About Us
Why We're Here
The entire Precious Cells team feel so passionately that stem cells and regenerative medicine will successfully be used to treat devastating diseases in the very near future.
The world of stem cells is one of the most exciting and promising fields of modern medicine, with extraordinary advances in the last few years. There is a rapidly growing belief, supported by clinical evidence, that stem cells hold the potential to dramatically change how a wide range of high-prevalence, life-threatening diseases are treated.
Along with these advances, however, there is a concurrent need for safe, scientifically based infrastructure, processes, and systems that allow both adults and children to have their stem cells safely collected and conveniently banked for their own personal future use.
We are proud to have developed all the processes and techniques used in the Precious Cells dedicated laboratory in-house, using the team's experience as medical and scientific professionals.
We are also extremely proud to have founded the world’s first premium family autologous stem cell biobank collecting and storing stem cells from five sources: umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord tissue, dental pulp, adipose (fat) tissue and bone marrow. This makes us a leading global authority in stem-cell banking.
“Having spent ten years working in some of the UK’s most elite academic centres researching how translational medicine using cellular therapy can be used to treat a range of diseases, I founded Precious Cells to give every single person the opportunity to store their own stem cells for their own future use.”
Dr Salem, Founder and CEO of Precious Cells International Limited
Executive Board
Mr Grahame Cook
Mr Grahame Cook Non Executive Chairman has over 18 years experience in investment banking, advising on a wide number of mergers and acquisitions and capital market transactions in the US and Europe. He was Global CEO of West LB Panmure, where he joined in 1999, Managing Director of Capital Markets and on the Global Investment Banking Committee at UBS. He has advised on a number of transactions in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors across Europe and the US, including private equity investments, IPOs and secondary offerings. Grahame Cook was a founder member of the LSEs TechMARK Advisory Committee, and holds an MA, double first, from Oxford University.
Dr Husein K Salem
BSc PhDChief Scientific Officer
Dr Salem founded Precious Cells after spending over a decade in academic research focusing on novel cellular therapies for a number of diseases, with particular emphasis on cardiac and neurological disorders. Dr Salem worked in some of the UK’s most elite universities including Manchester University and Imperial College London before setting up Precious Cells International. Built on strong scientific evidence and responding to an ever-growing body of scientific information, Precious Cells International is a truly innovative and astonishing opportunity for all.
Dr Nisreen Salem
BDS MJDF (RCSEng)Chief Dental Officer
Dr Nisreen graduated from King's College London, and has recently acquired the much-coveted MJDF qualifications. After training in general practice, Dr Nisreen developed a special interest in oral surgery where she worked in the maxillofacial department. Dr Nisreen has developed the Precious Tooth service using her extensive dental experience to perfect the world's first technique to extract dental pulp stem cells from teeth.
Mr Peter Brooks
Mr Peter Brooks Non Executive Director has over 25 years experience in mid-market UK private equity. He has completed over 25 direct transactions and has strong experience in support / business services and outsourcing as well as buy & build /roll-outs. He has held senior positions at a number of leading private equity houses. These include LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, where he was the Managing Director of the London team and Sovereign Capital, where he was the CEO. He is currently an NEC or NED in a number of growth companies, as well as an investor in a portfolio of early stage unquoted businesses. Peter graduated with an MSc in management science from Imperial College and a postgraduate diploma in marketing after a first degree in environmental science.
Mr Richard Lyman
Mr Richard Lyman Non Executive Director is a venture capitalist, investment banker and serial entrepreneur. He has held multiple management positions at Smith Kline & French and Smith Kline Instruments, Inc. He served as president of Squibbs Medical Systems International, where he managed a group of five significant cutting-edge technology businesses including Spacelabs, and Advanced Technology Laboratories. He then joined the venture capital firm Adler & Co., where he assembled and managed the healthcare portfolio for five companies. He formed Steinberg & Lyman, a life science focused investment-banking firm that raised and managed a $60 million life science venture fund, for which he was Managing Partner. Of the eleven businesses owned by the fund, eight, including Medimmune, Inc., Genetic Therapy, Inc., and Osteotech, Inc., went public on the NASDAQ, and three were sold to trade buyers. He was CEO and Chairman of Quadrant Healthcare plc. He joined Oakes, Lyman & Co. Limited and currently holds non-executive directorships in Sphere Medical Holding plc, Wound Solutions Limited, Orteq Limited and OsteoDynamiX Limited.
Mr Andrew Smith
Mr Andrew Smith Non Executive Director has a background running technology companies in the IT and healthcare sectors. After graduating in Mathematics from York University, he joined the artificial intelligence team at Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems, where he was responsible for building some of the first expert systems used by European banks and medical institutions. Andy passionately believes that companies work best if they genuinely focus on delivering for all stakeholder groups. Profitablity is a natural consequence of excellent delivery.
