Cutting AAV cost per dose: a plasmid-free platform from 200L to commercial scale

Jun Xie, PhD, is an Associate Professor at UMass Chan Medical School and Director of Vector Development for the Viral Vector Core at the Gene Therapy Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. His research focuses on advancing adeno-associated virus (AAV) technologies for gene therapy, including engineering novel capsids, improving genome integrity, and developing innovative gene silencing platforms. 

Dr. Xie has contributed to the discovery of more than 150 novel AAV capsids and has helped elucidate mechanisms impacting AAV genome homogeneity and vector performance. His work has led to the development of rAAV-based gene therapy approaches for multiple central nervous system diseases, including Alexander disease and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He has completed a Pre-IND interaction with the FDA for an Alexander disease gene therapy program and is advancing IND-enabling studies in alignment with regulatory guidance. 

Dr. Xie earned his PhD in Genetics from Sun Yat-sen University, along with advanced training in molecular biology and genetics. His expertise spans viral vector development, RNAi therapeutics, and translational gene therapy

Robert Leydon is Head of TESSA and brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. He leads the development and advancement of the Tetracycline Enabled Self Silencing Adenovirus (TESSA) rAAV manufacturing platform, driving innovation in viral vector design, scalable rAAV production, and toxic gene silencing technologies. He also oversees commercial services that enable clients to evaluate and optimize rAAV productivity within the TESSA system.

Robert’s multidisciplinary expertise spans plasmid engineering, recombinant protein expression, structural biology, antibody humanization, capsid engineering, next generation sequencing (NGS), bioinformatics, viral vector manufacturing, and analytical development, providing an integrated perspective from discovery through production.

Prior to Minaris, Robert was Lead Molecular Biologist at Crysalin, where he pioneered a rapid end to end process enabling recombinant protein production from plasmid design within five days, supporting sub 3 Å crystal structures of synthetic protein lattices. Earlier at GSK, he served as Senior Scientist supporting high throughput screening and structural biology programs, applying diverse expression systems—including E. coli, baculovirus, BacMam, mammalian cells, and Pichia pastoris—to accelerate drug discovery and development.