Dr. Farshad Guirakhoo Vaxess Technologies, USA

Dr. Farshad Guirakhoo was named in 2014 as no. 22 in the list of the 50 Most Influential People in Vaccines. His most recent role was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Vaxess Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA. Prior to this, Dr. Guirakhoo served as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Hookipa... read moreBiotech, a privately owned company located in Vienna, Austria developing vaccines against cytomegalovirus and cancers using a novel technology based a non-replicating viral vector. Prior to joining Hookipa, Dr. Farshad Guirakhoo was Executive/Senior Director of External Research and Development at Sanofi Pasteur, the Vaccine Division of the Sanofi Group. Prior to joining Sanofi Pasteur in 2007, he was with Acambis for 15 years, where he headed research and co-invented the ChimeriVax-technology platform in association with St. Louis University. This platform has successfully been applied in the development of vaccines that are either marketed/in registration (e.g. IMOJEV™, a single dose Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, PreVenile™ veterinary West Nile (WN) vaccine) and Dengvaxia™, Tetravalent dengue human vaccine), or are in late stages of clinical trials (e.g. WN human vaccine).
Dr. Guirakhoo has broad experience in the application of genetics, gene expression technologies and molecular virology for the constructions and productions of recombinant proteins, human antibodies and attenuated viral vectored vaccines for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Dr. Guirakhoo is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed publications, including book chapters, and holds multiple patents.
Dr. Guirakhoo received his PhD in Virology from the University of Vienna, Austria, holds a M.Sc. in Genetics, and a B.Sc. in Biology. He has been awarded the National Research Council Post-Doctorate Award and studied at the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases (DVBID), in Fort Collins, CO.