Sheila Connelly

Sheila Connelly has a diverse work experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Sheila began their career as a Group Leader at Genetic Therapy Inc. in 1993 and held this position until 2002. Sheila then co-founded Advanced Vision Therapies, which is now known as Wellstat Ophthalmics Corporation, where they served as Vice President from 2002 to 2010. During this time, they were responsible for managing a team of 18 employees and overseeing in-house animal efficacy studies and therapeutic safety testing.

In 2010, Sheila joined Intrexon Corporation as a Senior Director of Translational Research. Sheila directed a group of 22 employees, including highly accomplished scientists, and supervised the operations of the Intrexon vivarium.

Sheila then moved to Graybug Vision, Inc., where they worked as the VP of Research from 2012 to 2014. At Graybug, they directed the research activities of the company, which focused on developing drugs for ocular diseases. During their time there, they obtained several grant awards to advance controlled-release ocular drug delivery platforms.

Most recently, Sheila worked as the VP of Research at Theriva Biologics, Inc. from 2014 onwards. As part of this clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, they played a crucial role in developing a novel oncolytic adenovirus platform to target devastating cancers with high unmet need.

Overall, Sheila Connelly has extensive experience in research and development, with a specific focus on ocular diseases and gene delivery technologies.

Sheila Connelly holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Columbia University. Following their doctoral studies, they pursued a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Friederich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland. Their research during this time focused on RNA Processing in Plants. Prior to their graduate studies, they obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Delaware. Sheila completed their high school education at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware.