Meet the Director
Keivan Zandi, Ph.D, M.Sc.
Dr. Keivan Zandi is Associate Professor of Virology and Director of the Natural Products Research Center (NPRC) at Morehouse School of Medicine. For more than two decades, he has advanced antiviral-drug discovery across a remarkable range of modalities, plant and marine organisms derived metabolites, nucleoside and peptidomimetic analogues and RNA-interference platforms targeting emerging and re-emerging high priority pathogens.
As a builder of research enterprises across three continents, Dr. Zandi has a proven record of founding and leading centers that endure. In Iran, he founded and directed the Persian Gulf Marine Biotechnology Research Center and served as Director of the Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center. In Malaysia, he founded the Antiviral Research Unit within the Tropical Infectious Disease Research and Education Center (TIDREC) at University of Malaya, where he remains Visiting Professor of Medical Virology. What further distinguishes his leadership is a rare blend of academic and pharmaceutical-industry experience.
As Associate Director of Virology at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in California, he built BSL-3 capacity, established a viral vector core, and successfully discovered RNAi therapeutic candidates against yellow fever and influenza translational know-how that complements his deep roots in discovery science. This dual perspective is precisely what he brings to Morehouse.
Author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, 40 invited international presentations, and co-inventor on numerous patents, Dr. Zandi is now channeling this experience into the NPRC's growth as a campus-wide hub uniting researchers across infectious disease, oncology, neuroscience, and cardiometabolic health—building seed-grant and training programs and a network of global partnerships to transform nature's chemical diversity into first-in-class, equity-minded therapeutics.