by Mohammed Homman, CEO Vironova AB, Sweden
Mohammed Homman is a dedicated entrepreneur with a degree in Biology from Uppsala University, Sweden and a Masters degree in Chemistry from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Mohammed developed ideas from his graduate research project in virology into the company, Vironova AB which he founded in 2005.
Image analysis software and a proprietary bench-top electron microscope system are at the heart of Vironova, that has now grown to 60 people and provides an instrument, software and expert consultancy solution.
Vironova was declared “one of the best start-ups of the year” in 2005, by the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation, VINNOVA. and Mohammed was honored with the Innovator of the Year award, by ALMI Stockholm.
Vironova AB has grown out of Mohammed’s passion for developing new ways to treat viral diseases and a need for objective viral and particle analysis. In a series of new companies, he has pursued various aspects of this goal.
Mohammed has continued to be recognized for his entrepreneurial and social skills, most recently in 2016 with the award from the King of Sweden of the “His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf prize for remarkable entrepreneurial achievements”.
Tell us a little about Vironova, what does the company do?
In brief, you could say that we pioneer methods for nanoparticle analysis to turn the invisible into meaningful data.
We make electron microscopy available to the pharmaceutical industry through desk-top, user-friendly instrumentation and expert services in a regulatory environment. This gives our customers control over processes and quality and access to objective data when developing products using biologicals and nano-particles.
Vironova is alone in providing a complete package of hardware, software, services and systems in this area.
How did you get to where you are now?
I founded Vironova in 2005 out of my own passion for studying viruses and finding new ways to treat viral diseases.
It was very problematic to have to use a massive electron microscope, count particles manually for hours and not have an objective or reproducible way to collect data from the images.
To solve the problem, I contacted people of many different specializations: microscopists, programmers, experts in imaging and image analysis etc. Bit by bit we built a whole system with a desktop transmission electron microscope (MiniTEM), proprietary software, services and consultancy. No other company offers anything like this.
So that all started 10 years ago but the need to collect meaningful data from electron microscopy in drug development is only growing. Biological structures (like viruses or liposomes) are being used more and more in drug delivery or as vaccines etc.
Why did you choose to hold this webinar?
We engage wherever possible with our customers –it’s through these discussions that we learn how to best serve them.
Vironova is in the middle of a very exciting time. Our new MinTEM system is on the market and we’ve experienced a great interest for it as there is a need for new solutions for sub-visible particle characterization in the biopharmaceutical industry.
We have a lot of expertise that we can share with this community, and solutions we believe would be useful to them.
What is the best thing about your job?
That’s easy! The chance to do something significant towards improving new drug development, healthcare and to move the virus field towards new solutions for viral diseases. We’re working on many fronts and growing steadily. There’s always something going on at Vironova, so it’s an exciting place to be.
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