Dr. Emma James is Vice President (Head) of Medical and Patient Affairs at Encoded Therapeutics, a biotech company developing innovative gene therapies for patients with central nervous system disorders. She obtained her PhD from the University of Oxford, after completing her research at its Nuffield Department of Medicine and Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. With the majority of her career spent at small and mid-sized biotech companies in the United Kingdom, Boston and San Francisco, Dr. James has focused the last 8 years on developing gene therapies for rare, pediatric and genetic disorders. In 2018, she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the United Kingdom's Royal College of Physicians in recognition of her contributions to pharmaceutical medicine. In 2021, Emma was invited to join the Pediatric Gene Therapy and Medical Ethics (PGTME) Working Group, a multidisciplinary group with the mission to advance research, policy, and education regarding ethical issues surrounding clinical trials of gene therapy.