Dr Neil Counihan
Dr Neil Counihan Board Advisor Neil Counihan is one of the UK's leading orthodontists. He qualified in Dentistry at Kings College Hospital, London and then studied orthodontics at New York University. In 2004, Neil co-founded the award winning 'Elleven Orthodontics' in the prestigious Harley Street district of London. It leads the field in orthodontic treatment and was voted Best Private Dental Practice in 2005. Dr Counihan is a Registered Specialist in Orthodontics at the General Dental Council of the U.K. and is an active member of the British and European Orthodontics societies. Dr Counihan currently has a state of the art clinic "metamorphosis orthodontics "in west london and regularly
lectures both in the UK and Internationally.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Murtaza Salem
BMedSci MBBS MRCSChief Medical Officer
Dr Murtaza graduated from the University of Nottingham and trained at the prestigious Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. After completing early clinical and surgical training, and becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Dr Murtaza took up the prestigious Academic Clinical Research Fellow position in the world-renowned Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Leicester. Current research interests include targeting markers of atherosclerotic plaque instability that cause strokes and heart attacks, and developing novel pharmaco-therapeutic agents for a range of cardiovascular diseases. His work has been presented at a range of international scientific meetings and published in international journals. He remains heavily involved in medical education as a clinical tutor and mentor to University of Leicester medical students and recently graduated doctors.
Dr Nisreen Salem
BDS MJDF (RCSEng)Chief Dental Officer
Dr Nisreen graduated from King's College London, and has recently acquired the much-coveted MJDF qualifications. After training in general practice, Dr Nisreen developed a special interest in oral surgery where she worked in the maxillofacial department. Dr Nisreen has developed the Precious Tooth service using her extensive dental experience to perfect the world's first technique to extract dental pulp stem cells from teeth.
Dr Saif Najefi
LDSRCS(Eng) MGDSRCS(Eng) DGDP(UK) DPDS(Bristol Univ)Deputy Chief Dental Officer
Dr Saif has more than 25 years dental experience, is an MJDF examiner, ORE examiner and part-time clinical tutor at Southend Outreach under the auspices of Barts and The London Dental School. He is Director of North West Thames division of the FGDP (UK), and is a clinical educator and a part-time lecturer for the University of Essex.
Professor Malcolm Alison
BSc, PhD, DSc, FRCPathProfessor of Stem Cell Biology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
He Professor of Experimental Pathology at Imperial College from 2000–2004
He is Assistant Editor of the International Journal of Experimental Pathology, a member of the Steering Committee of the MRC/BBSRC UK Stem Cell Bank, a member of Scientific Advisory Committee of Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Scientific Advisory Board of ‘Stem Cells for Safer Medicines’. He is also a member of Faculty of 1000 in Medicine and an associate member of the MRC Translational Stem Cell Research Committee. He is an editorial board member of numerous scientific journals including The Journal of Pathology and The American Journal of Pathology. He is Editor-in-chief of The Cancer Handbook, a two- volume reference work, and author of over 200 scientific articles.
Dr Husein K Salem
BSc PhDChief Scientific Officer
Licence Holder and Designated Individual
Dr Salem founded Precious Cells after spending over a decade in academic research focusing on novel cellular therapies for a number of diseases, with particular emphasis on cardiac and neurological disorders. Dr Salem worked in some of the UK’s most elite universities including Manchester University and Imperial College London before setting up Precious Cells International. Built on strong scientific evidence and responding to an ever-growing body of scientific information, Precious Cells International is a truly innovative and astonishing opportunity for all.
Management Team
Dr Husein K Salem
BSc PhDFounder CEO & Chief Scientific Officer
Dr Salem founded Precious Cells after spending over a decade in academic research focusing on novel cellular therapies for a number of diseases, with particular emphasis on cardiac and neurological disorders. Dr Salem worked in some of the UK’s most elite universities including Manchester University and Imperial College London before setting up Precious Cells International. Built on strong scientific evidence and responding to an ever-growing body of scientific information, Precious Cells International is a truly innovative and astonishing opportunity for all.
Dr Nisreen Salem
BDS MJDF (RCSEng)Chief Dental Officer
Dr Nisreen graduated from King's College London, and has recently acquired the much-coveted MJDF qualifications. After training in general practice, Dr Nisreen developed a special interest in oral surgery where she worked in the maxillofacial department. Dr Nisreen has developed the Precious Tooth service using her extensive dental experience to perfect the world's first technique to extract dental pulp stem cells from teeth.
Mr Asif Raniwala
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant ten years ago and spent his formative years at two of the UK's leading Firms, Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche.
Ms. Kiran Sandhu
BSc, MScLaboratory and Quality Manager
has more than 8 years of experience as a microbiologist in an accredited facility.
Awards & Accreditations
Awards
Precious Cells co-founders Dr Husein Salem and his wife Dr Nisreen Salem won Outstanding Personal Achievement Awards in the 2013 Best Business Awards.
Precious Cells is London regional winner for Business Innovation in the Federation of Small Businesses Streamline Awards 2013.
Accreditation
Precious Cells holds a full Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licence and is the only biobank licensed to collect, process, test and store stem cells from umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord tissue, teeth, adipose tissue and bone marrow. We are the first company to gain 35 unique licences from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), the world's most stringent regulator. Our HTA number is 22615.
The HTA is the Competent Authority in the UK under the EU Tissues and Cells Directives with responsibility for licensing the storage of human tissue. When deciding which company to store your precious stem cells with, always ask if they are HTA accredited with a valid licence.
Precious Cells meets the standards of the UK Department of Health Code of Practice for Tissue Banks, laid down to make sure that tissue of reliable quality is produced for supply to the health service for therapeutic purposes. It is the “Gold Standard” for stem cell bank operations.
Our accreditation also shows that we adhere to the Guidance on the Microbiological Safety of Human Organs, Tissues and Cells used in Transplantation as well as the current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines.
Precious Cells International is a proud corporate member of the BioIndustry Association (BIA). BIA is an independent accredited body fostering and leading the UK’s bioscience sector by working to raise standards within the industry and implement best practice.