Audentes Therapeutics Announces Appointment of John T. Gray, Ph.D. to Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BOLD), a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing gene therapy products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare diseases, today announced the appointment of John T. Gray, Ph.D. to Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.  Dr. Gray joined Audentes in 2014 as Vice President, Research and Development, and has successfully built and led teams across the Company's molecular biology, process development, and nonclinical research and development functions. 

"We are very pleased to announce John's well-earned appointment to the role of Chief Scientific Officer," stated Matthew R. Patterson, President and Chief Executive Officer.  "John is recognized as an innovator who has made significant contributions to advancing the science of AAV gene therapy.  Today's announcement comes as a result of the key leadership role he has played in building our world-class research organization, developing our manufacturing capabilities and advancing our pipeline of novel product candidates."

Dr. Gray joined Audentes with over 20 years of experience designing genetic therapies and vaccines, and developing manufacturing processes for those products.  Immediately prior to Audentes, Dr. Gray served as the Director of Vector Production and Development at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital where he led a team devoted to advancing gene therapy vector science.  He was a key contributor to the Hemophilia B gene therapy project, for which he designed the self-complementary AAV Factor IX vector expression cassette and developed the GMP production process used to manufacture the clinical vector.  During his tenure at St. Jude, Dr. Gray also worked on Chimeric Antigen Receptor modified cell therapy, lysosomal storage disorder gene therapy, and multiple hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell gene therapy projects utilizing both AAV and lentiviral vectors. Prior to joining St. Jude, Dr. Gray served as the assistant director of the Harvard Gene Therapy Initiative and prior to that, worked at Pfizer Animal Health designing bacterial and viral vectors for vaccine applications.  Dr. Gray has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

About Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.
Audentes Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BOLD) is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing gene therapy products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare diseases.  We have four product candidates in development, AT132 for the treatment of X-Linked Myotubular Myopathy (XLMTM), AT342 for the treatment of Crigler-Najjar Syndrome, AT982 for the treatment of Pompe disease, and AT307 for the treatment of the CASQ2 subtype of Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia (CASQ2-CPVT).  We are a focused, experienced and passionate team committed to forging strong, global relationships with the patient, research and medical communities.

For more information regarding Audentes, please visit www.audentestx.com.

Audentes Contacts:

Investor Contact:
Thomas Soloway, CFO
415.818.1040
ir@audentestx.com

Media Contact:
Paul Laland
415.519.6610
media@audentestx.com

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SOURCE Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.