J Fraser Wright
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Wright received his PhD in 1989 from the University of Toronto (Biochemistry) for studies characterizing the interaction of complement with IgM, and completed post-doctoral studies at INSERM / CENG Grenoble, France in molecular immunology focused on antigen processing and presentation. Hewas awarded a CRCS/ MRC Scholarship, gaining faculty appointment at the University of Toronto. In 1996 he joined industry as a Scientist at Pasteur Sanofi, contributing there to the development of vaccines and cancer immunotherapies, and subsequently as Director of Development and Clinical Manufacturing at Avigen, a gene therapy company that pioneered AAV-based investigational gene therapies for hemophilia and Parkinson’s disease. In 2004 he returned to academia, establishing and directing the Clinical Vector Facility at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and gaining faculty appointment at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine as professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Wright has contributed to several clinical development programs in gene therapy, including for Luxturna and Kymriah, the first gene therapies for a genetic (RPE65 deficiency) and non-genetic (CAR-T immunotherapy) disease, respectively, approved in the United States, and for the first gene therapy clinical trial that delivered an AAV-vectorized monoclonal antibody to human subjects for HIV passive immunity. He is a Co-founder of Spark Therapeutics, serving there and subsequently at Axovant as Chief Technology Officer. In 2019 Dr. Wright joined Stanford University as Professor of Pediatrics at The Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine (CDCM). His research program aims to address key immunological barriers to gene therapy through innovative approaches to viral vector design and generation, and to develop vectorized antibodies for serious human diseases.