Olivier Danos, PhD is the Scientific Director of Généthon and Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS. He completed his PhD studies in Virology and Molecular Biology at the Pasteur Institute, working on the molecular characterization of viruses. He was appointed by the CNRS in 1984. In his post-doctoral work with Dr. Richard Mulligan at the Whitehead Institute he developed retroviral vectors for gene transfer. At the Pasteur Institute in 1989 he directed the laboratory "Retrovirus et Transfert Génétique", studying strategies for gene therapy on animal models of genetic disease, as well as fundamental virology.

Dr. Danos has also served as Senior Scientific Director of Somatix Therapy Corporation. He sits on several international peer review and expert committees on gene therapy and virology, and has authored over 85 publications in these fields. He is a corresponding member of the American Society for Gene Therapy, and a founding member and member of the board of the European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT). He was elected president of the ESGT in 1996.

He is the scientific leader of a gene therapy preclinical and clinical program