Stuart M Ellison

Dr Stuart Ellison is a Research Fellow in the Stem Cell and Neurotherapies group led by Professor Brian Bigger at the University of Manchester. Dr Ellison obtained his PhD in 2009 from the University of Birmingham before taking up a 4yr research post at the Imperial College London developing CNS targeted lentiviral vectors for delivery of therapeutics in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Huntington’s Disease. In 2013 Dr Ellison joined Prof Bigger’s team in Manchester and has since developed several lentiviral vector-mediated ex-vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapies (HSCGT) for Mucopolysaccharidosis, conducting both proof-of-concept and preclinical safety and efficacy studies. The MPSIIIA and B HSCGT programmes have subsequently been licenced to Orchard Therapeutics with MPSIIIA HSCGT currently being evaluated in a phase I/II clinical trial which began in early 2020. The MPSII HSCGT programme was recently licenced to AvroBio with the phase I/II clinical trial expected to start in 2023. As part of the Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub (iMATCH) consortium Dr Ellison has been developing a clinical GMP stem cell transduction protocol to expand ATMP manufacturing capacity in the UK in preparation for future HSCGT clinical trials.