American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting 2027 Exhibitor List

Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, MPH, ML, is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the genetics of heart disease and seeks to identify genetic factors that protect against disease and use them to develop new therapies.

Terry Pirovolakis, co-founder of CureSPG50, confronted his child's SPG50 diagnosis in 2019. Through successful fundraising, he led groundbreaking research that treated three children within three years. Pirovolakis established Elpida Therapeutics, a corporation with a nonprofit approach, focusing on gene therapies for ultra-rare conditions. Collaborating with industry leaders, Elpida targets SPG50, CMT4J, and CLN7 and plans to address three additional diseases in 2025/2026, using profits to sustain its programs. Pirovolakis extends his impact by supporting foundations, providing Gene Therapy 101 classes, and collaborating, all centered on the goal of saving as many children as possible.

Claire is a Professor of Pediatric Immunology and Gene Therapy at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, leading the stem cell gene therapy program. She oversees gene therapy trials for immune deficiencies, hematological disorders, and metabolic disorders, with a focus on developing novel treatments for immune disorders. Claire has extensive experience in leading first-in-human clinical trials and translating research into clinical practice. As an attending physician, she manages patients with immunodeficiencies, including stem cell transplants, with a particular interest in HLH disorders. Claire is an elected board member of the European and American Societies of Gene and Cell Therapy and the European Society for Immunodeficiencies, holds an honorary position at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and co-founded the AGORA Foundation to improve access to gene therapies for ultra-rare diseases.

Paula Cannon, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California and the immediate past president of ASGCT. Dr. Cannon uses gene editing to engineer immune cells, with the goal of developing treatments for HIV and other chronic diseases. Most recently, her group has shown that B cells can be reprogrammed to express fully custom antibodies, while retaining the ability to respond to immunization with a matched antigen. This could create boostable B cell factories in the body for the long-term secretion of a range of therapeutic molecules, including broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies that are not currently generated by vaccination.

Erik Sontheimer, PhD, is Professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his PhD at Yale in the laboratory of Joan Steitz and was a postdoctoral fellow with Joe Piccirilli at the University of Chicago. In 1999, Sontheimer joined the faculty at Northwestern, where he continued his work on the roles of RNA molecules in gene expression, including the study of CRISPR immune systems in bacteria. Among other advances, in 2008 his group demonstrated that CRISPR systems target DNA directly, becoming the first to recognize and articulate CRISPR’s potential for genome engineering. He has received a CAREER Award from the NSF, a New Investigator Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern, the Nestlé Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the Mid-Career Award from the RNA Society, and election to the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2014, he co-founded Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., to develop clinical applications of CRISPR gene editing. That same year, he also moved to the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Medical School, where he is continuing his research on the biological roles and technological applications of RNA-based systems.

Beverly L. Davidson, PhD, serves as the Chief Scientific Strategy Officer and Director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she holds the Katherine A. High Chair in Cell and Gene Therapy and is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning her PhD from the University of Michigan, Dr. Davidson dedicated her research to the molecular mechanisms of genetic brain diseases, utilizing advanced sequencing and imaging to engineer next-generation gene therapy vectors. Her translational work has led to the founding of Spark Therapeutics, Spirovant Biosciences, and Latus Bio. An elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is a past president of the ASGCT and has received numerous honors, including the Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize and the ASGCT Outstanding Achievement Award.