Ghows Azzam

Ghows joined Xeraya Capital as the Senior Vice President and bringing more than 15 years of experience in the life sciences ecosystem from research, academia, management and policy making.
Prior to Xeraya, he was the Director of the Malaysia Genome and Vaccine Institute (MGVI) under the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIBM).
During this time, he raised funds for the COVID-19 surveillance in Malaysia and also government commitment for the vaccine development project.
He was also involved in executing a few public-private partnerships with multiple local and international pharmaceutical manufacturers.
From 2020 to 2021, he was appointed as the Science Advisor to the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), and the Coordinating Minister for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), in which, has contributed directly to the successful COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Malaysia.
Furthermore, he was also involved in charting the local research ecosystem, monitoring the National Vaccine Development Roadmap and together with its implementation.
He is also currently an Associate Professor in School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Prior to that, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford.
Ghows holds a D.Phil from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, a MSc in Developmental Biology from University of Sussex, and a BSc in Biotechnology from Universiti Sains Malaysia.