Omid Harandi

Omid Harandi, PhD, is a Geneticist combining biology, medicine, technology and passionate about world changing innovations. He has a track record of founding and getting a number of cell and gene therapy companies off the ground. He is the founding CSO of Komo Biosciences to advance genome engineering and previously established and led the Cell Therapy development at SalioGen Therapeutics.

Earlier, he was part of the scientific founding team within Flagship Pioneering that developed multiple cell and gene therapy companies including Rubius Therapeutics. He is an advocate for non-viral gene delivery and holds several inventions related to lipid nanoparticles and mRNA applications.

Prior to his biotech industry experience, he was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Harvard Medical School, where he investigated the role of microRNAs in stem cell regulation.

He received his PhD in Genetics from Penn State University, where he discovered a novel class of stem cells responsible for erythroid regeneration from acute anemia. He has published several papers in high profile scientific journals including Proceedings of National Academy of Science, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Blood. During his stint at Penn State, his Department established an Award under his name to honor PhD students who have made exceptional contribution to the Genetics Program at the university.

A fun fact about Omid: Much earlier in his scientific career, he studied plant genetics and pioneered the genetic studies of pistachios (nut), receiving international awards including the Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship. In 2002, the Penn State Research Magazine wrote an article about him, referring to him as “The Pistachio Man”, a title that he held onto ever since. So if you google “The Pistachio Man”, you will recognize him