Saswati Chatterjee, Ph.D.

Saswati Chatterjee, Ph.D., is a Professor of Virology at the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, where she directs the adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy group. Her research focuses on developing gene-based therapeutic strategies for genetic diseases, stem cells and AAV biology. Her group pioneered AAV-based gene transfer into human hematopoietic stem cells and subsequently identified and isolated a series of naturally-occurring AAVs from human CD34+ cells. Dr. Chatterjee is a member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) to the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, and is a member the Biosafety Working Group of Office of Biotechnology Activity, NIH. Dr. Chatterjee served as a charter member of the Therapeutic Approaches to Genetic Diseases Study Section of the NIH. She has also served on the Gene Therapy & Inborn Errors, Gene and Drug Delivery and Medical Biochemistry study sections, as well as numerous special review panels and special emphasis committees of the NIH. She serves on various committees at the California Institute of Technology and is a member of the editorial boards of Human Gene Therapy and Molecular Cellular Therapies. Dr. Chatterjee’s current research on genetic therapeutic strategies represents the culmination of her long-standing interests in gene therapies, molecular virology and transplantation biology. She has co-authored numerous publications, been awarded several R01 and program project grants from the NIH and holds multiple patents. Dr. Chatterjee received her Ph.D. from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She pursued her postdoctoral training in the Transplantation Biology Section of the Immunology Branch of the NCI, NIH. This led to her work on molecular virology of AAV in the Laboratory of Biology of Viruses and in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases, NIAID, NIH.