Sam Wadsworth

Sam Wadsworth, Ph.D., is a member of the Precision BioSciences Board of Directors and the Board’s Science and Technology (S&T) Committee. Dr. Wadsworth has nearly 30 years of industry experience at Genzyme (later Sanofi Genzyme), followed by Ultragenyx Therapeutics. While at Genzyme, Dr. Wadsworth oversaw the discovery and translational research on multiple rare diseases and gene therapy programs, including Genzyme’s clinical-stage gene therapy program. Later at Sanofi Genzyme, he served as the head of gene therapy research and early development. In 2013, Dr. Wadsworth joined Dimension Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer and went on to build a fully capable IND and clinical trial phase public company that lead to the submission of four successful INDs. Following the company’s acquisition by Ultragenyx in 2017, Dr. Wadsworth continued in his role as Chief Scientific Officer of Ultragenyx Gene Therapy.

In addition to his current role as Scientific Advisor for Akuous, Dr. Wadsworth has previously been a Scientific Advisor for Genethon and the Usher IIIA Initiative, a nonprofit research consortium dedicated to finding the cause and a cure for Usher syndrome type III. Dr. Wadsworth has authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers including some of the earliest published work on adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapies and owns over a dozen patents related to AAV vectors for gene therapies. Dr. Wadsworth’s academic credentials include a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Southern Illinois University.