Behnam A. Baghbaderani Lonza

Dr. Baghbaderani is the global head of Process Development, Cell and Gene Technologies at Lonza. He has over 18 years of experience in development of cell and gene therapies for clinical and commercial applications . Dr. Baghbaderani holds a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Calgary (Canada), where he developed bioreactor protocols for large-scale expansion of human neural stem cells for clinical applications. He completed nearly three years of postdoctoral program including a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH focusing on generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), bioprocessing of human embryonic stem cells and human iPSCs and controlled differentiation into neuronal lineage. Since joining Lonza in 2011, he started to lead a group of scientists in process development, establishing pluripotent stem cell platform technologies and a cGMP compliant manufacturing process for iPSCs. Dr. Baghbaderani then led the cell therapy development department, focusing on development of cGMP compliant processes and analytical methods for different autologous and allogeneic cell therapy applications. In his current role, Dr. Baghbaderani has been leading a global organization offering development services for a wide range of viral vector- and cell therapy-based applications at Lonza, Cell and Gene Technologies.