Meet Our Team

Company History

The roots of the company’s technology are in the world’s largest life science research organization, the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH), where founders Drs. Nazli Azimi and Yutaka Tagaya both were trained for their post-doctoral fellowships. Both, Dr. Azimi and Dr. Tagaya were part of Dr. Thomas Waldmann’s research group, a world-leading and respected laboratory of the NIH. The focus of the lab was on cytokines of the gamma-c family, a critical group that is highly relevant in a variety of human conditions. The group has made seminal contributions to our understanding of this important cytokine family, in particular IL-15 and its receptor.

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While collaborating closely in Waldmann Lab, Drs. Azimi and Tagaya learned about specific disease conditions in which multiple cytokines are both independent and redundant disease drivers. Recognizing the limitations this redundancy posed to the conventional single Monoclonal Antibody (MAB) therapy paradigm, in which only single cytokines are inhibited using single MABs, they began to look for alternative approaches. Their realization ignited in them a desire to develop a technology aimed at inhibiting multiple cytokines with single molecular agents.

In the following years, after they both left NIH, they founded Bioniz in Irvine California to test a new conceptual hypothesis that later became the company’s platform technology.

Today, Bioniz has grown from a bold concept into a strong, emerging life sciences company with support from not only world leading business executives, but also the sharpest scientific minds in the sector.

Dr. Nazli Azimi, Pharm.D.,Ph.D., Founder & CEO

Dr. Nazli Azimi is the Founder and CEO of Bioniz Therapeutics, as well as the co-inventor of its core-technology. As both a noted researcher and a seasoned business professional, Dr. Azimi’s vision and passion for the future of immune therapeutics have driven Bioniz’s core technology from a hypothesis shared with her co-founder, to a fully realized platform technology that is best recommended by the world class business leaders that have joined Bioniz’s Board of Directors, as well as the leading scientific minds, that are now investing their time, enthusiasm, and resources in order to drive Dr. Azimi’s vision to its full potential, including two members of the National Academy of Sciences,.

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Dr. Azimi originally graduated from the University of Tehran with a doctorate in pharmacology, from which she went on to a post-doctoral immunology program at one of the premier research groups at the NIH, directed by Dr. Thomas Waldmann, a pioneer in the field of immune-therapy. During her post-doctoral studies, Dr. Azimi made seminal contributions to the field of immunology, which later became the foundation for Bioniz’s platform technology. After the NIH, Dr. Azimi joined the faculty at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she studied immune cytokine responses to herpes virus before transitioning into entrepreneurship, where her interdisciplinary talents are now proving the most valuable. Through her leadership and vision, Dr. Azimi created and led Bioniz through a post-2008 recession environment to develop investigational drugs that she has ensured will enter the clinic in 2016. Along the road, she has established numerous partnerships with leading academic centers, as well as global pharmaceutical companies.

Before founding Bioniz, Dr. Azimi demonstrated her talent for translational science and leadership as founder and CEO of Dermaheal USA, a privately held company which was acquired in 2014 after 7 years of successful operations. Fitting into Dr. Azimi’s expansive knack for diverse thought, she is also a trained artist whose paintings were exhibited when she lived in Washington, DC.

Fred Wiklund, MBA., COO

Fredrik Wiklund has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience and currently serves as our Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this role, Fred served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Celladon Corporation (CLDN), a publicly traded biotechnology company, having previously served as its Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. During his time at Celladon, Fred lead the company through its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and eventual merger with Eiger Biopharmaceuticals. Prior to Celladon, Fred served as Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Tercica, Inc (TRCA). At his 5 years at Tercica, Fred assisted in the company’s IPO and also completed strategic transactions exceeding $800M, including the company’s sale to the Ipsen Group in 2008. Previously, Fred was an investment banker with Lehman Brothers where he assisted both pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies complete capital-raising and strategic transactions. Fred also has over 7 years of commercial experience, primarily with Gilead Sciences where he participated in the company’s first product launch in 1996. Mr. Wiklund received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and his B.A. from the University of San Diego.

Yutaka Tagaya, Co-Founder & CSO

For the past 15 years, Dr. Tagaya has been studying T cell- and cytokine-biology. He started his work as a post-doctoral fellow at the NCI in Dr. Thomas Waldmann’s group. After several years of successful research advances, Dr. Tagaya found the opportunity of establishing his own research group consisting of dedicated post-doctoral fellows and students in the same branch. Dr. Tagaya’s group has made seminal discoveries on the unique functions of cytokine IL-15 (trans-presentation paradigm) and used this model to study the development and functional differentiation of NK and T cells. His group has also generated several cytokine transgenic mice (IL-15, IL-7, and IL-2 transgenic mice, IL-2-GFP knock-in mouse in collaboration) and studied the immunological and pathological consequences of the overproduction of these cytokines. Recent work has also revealed a special and unique function of a transcription factor IRF-8 in the development of effector/cytotoxic CD8 T cells.

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Since Dr. Tagaya joined the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland as a faculty member (assistant professor), Dr. Tagaya has been running his own research lab focusing on the development of unique multi-cytokine inhibiting peptides for Bioniz’s BNZ class technology targeting autoimmune and inflammatory disease. These investigations have also involved the study of T cell transformation mechanism caused by HTLV-1 in the context of a human leukemia (ATL; adult T-cell leukemia).

At the same time, Dr. Tagaya has been in charge of creating and running the IHV flow-core which helps the IHV community to run polychromatic flow-cytometry as well as conducting various types of cell-sorting, supervising the entire operation of the core. Dr. Tagaya’s core has special permission to sort infectious (such as HIV-1 and HTLV-1) cells and is the only flow lab in the University of Maryland Baltimore which is capable of conducting such sorting.

Having originally started his research under the influences of his first mentor (Dr. Junji Yodoi) who was a hematology-resident when he discovered the first case of ATL (Yodoi et al. 1974, New Engl J Med), Dr. Tagaya’s drive to address cancers and immune cell proliferation come from a deep desire to find an effective cure for this deadly leukemia.