Bio
J Fraser Wright, PhD
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. He
was 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.
