Bio Details

Dr. Altschuler is the managing director of Healthcare Ventures at Ziff Capital, where he co-leads the firm’s efforts towards investing in and facilitating the startup and development of companies with potentially transformative technologies that emphasize cellular and molecular approaches to human disease. Dr. Altschuler developed this expertise while cofounding Spark Therapeutics to develop and commercialize the preclinical and clinical gene therapy programs advanced at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and other institutions. Dr. Altschuler served as Spark’s board chair from its founding through its acquisition by Roche in 2019. His tenure included leading the company through a successful transition to a public company and the launch of an approved commercial product. This was the first gene therapy for an inherited disease approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency. Dr. Altschuler is the former executive vice president for Health Affairs at the University of Miami and CEO of UHealth – the University of Miami Health System. He also served as CEO for CHOP from 2000 to 2015.  Dr. Altschuler completed a pediatric internship and residency at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston and completed a fellowship in gastroenterology and nutrition at CHOP. He also served as a faculty member and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania prior to becoming CEO of CHOP. Dr. Altschuler is a member of the board of directors of WW (formally Weight Watchers International), Orchard Therapeutics, AsclepiX Therapeutics, ImVaX inc. and Platelet Biogenesis. He is also an independent trustee of the Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization at Mass General Brigham.  Dr. Altschuler holds a BA in mathematics and an MD from Case Western Reserve University.