Kiavash Garakani
New York
Summary
Bioengineer and M.D./Ph.D. candidate with extensive expertise in molecular biology, cell therapy engineering, and translational immunology. Having begun university studies at age 12 and graduated summa cum laude at 14, I bring an accelerated and proven track record of executing early-stage wet lab experiments, assay development, and platform engineering for novel immunotherapies. Currently leading scientific direction and proof-of-concept studies as the CSO of Conifer Biotherapeutics, while also bringing foundational biotech experience as a Co-Founder and Consultant at 4Immune Therapeutics, Inc.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
Work History
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
Conifer Biotherapeutics
01.2026 - Current
- Lead platform engineering, assay development, and the execution of early-stage wet lab experiments for a proprietary antigen-specific immunomodulation platform.
- Design and drive proof-of-concept in vitro studies to demonstrate robust antigen specificity and scalable construct design.
- Collaborate closely with clinical and translational co-founders to generate decision-enabling data for seed financing and foundational IP generation.
Graduate Student Researcher - Ph.D. Thesis Work
Columbia University (Cornish Lab)
01.2023 - Current
- Work at the intersection of synthetic biology, chemical biology, and microbiology to develop novel drug delivery systems for gene editing agents.
Co-Founder & Consultant
4Immune Therapeutics, Inc.
01.2020 - Current
- Provide strategic scientific consulting for early-stage therapeutic development and translational immunology initiatives.
- Advise on cell therapy engineering and platform optimization to support the company's preclinical pipeline and developmental milestones.
Research Technician II
Massachusetts General Hospital (Cetrulo Lab)
02.2020 - 01.2025
- Focus on the development of novel cell therapies for autoimmunity, transplantation tolerance, and cancer.
- Work directly under Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, Jr. in the Department of Plastic Surgery, successfully bridging basic immunology with clinical application.
Graduate Student Researcher
University of California, San Francisco (Pathology Department)
08.2018 - 07.2021
- Applied next-generation sequencing and comparative genomic hybridization of tumors for improved classification and prognostic stratification of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, low-grade gliomas, and other cancers.
Graduate Student Researcher
University of California, San Francisco (Roybal Lab)
06.2018 - 06.2019
- Engineered and evaluated novel immunotherapies in the laboratory of Dr. Kole Roybal.
- Contributed to a project on high-throughput pooled synthesis and screening of CAR T cell libraries for cancer therapy.
- Implemented code in python and R to parse sequencing reads obtained from next-generation sequencing, perform quality checks of synthesized oligonucleotide libraries, simulate experiments, and identify library hits.
Education
M.D./Ph.D. - in progress
Columbia University
M.S. - Biomedical Imaging
University of California, San Francisco
06-2019
M.S. - Applied Science & Technology Bioengineering
University of California, Berkeley
05-2017
B.A. - Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
05-2014
Skills
- Wet Lab & Engineering: CAR T cell engineering, protein design, molecular cloning, protein purification, next generation sequencing, lentiviral work, cell culture, flow cytometry, western blotting, ELISAs, mouse work, custom assay development
- Computational: Python, R, MATLAB
Publications
- Goodman, D. B., Azimi, C. S., Kearns, K., Talbot, A., Garakani, K., Garcia, J., et al. Pooled screening of CAR T cells identifies diverse immune signaling domains for next-generation immunotherapies. Science Translational Medicine, 2020;14(670), eabm1463.
- Garakani K, Devine P, Ruiz-Cordero R. NGS as the Tiebreaker in Tumors with Similar Morphology and Equivocal Immunophenotype. CAP Today. 2020;8(5):42-46.
- Aghajan JFV, Shams H, Cochran FV, et al. Structural Basis of the Differential Binding of Engineered Knottins to Integrins αvβ3 and α5β1. Structure. 2019;27(9). doi:10.1016/j.str.2019.06.011. (6th author)
- Asgari E, Garakani K, Mchardy AC, Mofrad MRK. MicroPheno: predicting environments and host phenotypes from 16S rRNA gene sequencing using a k-mer based representation of shallow sub-samples. Bioinformatics. 2018;34(13):i32-i42. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/bty296.
- Garakani K, Shams H, Mofrad MRK. Mechanosensitive Conformation of Vinculin Regulates Its Binding to MAPK1. Biophysical Journal. 2017;112(9):1885-1893. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2017.03.039
- Madani A, Garakani K, Mofrad MRK. Molecular mechanics of Staphylococcus aureus adhesin, CNA, and the inhibition of bacterial adhesion by stretching collagen. Plos One. 2017;12(6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179601
- Shams H, Golji J, Garakani K, Mofrad MRK. Dynamic Regulation of α-Actinin’s Calponin Homology Domains on F-Actin. Biophysical Journal. 2016;110(6):1444-1455. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2016.02.024
Timeline
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
Conifer Biotherapeutics
01.2026 - Current
Graduate Student Researcher - Ph.D. Thesis Work
Columbia University (Cornish Lab)
01.2023 - Current
Research Technician II
Massachusetts General Hospital (Cetrulo Lab)
02.2020 - 01.2025
Co-Founder & Consultant
4Immune Therapeutics, Inc.
01.2020 - Current
Graduate Student Researcher
University of California, San Francisco (Pathology Department)
08.2018 - 07.2021
Graduate Student Researcher
University of California, San Francisco (Roybal Lab)
06.2018 - 06.2019
M.S. - Biomedical Imaging
University of California, San Francisco
M.S. - Applied Science & Technology Bioengineering
University of California, Berkeley
M.D./Ph.D. - in progress
Columbia University
B.A. - Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley