Katherine High

Dr. Katherine High’s career has focused on gene therapy for genetic disease. A long-time member of the  faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was also an  Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. High  led pioneering bench-to-bedside studies of gene therapy for hemophilia, including the first trials of AAV  vectors introduced into human skeletal muscle and human liver. She led a series of basic and clinical  investigations into the characterization and management of the human immune response to AAV gene  delivery vectors, developing solutions that have been used across the field. In 2013, she co-founded  Spark Therapeutics, where she served as President, Chief Scientific Officer, and member of the Board of  Directors. At Spark Dr. High led the teams that achieved the first FDA approval of a gene therapy for  genetic disease, Luxturna, for a rare form of inherited blindness, and for a gene therapy for hemophilia  B, now also an approved product (Beqvez). Following Spark’s acquisition by Roche in December 2019,  Dr. High left the company, and since has served as a Visiting Professor at Rockefeller University, and an  Advisor in Life Sciences to GV (Google Ventures). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of  CRISPR Therapeutics and Incyte BioPharmaceuticals. In December 2024, she accepted the role of CEO at RhyGaze AG, a venture-backed early-stage gene therapy company developing a gene-agnostic treatment  for vision loss in inherited retinal dystrophies.  

Dr. High received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University, an MD from the  University of North Carolina School Of Medicine, and business certification from the University of North  Carolina Business School’s Management Institute for Hospital Administrators. She is an elected member  of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the faculty of  Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians (London), and the National Academy of  Sciences. 

Dr. High served a 5-year term on the U.S. FDA Advisory Committee on Cell, Tissue and Gene Therapies  and is a past president of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy.