James M. Wilson (born 1954 or 1955)[1] is an American biomedical researcher and CEO of two biotech companies, Gemma Biotherapeutics and Franklin Biolabs, focused on gene therapies.
[12] The adeno-associated viruses serotypes discovered in Wilson's lab were used in several clinically approved gene therapies including onasemnogene abeparvovec which uses AAV9.
[1] On August 1, 2024, Jim Wilson announced he would be departing the University of Pennsylvania Gene Therapy Program and starting two new companies Gemma Biotherapeutics and Franklin Biolabs.
[14] In 1999, Wilson led a clinical trial at the Institute for Human Gene Therapy using an adenoviral vector that resulted in the death of Jesse Gelsinger.
As a result, the government banned him from working on FDA-regulated human clinical trials for five years and shut down the institute, which led to a shift in his research focus towards a study of adeno-associated viruses (AAV).