Omid Cameron Farokhzad

Omid Farokhzad (; born 1969) is an Iranian-American physician, scientist, and entrepreneur in the development of nanomedicines. Farokhzad is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School. Omid Farokhzad is the Chair, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder for Seer, a company focused on deep, unbiased proteomics analysis at scale. The Boston Globe selected him among the top innovators in Massachusetts and the Boston Business Journal selected him among the Health Care Champions for his innovations.

He has also served as an associate editor for ACS Nano an international forum for the communication of comprehensive articles on nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the interfaces of chemistry, biology, materials science, physics, and engineering. He is widely recognized as leader in the field of nanomedicine and drug delivery.

In 2016, he was the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He was also elected in the National Academy of Inventors in 2018.

Career Farokhzad completed his residency in Anesthesiology and fellowship in Pain Medicine at the Brigham and Women Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He completed a post-doctoral research training with Professor Robert Langer at MIT in the Harvard-MIT Program of Health Sciences and Technology. He joined Harvard Medical School in 2004 as a faculty member, after his clinical training, he served as Professor of Anesthesia.

He has popularized the usage of specific targeting agents for the delivery of chemotherapy agents to cancerous cells found within a cancer patient. Beyond cancerous phenotype he has addressed atherosclerosis-related disease, He has demonstrated the usage of targeted biodegradable nano ‘drones’ that delivered a special type of drug that promotes healing. This remodeling of the plaque environment would be predicted in humans to block plaque rupture and thrombosis and prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Farokhzad founded Seer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEER) in 2017 to advance transformative proteomics platform that uses nanoparticles to analyze the protein compositions of a sample. As of October 2024, he remains the Chairman and CEO of Seer, Inc. In 2020, he also founded PrognomiQ, a spinoff of Seer.

Awards

2023 — Mustafa Prize Award (Life and Medical Sciences) 2018 — Fellow, National Academy of Inventors 2016 — Ellis Island Medal of Honor 2012 — AIMBE College of Fellows 2012 — EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Northeast Region)

Philanthropy Farokhzad and his wife, Shadi Aryanpour-Farokhzad, through the Farokhzad Family Charitable Fund, have supported initiatives in education, healthcare, and the arts. They have endowed the Farokhzad Math Center at Milton Academy, the Shadi and Omid Farokhzad Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, and the Farokhzad Family Distinguished Chair for Innovation at Brigham and Women's Hospital.