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Omar Khwaja (Medicine 1988) is Chief Medical Officer at Windward Bio, a clinical-stage drug development company which he co-founded earlier this year.

While many medical graduates stick to traditional clinical career routes, Omar’s own path has been much more varied, encompassing medical practice, research, drug development and entrepreneurialism. Windward Bio, with headquarters in Switzerland, is his latest venture, founded with a colleague in January 2025 with a mission to develop new therapeutic pharmaceuticals for treating serious immunological disorders.

“Drug development is like a scientific Rubik’s cube,” Omar says. “There are lots of pieces you have to keep an eye on and solve problems around. The discovery of new targets and the building of new types of molecules is a scientific puzzle. There’s a regulatory piece of the puzzle: how do you work with regulators to make sure they’re in agreement with your plans to develop the drug? And then there’s a big business side: how do you found a company, and how do you finance and manage it? I really like all of these elements, which have to work together smoothly and be brought into alignment at the right time.”

The company’s current lead programme involves Phase 2 testing of a potential best-in-class monoclonal antibody (identical copies of an antibody made in a lab) designed to bind to TSLP (thymic stromal lymphopoietin), a protein connected with respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This should make it easier to tackle these conditions, which have a significant unmet need for pharmaceutical treatments. Windward Bio is also working to create novel, long-lasting bispecific antibodies (which can bind to two different antigens) to deal with immunological diseases.

Omar has enjoyed a rich and fulfilling medical career, often driven by his curiosity to explore new areas of work. After over a decade as a highly regarded academia-adjacent practising paediatric neurologist working across three continents (including nine years as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School), he segued into multiple roles at pharmaceuticals and diagnostics company Roche. Next he became Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research & Development at biotechnology company Voyager Therapeutics, then Chief Medical Officer at biotechnology start-up VectivBio, before co-founding Windward Bio.

“The trajectory of my career has not been completely linear; it’s always had a few zigs and zags. But that’s always because I’ve been interested in something,” Omar says. “I’m a curious person. I like doing different things and seeing how I can build on what I’ve done to do something new.”

This capacity to embrace new interests, and to look beyond the horizons of his current work to new medical opportunities, is a quality he traces back to his time at Gonville & 91ֱ�� College. He says: “Studying Medicine at 91ֱ�� put me in contact with lots more different things outside of Medicine than if I had gone to a more traditional medical school. I’ve always felt able to be interested in things beyond my day-to-day job as a doctor.”