Michael Steel

Michael Steel is senior vice president of quality, leading Adverum’s quality assurance, quality control, and assay development teams. Mr. Steel has over 25 years of experience in the development of quality and manufacturing systems for clinical gene therapy and cell therapy products. He joined Adverum in 2015 after providing consultation to several gene therapy organizations as an independent quality consultant. Mr. Steel’s prior experience included leading quality control at Ceregene for AAV treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, as well as being involved in Ceregene’s delivery system development and clinical trial management. Prior to Ceregene, Mr. Steel created and led quality control for RenaMed, where he was responsible for product and facility testing and control, as well as key aspects of facility design and start-up. Mr. Steel began his career at the University of Michigan Human Applications Laboratory, where he contributed to the research and GMP development, quality, and regulatory compliance of multiple cell and gene therapy programs, including initiatives utilizing activated immune cells, retroviral and adenoviral vectors, and several novel non-viral vector gene transfer modalities. While at the University of Michigan, Mr. Steel was also involved in facility design and start-up, providing consultation to industry and NIH. Mr. Steel serves as Adverum’s representative on the US TAG to ISO/TC276 for Biotechnology and on the Standards Coordinating Body for Gene, Cell, and Regenerative Medicines and Cell-Based Drug Discovery. Mr. Steel earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan.