Scott Ashley, PhD, became the Scientific Director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) in 2025, bringing scientific and leadership expertise to drive advancements in research and treatment. In this role, he leverages his expertise in science and leadership to accelerate discovery and therapeutic development through close collaboration with partners and the broader Castleman disease community.
Since 2017, Scott has focused on therapeutic development for rare diseases, beginning with his postdoctoral fellowship. Most recently, he led preclinical development for an idiopathic pulmonary disease at Spark Therapeutics while providing scientific guidance and collaboration across multiple research programs.
Scott earned his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, where his research at the Gene Therapy Program (GTP) explored how germline mutations influence antigen presentation and the adaptive immune response to gene therapy. He continued his work at GTP, focusing on preclinical development of multiple rare monogenic disorders.
In 2021, Scott completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in John Wolfe’s lab, where he conducted protein engineering studies to advance therapeutic development for alpha mannosidosis.