Catherine Illingworth

Catherine Illingworth is a biotechnology founder whose engagement in the CMT community is both personal and action-driven. Her son, George, has CMT4C, an experience that led her to focus on advancing potential gene-based therapies for people living with CMT.

Determined to help move promising research toward clinical development, Illingworth founded Kylix Bio to advance stalled gene therapy programs through clinical trials. Her work reflects the challenges many families face in translating scientific progress into patient-ready therapies.

Previously, Catherine spent her career in academia in the humanities. She holds an MA from Yale in medieval theology and an MA from UCLA in Comparative Literature. She was writing a doctoral dissertation on Dante and language theory when she left to focus on efforts related to rare diseases. She has worked for three university presidents and taught at Pepperdine and Baylor Universities.

Catherine lives in Southern California with her husband, Greer, and their three children.