareness, and education leading to the discovery and clinical application of genetic and cellular therapies to alleviate human disease. This project bolsters our mission by supporting early-career professional to travel to our Annual Meetings to gain exposure for their research, thereby advancing knowledge and spurning professional development that will better position those early-career professionals to make discoveries and produce clinical applications in the future.