Speaker Profile
Ph.D., Professor, UCSF
Biography
Nadav Ahituv is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the Interim Director of the Institute for Human Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his PhD in human genetics from Tel-Aviv University working on hereditary hearing loss. He then did his postdoc, specializing in functional genomics, in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the DOE Joint Genome Institute. His current work is focused on identifying gene regulatory elements and linking nucleotide variation within them to various phenotypes including morphological differences between species, drug response and human disease. His lab was one of the co-developers of massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) that allow for high-throughput functional characterization of gene regulatory elements and pioneered the use of gene regulatory elements as therapeutic targets. Finally, the lab also utilizes short DNA sequences for diagnostic purposes.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2025 Silicon Valley
Track Co-Chairs:
Yael Weiss, Mahzi Tx
Morten Sogaard, Astellas Gene Therapies
- PMWC 2025 Award Ceremony
Pioneer Honoree: James M. Wilson, Gemma Biotherapeutics
Luminary Honoree: Carolyn Bertozzi, Stanford
- Keynote: Bioorthogonal Chemistry, from Basic Science to Clinical Translation
- Carolyn Bertozzi, Stanford
- Keynote: The Promise of Genetic Medicines Unless You're Too Poor or Too Rare
- James M. Wilson, Gemma Biotherapeutics
- Barriers in Gene Therapy
Chair: Timothy Hunt, Alliance for Regenerative Medicine
- Tay Salimullah, 4BIO Capital
- James M. Wilson, Gemma Biotherapeutics
- Courtney Silverthorn, Bespoke Gene Therapy Consortium (BGTC) - Next-Generation Delivery Systems for Gene Therapies (PANEL)
Chair: James M. Wilson, Gemma Biotherapeutics
- Mathieu Nonnenmacher, Voyager Therapeutics
- Kevin Friedman, Kelonia Therapeutics
- Kunwoo Lee, GenEdit
- Haig Aghajanian, Capstan Therapeutics
- Beyond the Genome: Harnessing Epigenetics in Rare Disease Treatment (PANEL)
Chair: Charles Gersbach, Duke
- Prashant Mali, UCSD
- Nadav Ahituv, UCSF
- Blythe Sather, Tune Therapeutics
- Fyodor D Urnov, Berkely University
- Navigating the Regulatory Landscape for Gene and Cell Therapies (PANEL)
Chair: Yael Weiss, Mahzi Tx
- Rob Califf, FDA
- Courtney Silverthorn, Bespoke Gene Therapy Consortium (BGTC)
- Ben Dewees, Kyverna Therapeutics
- Paul Kruszka, GeneDx
- AI-driven Improvements in Gene and Cell Therapy (PANEL)
Chair: John Androsavich, Ginkgo Bioworks
- Francois Vigneault, Shape Therapeutics
- Eeshit Dhaval Vaishnav, Sequome
- Sam Sinai, Dyno Therapeutics
- Kira Radinsky, mana.bio
