Claire M. Gelfman

Claire M. Gelfman, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Development for Adverum Biotechnologies, a gene therapy company dedicated to finding treatments for unmet medical needs for serious rare and ocular diseases. Previously, she was the Senior Director of Scientific Services at Ora, Inc., an ophthalmic contract research organization (CRO) providing preclinical, regulatory, and clinical trial services for companies worldwide. Her responsibilities in this role included the design and implementation of preclinical translational strategies and their integration into the clinical development process for the advancement of therapeutics to treat major unmet medical needs. Prior to Ora, Dr. Gelfman spent 12 years at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals in the area of molecular genetics where she was involved in early drug target discovery using molecular, cellular, and biochemical approaches, and directed in vivo pharmacology efforts in the areas of ocular inflammation and retinal degeneration. Her experience covers more than 17 years in drug discovery and development, spanning academia, biopharma, and the CRO industry. Dr. Gelfman holds a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin.