Anna Kwilas, PhD FDA

Dr. Anna Kwilas received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from The Ohio State University in 2010 with an emphasis in Molecular Virology & Gene Therapy and Translational Science. She performed her graduate research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital examining the potential application of respiratory syncytial virus as a gene therapy vector for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Dr. Kwilas performed her post-doctoral research at the National Cancer Institute investigating the efficacy of modified vaccinia virus Ankara and adenovirus-based cancer vaccines alone and in combination with other approved and investigational cancer therapeutics. Dr. Kwilas joined FDA in 2015 on an Interagency Oncology Task Force Fellowship. During her fellowship she was involved in the CMC review of gene therapy products and the generation of safer vector producing cells with the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. In 2016, Dr. Kwilas became a full-time gene therapy CMC reviewer in the Gene Therapy Branch of CBER OTAT and in 2019 was promoted to a Team Lead in the Gene Therapy Branch.