WORLDSymposium™ 2027 Keynote Forum
Thursday, February 4, 2027 at 07:45 PST
WORLDSymposium is excited to announce Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, MD, PhD, and Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, MPH, ML, MRA, as speakers at the 2027 Keynote Forum, moderated by Peter Marks, MD, PhD.
Dr. Musunuru is an actively practicing cardiologist, director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute’s Genetic and Epigenetic Origins of Disease Program, as well as a committed teacher, as Barry J. Gertz Professor for Translational Research at the University Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He is also professor of Cardiology, Genetics, and professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Musunuru has dedicated years to studying how gene editing could be used to treat genetic conditions. Dr. Musunuru graduated from Harvard University in Boston in 1997 in Biochemical Sciences. He later completed a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at Rockefeller University in 2003, followed by a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2004. In 2009, Dr. Musunuru earned a Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, followed by a Masters in Law (ML) from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019. In 2024, he completed a Masters in Regulatory Affairs (MRA) from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas is an attending physician, as well as the director of Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Program, and Associate Chief for Research, Division of Human Genetics, at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas earned a BS in Pharmacology from Duke University in 2003, followed by a PhD in Physiology & Biophysics from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2010. She obtained her MD from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2011. Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas works to develop better treatments for inherited disorders of biochemistry (i.e., inborn errors of metabolism, IEMs) by studying how these diseases alter the electrical activity of the brain and heart. Using genetic, biochemical, and electrophysiologic techniques in cells, model organisms, and human subjects, Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas’ research investigates the mechanisms that drive neurologic and cardiac dysfunction in patients with IEMs.
The Keynote Forum will be an open discussion on the future of customized CRISPR therapies, along with how to transform current experience into a broad platform and new standard for individuals with lysosomal and rare diseases, including how to overcome regulatory challenges, and the need for urgency in the speed of development.
The new Keynote Forum will be presented on Thursday, February 4, 2027, at 07:45 PST.