Lolita Petit, PhD

Lolita Petit has extensive experience in all stages of developing a virus-mediated gene therapy drug product, from target identification to clinical candidate advancement. Dr. Petit has been instrumental in the development of the first gene therapy product for a form of inherited blindness and has had direct responsibility in various gene therapy modalities, including viral and non-viral gene therapy, gene replacement therapy, neuroprotective gene therapy and optogenetics. Dr. Petit has extensive experience in building highly integrated internal gene therapy discovery teams, leading both platform development and therapeutic portfolios across sites and functions. She also has experience leveraging external research and development through contract research organization partnerships and collaborations. As chief scientific officer, Dr. Petit provides scientific oversight of Coave’s research and development efforts. She develops short, medium and long-term scientific strategies to support Coave’s mission and manages a team of scientists to ensure that projects are delivered.