Matthew Hewitt, PhD,BA

Matthew Hewitt, PhD, currently serves as the Vice President, Technical Officer for CGT and Biologics at Charles River Laboratories (CRL). In this role, Matt leads multiple initiatives across Charles River’s CGT portfolio including CDMO to assist partners moving assets to clinic and commercial. Matt is also responsible for leading conversations on CRL’s cell and gene therapy strategic approach.

Before joining the company, Matt was Head of Clinical Development for Lonza’s Personalized Medicine Business Unit where he was responsible for the Cocoon Platform, a closed, automated, scalable cell therapy manufacturing solution that relieves many cell therapy manufacturing difficulties. He played a key role in accelerating clinical development timelines all while overseeing numerous academic and industry collaborations. These collaborations included a lead program in Israel, that culminated in dosing the first patient with a cell therapy manufactured in the Cocoon. He led the R&D Innovation group, which included launching the Personalized Medicine Scientific Advisory Board. This board is responsible for directing current and future personalized medicine activities. In addition, Matt managed a personalized medicine analytics initiative to better understand cell therapy products, enhance clinical efficacy, and manufacturing process robustness.

Prior to Lonza, Matt led the Tumor Immunology and Microenvironment program at Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, which focused on improving cell therapy efficacy in solid tumors. He also led the Immunology group at the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program under Dr. James Wilson, leading numerous AAV gene therapy programs.

Matt received his PhD in Biophysics and Physiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.