GeneXp is our genetic testing system with an embedded software which can accurately analyse the rare and common genetic disorders. Our featured test is BRACA panel for breast cancer which strikes 22 million women in Pakistan at some point of their life, and PCSK9 test for familial hypercholesterolemia, which strikes 16 million people worldwide and 0.5 million people in Pakistan. 80% of people having this rare genetic condition are living without a diagnosis and experience early cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart attack.
Our Mission
At Cambridge GenetiX we believe in universal health services and giving importance to every single life. That’s why we have developed specialised tools for creating Human recombinant proteins, Biosimilar antibody drugs and a sophisticated genetic testing system for developing countries. These next generation therapies are designed meticulously by Scientists, Engineers and medical doctors from Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford universities paving a path to ensure better health worldwide. Our first drug Huminase is already accomplishing our mission.
Early detection of this variant can save millions of lives. GeneXp deals with 50 Genetic disorders including Cystic Fibrosis, Phenylketonuria, Haemophilia, Type 1Diabetes, sickle cell anaemia, Poly cystic kidney syndrome and many more.
Every year 33 million people suffer from stroke among them 21.6 million people are from developing countries such as Pakistan. Currently, stroke management is sub-standard and leads to high mortality rates. We are bringing a revolutionary stroke management product to the developing countries called Huminase.
Huminase is a recombinant from of Human plasminogen activator protein that destroys blood clots within hours of its administration after the stroke. Unlike streptokinase, Huminase can be used multiple time in an individual’s lifetime, immediately providing extra line of protection during re-occurrence of stroke.
Cambridge GenetiX is bringing 4th generation of advanced CAR-T cell lentivirus manufacturing services to facilitate clinicians who want to provide cell-based therapies to lymphoma cancer patients. In our proprietary system, we use a specially engineered vector system to produce high quality of viral particles which are ready to engineer patient derived T cells.
At Cambridge GenetiX we have prepared dozens of cell lines including MEFs, HeLa and HEK293T, which stably express inducible version of Cas9 enzymes under a GFP and puromycin selection markers. The cell lines come with a guide RNA cloning plasmid which allows your custom knockout to be a click away. Cambridge GenetiX cell lines allow you to perform a complete gene-knockout experiment in as little as 6 weeks. We are posting a complete list of CRISPR cell lines on our website soon.
hTERT immortalization system is one step solution provided by Cambridge GenetiX to immortalize your precious collection of patient-derived primary cell cultures. Normal cells divide for 9-10 passages before acquiring senescence. Collection of samples from multiple patients may introduce variability hence impacting your final results. Here we provide Lenti-virus particles which can introduce human Telomerase enzyme. hTERT is an enzyme which elongates the life of primary cell cultures from 10-60 passages, providing you enough material and confidence of reproducibility.
Origins
Cambridge GenetiX originates from a Nobel Prize winning Lab at Cambridge. Prof. J.B. Gurdon’s lab has mentored Lawrence J.Korn (Founder of Protein Design lnc.) and Douglas A. Melton (Co-Founder of Gilead and Founder Semma Therapeutics). Both companies have changed medicine by bringing blockbuster drugs like Herceptin and Avastin to patients. Semma therapeutics has brought a historical Stem Cell Therapy for Type-1-Diabetes. We hope to follow in the footsteps of companies like this who bought life changing treatments to patients through truly innovative and groundbreaking science.
Our Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. John B Gurdon is a distinguished group leader at the Gurdon institute, University of Cambridge in England. He is most famously known as a first person in history to clone a frog, which eventually paved a path to cloning of mammal such as Dolly the Sheep. His ability to answer fundamental questions, earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly with Prof Shinya Yamanaka in 2012). Prof Gurdon has mentored several PhD students many of them have become successful in their entrepreneurial ventures while creating Biotech businesses worth more than 2 billion USD. Dr Gurdon’s is also first person in history to be able to express a recombinant protein in 1971 paving the path to a multibillion-dollar industry as we know it. In Cambridge GenetiX, Dr Gurdon act as a chief of Scientific board.
Prof. Azim Surani, is a Marshall-Walton Professor at Department of Physiology Development and Neurosciences, and head of Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge. Prof. Azim Surani was trained by Prof. Robert Edwards who discovered In-vitro Fertilization (Nobel Laureate physiology or Medicine, 2009). In his early years, Prof Azim Surani discovered a phenomenon of Genomic imprinting, which is fundamental in understanding the inheritance of genomic information from paternal and maternal cells. This information is paving paths to the discovery of new phenomenon and principles to understand human genetic diseases and developmental pathways. In Cambridge GenetiX, Prof Azim Surani act as an advisory board expert in epigenetics.
