Denise Sabatino, PhD

Denise Sabatino, Ph.D. is a Research Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Sabatino graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Molecular Genetics. She earned her Ph.D. in Genetics at The George Washington University and the National Institutes of Health. During her postdoctoral fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she investigated gene transfer for hemophilia B using AAV vectors. Dr. Sabatino joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2008 in the Department of Genetics. In 2010 she became a member of the Division of Hematology and the Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at CHOP. Dr. Sabatino serves as Vice-Chair of the Gene Therapy and Vaccines Graduate Program in the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CAMB) Graduate Group at the Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania. She has been active in the American Society of Hematology currently serving as Chair of the Scientific Subcommittee on Hemostasis. Dr. Sabatino has also been actively involved in the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy through service on the Immunology of Gene and Cell Therapy Committee, the Genetic and Metabolic Diseases Committee and the Patient Outreach Committee. Dr. Sabatino's research focuses on coagulation factor VIII and gene-based therapeutics for hemophilia A. The scope of her work includes characterization of novel FVIII variants with higher specific activity and improved secretion, development of factor VIII transgenes that augment factor VIII expression and studies to understand the fate of the AAV vector DNA after gene delivery.