Farhad Parhami

Farhad Parhami was trained as an Experimental Pathologist in the Department of Pathology at UCLA under the mentorship of Professor Judith Berliner. His training and experience include molecular and cellular biology, lipid metabolism, inflammation, and bone and vascular biology. In 1996 he obtained a faculty position and held the title of Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Medicine at UCLA until his separation from the University in July 2016. Dr. Parhami received his M.B.A. degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in July 2012. His research laboratory at UCLA had a number of full-time scientists and several staff members and was involved in the training of doctoral and post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Parhami serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals and is a member of National Scientific Organizations including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Heart Association, American Association for Cancer Research. In addition to discovering the cross-talk between Liver X Receptors and Hedgehog signaling pathway, Dr. Parhami is credited with seminal discoveries including the identification of osteogenic and anti-adipogenic effects of specific oxysterols, the recognition that dyslipidemia causes adverse effects on bone cells and bone formation, and that cholesterol biosynthesis by osteoprogenitor cells is necessary for their proper differentiation and maturation into bone-forming osteoblasts. Dr. Parhami has published and continues to publish in many peer-reviewed scientific journals, and is regularly invited to present his research nationally and internationally. Dr. Parhami founded MAX BioPharma Inc. in December 2010 and negotiated an Exclusive License Agreement from UCLA for the intellectual property involving a novel oxysterol technology platform developed in his laboratory at UCLA. Dr. Parhami has been successful in developing MAX BioPharma into a fully functioning biotechnology company that currently has 7 employees, performs R&D in 3 major preclinical programs that utilize novel oxysterols as therapeutic candidates, obtained two SBIR Phase I and two SBIR Phase II grants from the National Institutes of Health, and raised $250,000 of seed funding for the company. In October 2014, Dr. Parhami successfully finalized negotiations with a major biopharmaceutical/device company and licensed one of MAX BioPharma’s programs, resulting in significant value for MAX BioPharma.