Dr. Nazli Azimi is a biotechnology entrepreneur with a track record of launching and exiting two biopharmaceutical companies (Bioniz Therapeutics and Dermaheal USA) that transformed innovative scientific concepts into platform technologies for discovery of novel medicines and products. Dr. Azimi has extensive experience in founding biotech companies, mapping out regulatory and clinical development strategies, financing, strategic partnerships, and M&A.
Currently, Dr. Azimi serves as the Chairwoman of the Terasaki Institute of Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), a UCLA affiliate, to assist with identifying high value scientific discoveries with potential for commercialization and company formation. She is an advocate for entrepreneurship and emerging biopharma science and serves as an advisor for Chapman University Pharmacy School and the University of California Irvine Entrepreneurship Program. She is also a winner of Winning Woman EY and a judge for the prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EoY) Orange County chapter.
Dr. Azimi holds a doctorate degree in pharmaceuticals from the University of Tehran. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Immunology at the National Institutes of Health with a focus on cancer and immunology. She is the author of several high-impact publications and the co-inventor of a technology that covers over 50 patents.