T.J. Craddick
Chief Scientific Officer HuidaGene Therapeutics
TJ Cradick, PhD, is a pioneering biotechnology executive and renowned expert in genome editing with over two decades of experience leading the development of next-generation therapeutics. Currently serving as fractional CSO and Principal Consultant at Gene Editing Frontiers LLC, Dr. Cradick provides fractional leadership, due diligence, and specialized regulatory and research strategies for companies transforming medicine.
Throughout his career, Dr. Cradick has held critical executive roles at industry-defining companies. He was the Chief Technology Officer at HuidaGene Therapeutics, where he oversaw an array of AAV-delivered DNA and RNA editing pipelines that achieved clinical benefit in investigator-initiated trials.
Prior to that, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Excision BioTherapeutics, leading the vision for the first-ever clinical trial utilizing in vivo multiplex CRISPR editing via AAV.
As the second employee and Head of Genome Editing at CRISPR Therapeutics, he played a foundational role in scaling the organization into a clinical-stage leader, establishing the hemoglobinopathies discovery framework that ultimately led to the historic approval of Casgevy™.
Dr. Cradick’s industry impact began in 2000 at Sangamo Biosciences, where he focused on Zinc Finger design. Since then, he has consistently bridges the gap between wet-lab biology and advanced computation. As an academic faculty member and Director of the Protein Engineering Facility at the Georgia Institute of Technology / Emory University, his lab focused heavily on nuclease specificity and pioneered widely used bioinformatics tools—including ZFN-Site, PROGNOS, SAPTA, and COSMID—for target and off-target nomination.
Earlier in his career at the University of Iowa, Dr. Cradick designed the first viral-targeting nuclease specifically to cleave the Hepatitis B virus, an early breakthrough in AAV-delivered gene therapeutics, and published the widely adopted Surveyor gene editing assay.
A recognized innovator, advisor, and author of numerous highly cited publications, Dr. Cradick sits on multiple Scientific Advisory Boards and remains dedicated to advancing precise, safe, and scalable gene editing solutions to address high unmet medical needs.
Seminars
- The next evolution gene editing, gene writing and gene insertion have increased interest in evaluating viral and non‑viral delivery platforms, including evolving criteria around scalability, safety, and clinical applicability
- Key sources of manufacturing complexity and variability across modalities, and how these impact development timelines and operational models
- How the delivery landscape has evolved — and what this means for integrating mRNA and emerging approaches alongside established platforms
