Bobby Gaspar

Bobby started his career in paediatric immunology at the UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital London. During his academic and clinical career, he led the development of gene and cell therapy for severe immune deficiencies. Over two decades, his team conducted clinical trials to show that gene therapy can successfully correct the immune defect in specific immunodeficiency conditions. He also has led UK and European initiatives for newborn screening (NBS) for severe combined immunodeficiency which has resulted in a recent large scale pilot study of NBS for SCID in the UK.

From his research, he co-founded Orchard Therapeutics, a gene therapy company developing genetic medicines for rare and others severe diseases. Orchard was listed on Nasdaq in 2018.  He is now CEO of the company and led the company to the EU approval of Libmeldy, a gene therapy medicine for a severe neurodegenerative condition, metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD). Libmeldy is now approved for use on the NHS.