Dr. Tashfeen Siddiq Ali is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Major Trauma at King’s College Hospital, London. Dr. Ali trained in Ireland at the Royal College of Surgeons and then did a Critical Care fellowship in Cambridge. He is well known for his special interest in medical simulation and quality improvement in medicine. He brings his extensive clinical experience, in-depth understanding of the modern medicine and passion for change to Cambridge GenetiX. He serves as a medical expert on the board.
Dr. Muhammad Abbas Khokhar is one of the leading oncologist in Pakistan. Currently he is heading the Department of Medical Oncology and radiotherapy in King Edward medical university/ Mayo hospital, Lahore, which is the largest public sector institute where all sorts of solid and hematologic malignancies are being managed. Department of Medical oncology & Radiotherapy in Mayo Hospital, Lahore has bright history of teaching, training , innovative research and has collaborated in many international clinical trials. Both post Graduate and under graduate teaching programs are being run here. Dr. Muhammad Abbas Khokhar is supervising the students of FCPS Medical oncology, M.D. Oncology, Diploma in Clinical Oncology, and B. Sc (Hons) Radiotherapy programs. Dr. Muhammad Abbas Khokhar did his graduation from Allama Iqbal medical College, Lahore in 2002, and he has an experience of working in USA and UK as well. He has many Publication in national and international journals and his particular area of interest in research is Breast cancer, Hematologic malignancies, novel immunotherapies cancer genetics. He has been actively involved in research and he is doing his Ph.D. on induced pluripotent stem cells and engineering the genes according to particular disease. He is also the member of Society of Medical oncology Pakistan (SMOPK), American Society of Clinical oncology (ASCO), and Europena society of Medical oncology (ESMO). He is quite ambitious about uplifting the level of training and international research collaborations in oncology in Pakistan.
Leadership
Dr. Khayam Javed is Molecular and Cell biologist with previous trainings into Biotechnology and large-scale production of therapeutic proteins. Dr Khayam has been supervised by Prof. John B Gurdon at University of Cambridge where he uncovered the principles of cellular reprogramming by using highly precise molecular methods. Dr Khayam is joining Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology in Cambridge MA, to pursue the Stem Cell therapies for Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, where he will be trained by the co-founder of Gilead and founder of Semma therapeutics Prof Douglas A Melton.
Andy gained his bachelor’s degree in biophysics from Portsmouth University and undertook his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield. He was then awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Laval University in Canada where he performed cancer research at the Center Recherche Sur Le Cancer, located in the heart of historic Quebec City. He returned to the UK to join Tony Kouzarides’ newly established laboratory in the Wellcome/CRC Institute (now the Gurdon Institute), part of the University of Cambridge.
Nowadays, Andy is still at the Gurdon Institute and is a member of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre. He has spent the last three decades generally messing around with chromatin with a special focus on histones and their modifications. He has made several seminal contributions to the field, in which he is highly cited with a h-index of 59. More recently, his focus switched to the analysis of post-transcriptional RNA modifications and biochemical characterisation of the relevant enzymes. Throughout his career, Andy has warmly welcomed collaborative studies particularly with pharmaceutical companies, both large and small, and he has acted as a scientific consultant to many of these
Scientific Team
Emmanouela holds a B.Sc. in Molecular Genetics from King’s College London and an M.Sc. in Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology from Imperial College London. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge where she is working on antibiotic resistance. Before joining the company, Emmanouela held several research positions in immunology and cancer research (King’s College London UK, Institut Curie France, and Barts Cancer Institute UK), malaria vaccine development (Imperial College London) and drug discovery in SARS-CoV-2 (King’s College London UK). She has also worked as an analyst in MedTech and held consultancy roles in business and enterprise (Prince’s Trust UK).
Dr Carlos Melo is originally from the beautiful city of Porto, Portugal, where he got his MSc degree in Biological Sciences- Molecular Genetics. During his degree, he worked across different fields, ranging from Plant biology to Neuroimmunology. He was awarded an international PhD fellowship to pursue his studies at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), under the supervision of Prof. Reuven Agami. During his PhD, he specialized in RNA and gene regulation, with a focus on the role of ncRNAs in cancer. He then moved to Cambridge, after winning an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship, to conduct his post-doctoral work in the lab of Prof. Tony Kouzarides at the University of Cambridge. Currently, he is studying the impact of different RNA modifications in breast and pancreatic cancer biology.
Dr Gaurav Agarwal is a medical doctor working in the NHS. He graduated from Oxford Medical School, during which he was awarded internships at Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Gurdon Institute to train in basic science. Previously, Gaurav has led proof-of-concept development of a novel cellular therapy for Wilson’s Disease and worked to bring polygenic risk scores to the clinic at Genomics PLC. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at Cambridge Genetix, where he is passionate about bringing our exciting science to better patient care. Away from work, Gaurav is a keen pianist and enjoys racquet sports.
