Beverly L. Davidson, Ph.D.

Beverly L. Davidson, Ph.D., is the Director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, the Chief Scientific Strategy Officer, and holds the Arthur V. Meigs Chair in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was also recently named President of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Dr. Davidson has founded several successful biotechnology companies, including Spark Therapeutics, now a member of the Roche Group, which developed and commercialized the first adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector gene therapy for a genetic disease in the U.S.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Davidson held the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair and was the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa. In addition to co-founding Spark, Dr. Davidson’s important contributions to the biotechnology industry include co-founding Talee Bio (now Spirovant Sciences, Inc.) and serving on multiple scientific advisory boards. Dr. Davidson has received several prestigious honors and recognitions throughout her career, including election to the National Academy of Medicines, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. She was also awarded the F.E. Bennett Memorial Lectureship Award from the American Neurological Association, the Mathilde Solowey Award from the National Institutes of Health and the S.J. DeArmond Lecturer from the American Association of Neuropathologists. She has editorial responsibilities at peer-reviewed journals, including Molecular Therapy and Human Molecular Genetics, in addition to authoring hundreds of scientific papers. Dr. Davidson received her B.S. in Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan.