Dr. Flanigan is the Director of The Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he holds the Robert F. & Edgar T. Wolfe Foundation Endowed Chair in Neuromuscular Research. He directs the NCH Neuromuscular Program as well as Nationwide Children's NIAMS P50-funded Center for Research Translation (CORT) in Muscular Dystrophy Therapeutic Development. He trained in Neurology & Neuromuscular Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in Human Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Utah, and currently holds appointments as Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the Ohio State University.

His laboratory research focuses on genotype/phenotype correlations in the muscular dystrophies, with a goal of understanding molecular mechanisms that lead to amelioration of symptoms in order to identify new therapeutic pathways. His lab works primarily on AAV-based approaches to gene therapy, including viral-vector based exon skipping, gene editing, and gene replacement. An experienced clinical trialist, he initiated INDs for trials of gene replacement in Sanfilippo syndrome types A and B, for which he still serves as a principal investigator.