Maryam Bemanalizadeh, MD

Biography

As Chief Medical Officer for Exir Gene Pharmed, Maryam Bemanalizadeh is responsible for advancing Exir Gene pipeline of investigational medicines and overseeing medical activities across the company to bring meaningful new treatment options to patients.

Maryam leads the development of potential new medicines, running clinical trials and steering the path to regulatory approval, while providing the evidence needed to ensure our medicines can reach all patients who can benefit. As part of the Exir Gene strategy, Maryam and her team play a central role in driving the company’s mid- to long-term growth and delivering on its purpose to improve and extend people’s lives, with a strong pipeline that includes investigational high-value treatments for rare disorders.

For me, the true promise of science lies in turning what once seemed impossible into a real possibility for patients and their families.

Maryam is passionate about partnering with patients and physicians to change medical practice, recognizing the hope and trust of clinical trial participants and those who treat and care for them. She has dedicated her professional career to improving patients’ lives, first as an academic clinician and then as a drug developer and leader.

Maryam joined the team in June 2023 as a Senior Researcher at the Gene Therapy Research Center, Shariati Hospital. At the time, the work that would later evolve into Exir Gene was still at an early stage, developing within a startup framework focused on advancing gene therapy research toward clinical translation.

As the program progressed, the team successfully secured funding that enabled the expansion of its research and development activities and supported its transition from an early-stage startup into an independent biotechnology company. Maryam remained closely involved throughout this evolution, contributing to the scientific, medical and translational development of the company as its programs, capabilities, and organizational structure grew.

Today, as Chief Medical Officer of Exir Gene, she continues to help guide the company’s medical and clinical strategy, bringing continuity from its earliest research efforts through its development as an independent gene therapy company.

Before joining us, Maryam was a physician and senior researcher at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. She served as Director of the Neurodevelopmental Section of the PERSIAN Birth Cohort, where she led multidisciplinary research activities, coordinated study implementation across teams, and contributed to the development of research protocols, quality assurance processes, and scientific strategy.

Throughout her academic career, she has worked with diverse clinical and scientific groups and has been involved in international research collaborations with leading institutions and investigators across multiple countries. Her work has spanned neurodevelopment, neuroscience, neurodegenerative disease, biomarkers, imaging, and advanced genetic therapies, often bringing together researchers from different disciplines to address complex clinical and translational questions.

These experiences gave her a strong foundation in both scientific leadership and collaborative research, which she continues to bring to her role at Exir Gene.

Maryam has a keen interest in hiking, finding in nature a space to slow down, reconnect, and experience the world with a greater sense of presence and perspective.