CGT Catapult establishes Technology Advisory Board for advanced therapy deployment
Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has established a Technology Advisory Board to support technology deployment across advanced therapies. The board will focus on data, manufacturing, testing and patient pathways.
The UK's Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has established a Technology Advisory Board to provide independent, strategic guidance. The board will support the CGT Catapult in identifying and removing barriers to the widespread adoption of advanced therapies. A newly established CGT Catapult technology advisory board, announced in February 2026, aims to identify emerging technological opportunities and address persistent barriers that limit large-scale adoption.
The remit of the board will encompass areas including: data and digital; manufacturing and supply technology; product characterization and testing; and novel patient treatment pathways. The independent advisory body will provide strategic guidance to support technology deployment across the advanced therapies ecosystem. According to CGT Catapult, these focus areas collectively represent key operational constraints that continue to influence commercialization timelines and healthcare system integration for CGTs.
The board is made up of advanced therapy experts from across academia, industry and regulation. Its members are the chair, the founder of Redline Bioadvisors and chief commercialisation officer of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy; a consultant and former FDA senior investigator; a life science executive and strategic advisor; a professor in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Osaka; the chief information officer at the Wellcome Sanger Institute; the unit manager for inspectorate strategy and innovation at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency; and the director of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology and co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry at the University of Edinburgh. In addition, it includes the CGT Catapult’s chair of the board, non-executive director, chief clinical officer and chief technology officer.
The board will identify opportunities and challenges arising from new technologies, as well as potential roadblocks to their widespread use. The new advisory board brings together experts from academia, regulatory agencies, and industry leadership to evaluate how emerging technologies can improve efficiency and accessibility across therapy development and delivery.
“CGT Catapult has played a critical role in shaping the advanced therapy landscape for more than a decade, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to join the advisory board at this inflection point,” the chair said in a press release. “As the industry continues to evolve and advance, we need to turn our attention to driving efficiency, adoption, and access. I look forward to working with this advisory board to help identify strategies to accomplish these goals, both in the UK and around the world.”
According to the chief executive of CGT Catapult, the organization’s role is increasingly focused on anticipating infrastructure needs required for sector growth. “Our role is to meet the technology and innovation needs of the industry,” he said in the release. “We are privileged and grateful that this extraordinary group of people have agreed to support us. They will guide us through the challenges and opportunities to ensure that the exceptional benefits Advanced Therapies reach more people.”