Karim Azer

Karim Azer is VP and head of Systems Biology & Discovery at Axcella Therapeutics. He leads the data and discovery sciences organization at Axcella, bringing together innovations in data sciences and discovery sciences to advance novel pipeline opportunities through the application of systems biology, design of novel endogenous metabolic modulator combinations for new indications, and the translation of these combinations into the clinic. Prior to Axcella, Karim led quantitative sciences efforts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute where His work was focused on leveraging the spectrum of systems biology, including computational biology, QSP and Pharmacometrics modeling approaches, and data science, to address research and development needs of the institute, in the areas of tuberculosis, malaria, diarrheal and enteric diseases, and maternal neonatal health. Karim also worked at Merck and Sanofi where he led the integration of biological and computational science approaches to advance important medical innovations across discovery, translational medicine and clinical development stage gates. Karim received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Courant Institute at NYU, and B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Rutgers University. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1997, employing a wide variety of systems biology approaches to address drug discovery and development questions in R&D.