Dr.Muntazir Abidi is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Cosmology Group at the University of Geneva. He is also serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Habib University, Pakistan, and Scientific Advisor to a Global Family Office. Previously he has completed a Master’s in applied mathematics and a PhD in Theoretical Physics (Cosmology) from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Geneva. At Cambridge GenetiX, Muntazir will be serving as a business advisor and will help us in operations.
Cristina completed her Bachelors in Medical Biosciences at Imperial College London, where she received basic laboratory training that included researching the effect of adrenaline on breast cancer drug paclitaxel, and studying the effect of receptor Adipor1 CRISPR-Cas9 knockout on adiponectin hormone levels within the context of diabetic kidney disease. She was additionally a keen writer for the Imperial Bioscience Review, a student-led journal focusing on science communication, where she published several articles covering various eye-catching science topics. Last year, She got my first experience within the biotech industry by working for MediSieve, a medtech start-up developing an innovative magnetic blood filtration device. Within the company, she was involved in a sepsis-focused project investigating the efficency of newly-developed E. coli-targeting magnetic nanobeads. Currently, she is studying an MPhil in Therapeutic Sciences at Cambridge University, placing special focus on the development of novel therapeutic approaches (e.g. gene therapy, regenerative medicine and electroceuticals) and the social, financial, ethical, legal and policy implications of their implementation. In Cambridge GenetiX, Cristina is going to be serving as research scientist for production of Biotherapeutics.
Dr. Nouraiz Ahmed is a Stem cell biologist with vast experience in regenerative medicine, cell and gene based therapies. Dr Nouraiz has been supervised by exceptional scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Heart & Lung Research, Germany and at the Department of Biosystems Science & Engineering at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. During his research, Dr Nouraiz gained extensive expertise in blood and immune system disorders (hematologist), cellular reprogramming and genetic manipulation of stem cells. His long-term goal is to bring cell and gene-based therapies of rare blood and immune diseases at the clinical front worldwide.
Zsofia Hesketh is a Hungarian-British public health professional and medical biologist, whose mission is to improve global access to life-saving diagnostics and treatments.
In 2019, she earned a BA Hons. in Human, Social and Political Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, developing a special focus on health policy and medical ethics. She is currently completing an MSc Translational Medicine at the University of Helsinki in regenerative medicine and infectious diseases. Her research primarily centres around the use of neurotrophic factors in Parkinson’s disease and ALS, enhancing wound healing, and an interest in leveraging stem cells more broadly.
Zsofia has spent two years in Switzerland working with the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, WHO and UNAIDS on partnerships and policy coordination for routine immunisation programmes, COVID-19 vaccine distribution, and HIV/AIDS innovations. She has previously worked for ADDMedica, a Paris-based orphan sickle cell drug manufacturer, and holds a health reporting fellowship at Health Policy Watch.
Dr Huma is a medical scientist with extensive experience in molecular medicine and drug metabolism. She has done PhD in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from NUST in collaboration with a host Newcastle University Medical School, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Dr Huma possesses strong expertise in molecular biology techniques and ability to work collaboratively with other research scientists on a plethora of molecular biology projects including designing the biosensors for the early detection and diagnosis of severe obesity. Dr Huma has successfully completed research project and convinced clinicians into clinical trial of AFIC (AF- Institute of Cardiology), Pakistan to understand the pleiotropy of Warfarin drug in 2015. Alongside, Dr Huma has an experience in designing and executing the complex molecular assays. With her extensive expertise in mentoring and Lab management, Dr Huma serves as a head of operations at Cambridge GenetiX in Pakistan. Her responsibilities include managing the product development and Quality control in both Cell Line Development program as well as for the Biosimilar project of Company.
Functional Team
Saher Sania is currently working with British Council as an IELTS and Life Skills Examiner and as well as a medical content writer at Askclinik. Academically, Saher has done a Master in English Literature following a Masters in the Chinese Language. Saher has been a keen writer for social and medical issues for the past decade, featuring many of her writings in the newspapers and journals. Saher will be serving Cambridge GenetiX for the public awareness articles about health, hygiene and about some exciting new therapies.
Voluntarily withdrew from the J.D program at Georgetown University Law Centre. Co-founder of Mach 42 a quantitative investment firm based in Pakistan. Previously worked at Shahab Usto and Associates where he helped secure the release of over 30 prisoners who had been held beyond sentence for nonpayment of fines.
Bilal is an entrepreneur with over 12 years of experience of successfully starting, scaling and running companies in the software space. He has a strong background in managing complex projects and systems, networking and HR especially in early stage start-ups.
Bilal brings his curiosity and resourcefulness to CamGentix where he is working very closely with the core functional team to bring ground-breaking healthcare to the developing world. Bilal works as an operational head in our GeneXp software and manages logistics and operations of Cambridge GenetiX.