Farzin Farzaneh

Farzin Farzaneh co-found ViroCell Biologics in 2019, an innovation driven CDMO, focused on the development and GMP manufacture of viral vectors.  ViroCell develops and GMP manufactures viral vectors for targeted delivery and expression of therapeutic genes, focused on the rapid transition of gene therapy from discovery science into clinical studies.  Farzin holds honorary Chairs in Molecular Medicine at University College London, Imperial College London and at the Technical University of Dresden.  Since 2016, Farzin serves on the Clinical Trials, Biologicals & Vaccines Expert Advisory Group of the UK Commission on Human Medicines.  He received the Distinguished Scientist Award, of the US Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine in 2016.  Farzin has published over 250 papers and two edited books, with a total citation of over 13,000  and an H-Index of 55.

Having studied at the Universities of Aberdeen and Sussex, Farzin was awarded the 1979 Beit Memorial Fellowship.   Following the completion of further post-doctoral fellowships supported by the UK Medical Research Council and the European Molecular Biology Organisation, was appointed to the faculty at King’s College London (KCL) in 1985 and was awarded a Personal Chair in Molecular Medicine in 1996, a position that he continues to hold today.  Farzin established the GMP facility at King’s College London for the manufacture of cell and gene therapy products in 2001.  This facility produced the largest number of viral vectors for regulatory approved clinical studies in Europe with over 190+ g-retro and Lenti-viral vectors.  Farzin has acted as a QP for the qualification of investigational medicinal products in cell and gene therapy since 2007.