Adrian Thrasher

Prof Adrian Thrasher is a Professor of Pediatric Immunology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOSICH) and a leader in clinical and research gene therapy. Prof Thrasher was previously the Head of the Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and Lead for the Cell, Stem Cell, and Gene Therapy theme at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). He is also an Honorary Consultant Pediatric Immunologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof Thrasher is a leader in pediatric immunology and in the translation of cell and gene therapies for rare diseases. In this context, he has fostered major collaborations both nationally and internationally, and with colleagues has conducted some of the first successful trials of gene therapy in X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency, Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency, Chronic Granulomatous Disease, and Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome. Additionally, he has been a coinvestigator in gene therapy trials for retinal and metabolic diseases.

Prof Thrasher has published extensively in the gene therapy field and secured substantial career grant funding for his research in primary immunodeficiencies and the development of somatic gene therapy. He has been a board member of the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy (ASGCT), the European society (ESGCT), and the President of the British Society. In 2005, he was a recipient of the EU Descartes Prize for Research and Science and became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2008, he became a NIHR senior investigator. He was the scientific co-founder of Orchard Therapeutics, a hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy company with two EU-approved therapies and several others in the clinic across indications.