Petra Kaufmann, MD, FAAN
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Petra Kaufmann brings over 25 years of clinical and translational experience as well as a proven expertise in both domestic and global drug development. Petra joined Vigil from Affinia Therapeutics, an AAV gene therapy company, where she served as Chief Medical Officer. Prior to Affinia Therapeutics, Petra served as Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development, Translational Medicine & Analytics at Novartis Gene Therapies, where she led the company’s global clinical development strategy including global approvals of Zolgensma®. She has also served as Vice President, Translational Medicine at AveXis (acquired by Novartis), and Head, Office of Rare Diseases Research at the National Institutes of Health. Petra holds an M.S. in biostatistics from Columbia University where she also trained in neurology and served as a tenured faculty member. She received her M.D. and a doctorate for experimental work from the University of Bonn.