Sean Armour

Dr. Sean Armour is responsible for the strategic advancement of the adeno-associated viral (AAV) platform, development of novel gene delivery modalities, and implementation of innovative technologies to deliver on the promise of genetic medicine in his role as Head of Discovery at Spark Therapeutics. Since joining Spark in 2017, he has quickly established himself as a leader in the field of gene therapy. In his former role as Head of Liver Research and Non-Clinical Development, he successfully directed the execution of the pre-clinical programs for hemophilia A and Pompe, from early discovery to IND-enabling studies. Dr. Armour also conceived and led pre-clinical development of technologies, including the use of endopeptidases, to potentially address AAV neutralizing antibodies, a current limitation to patient access and redosing.

Prior to joining Spark, Dr. Armour was a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed a proteomics platform for determination of chromatin-associated protein-protein interactions in vivo and studied the transcription factors and coregulatory modules that control liver lipid metabolism and circadian rhythm.

Sean earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Haverford College and a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School where he studied the biochemistry of the sirtuin family of histone deacetylases. He has published 16 scientific manuscripts on the topics of mitochondrial function and apoptosis, cancer metabolism, autophagy, epigenomics, transcriptional function in metabolism, and gene therapy.