Omid Veiseh is an American biomaterials researcher and entrepreneur. As a postdoctorate candidate at MIT, he co-founded Siglion Therapeutics, a biotechnology company which would commercialize the discoveries he and his co-founders developed. In 2016, Veiseh was offered a faculty position in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University.
Veiseh earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Western Washington University and his PhD from the University of Washington.[1] Upon completing his PhD, Veiseh completed his post-doctoral research at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research where he co-developed a way to reduce immune-system rejection using biomedical devices.[2] While at MIT, he co-founded Sigilon Therapeutics, a biotechnology company which would commercialize the discoveries he and his co-founders developed.[3]
Veiseh left MIT in 2016, after Rice University won a $2 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to recruit him to their Department of Bioengineering.[4] As an assistant professor of bioengineering, Veiseh and his laboratory earned funding from the National Institutes of Health to design hydrogel-encapsulated cells can sense blood glucose levels and produce insulin on demand.[5] He also collaborated with Jordan Miller to combine cell-based therapy applications with 3D-printed technologies for use in Type-1 diabetes therapies.[3]
While at Rice, Veiseh's Sigilon Therapeutics partnered with Eli Lilly and Company to develop "living drug factories" that could be safely implanted in the body and produce insulin.[6] As a result of his efforts, Veiseh was recognized by MedTech Boston on their 40 under 40 Healthcare Innovators in 2017.[7] Individually, he also worked alongside Ravi Ghanta to develop a novel biomaterial improve the cells’ ability to heal heart injuries.[8]
