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2024 Advisors
Dr. Li-Fen Lee is Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board of Director of Apeximmune Therapeutics. Dr. Lee is deeply versed in the fields of immunology and immuno-oncology (IO) and a leader with over 20 years of drug development experience and expertise in multiple therapeutic areas in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Lee held leadership positions at Abbvie and NGM where she led the IO group and established the core IO infrastructure and helped build the IO pipeline. Dr. Lee started her career at Pfizer where she led a drug discovery group and made significant contributions to the development of therapeutic antibodies against IL-7R and various costimulatory molecules aimed at treating autoimmune diseases and cancer. Her work, which included several IND filings, patents and numerous high impact publications, was recognized with the prestigious Pfizer Achievement Award. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Lee held a faculty position at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Cancer Immunology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where she was a recipient of the Lineberger Graduate Fellow Award and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University.
Dr. Lee joined CBA in 2007 and was the Chairperson in 2011, CBA Annual Conference. She likes hiking, swimming, traveling and reading in her leisure time.
Shuming Liu
Dr. Shuming Liu received her doctoral degree in Medicine from Linköping Medical School in Sweden. She obtained her postdoctoral training at UCSF and worked as a scientist with expertise in molecular cell biology at BD Biosciences. Shuming is passionate about cancer research and education. She is currently the president of the Save Life and Talent Foundation, where she has devoted her time to reaching out to raise cancer awareness in communities such as schools and hospitals. Her educational seminars on cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment have attracted people from all over the world. Many of the attendees now belong to a growing online support group which she created to not only offer her counsel but to offer a community for those fighting cancer. Dr. Liu joined CBA at the beginning of 2019 and has been actively involved in organizing symposiums, social events, and the annual meeting. In her leisure time, she enjoys cooking, photography and traveling.
Dannis Chang
Dannis Chang, PharmD. is currently the Senior Director and Head of Global Medical Information and Scientific Communications at Halozyme Therapeutics, leading the development and establishment of the vision, overarching goals and objectives, and key strategic focus areas and tactics for Medical Information, Medical Communications, and Operations within Global Medical and Scientific Affairs. He received his undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of California – Berkeley, and upon graduation, he’s worked in project management at Genentech in the Translational and Molecular Oncology Division, as well as in research discovery and sales and marketing at LifeScan and AnaSpec Inc, respectively. Dannis also received a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from the University of Southern California and completed a post‐doctoral Fellowship with Novartis Oncology in US and Global Clinical Development and Scientific Affairs Division where he’s supported and led various efforts that involved US and Global Medical Information services, MSL Strategy and Operations, Managed Markets and Payer Access, and publications. During his fellowship, he also served as an adjunct faculty at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. Post fellowship training, Dannis joined Genentech as the Senior Product Lead in Medical Communications supporting Avastin in the lung, renal cell, and gynecologic cancer indications, and was accountable for the development and execution of various medical information duties. He also served as the Medical Science Director for Tecentriq in the genitourinary cancer medical team, where he’s made numerous contributions in preparation for the initial launch in 2L metastatic bladder cancer, and other launch readiness and post-market activities from a commercial and medical affairs capacity. Dannis was also the strategic program lead within Medical Business Operations, where he focused on developing system-wide capabilities to improve healthcare outcomes and enable the organization to apply the latest scientific and technological advances to resolve significant issues within the business, thus reducing operating costs and redundancies, and increase efficiencies across teams. Dannis joined Chinese Bioscience Association in 2018 as a volunteer and supported various activities such as the Cancer Immunotherapy Symposium, Member Picnic, and Annual Conference.
Huifang Li
Dr. Li is a biotech entrepreneur on a mission to find new therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. She received a Ph.D. degree in Cognition and Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University. After finishing her postdoctoral training, she stayed at Stanford University as a research scientist to further her interests in translational medicine. She has led several research projects targeting CNS disorders such as epilepsy, drug addiction and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Li has been a CBA board member since 2014 and in the past served as the Director of Public Relations (2014-2016), 2017 CBA Annual Conference Chair, 2017-2018 Vice President and 2019 President.
Mark Chen
Dr. Chen is an immunologist with expertise in antibody design for therapeutic use and new vaccine discovery for the treatment of human cancers and infectious disease. He completed his Ph.D. in Immunology from Texas A&M University and has a track record of successful leadership roles in R&D, business development, and the marketing of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Chen has been an active contributing Chinese BioScience Association board member since 2014. He has enthusiastically served CBA in the capacities of Secretary (2014, 2015), Vice President (2016, 2017), and President (2018).
Patrick Yang
Dr. Yang is currently Director at Latigo. He has been working mainly in the Bay Area for many years in various pharmaceutical companies in the field of CMC including analytical development and quality control. Dr. Yang obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from University of the Pacific, USA. Patrick has been serving on the CBA board for several terms since 2003. His roles include directors of membership, activity, and alliance. He successfully organized CBA education seminar and has been working as a committee member for Ho Family Scholarship. He was the president of CBA in 2017 and is now CBA advisor. Besides CBA board member’s duty, Patrick also participated in many other activities in the Bay Area. He helped organize a big literature seminar for Sichuan earthquake fundraising, led local student math team and science bowl teams, took judge and judge leader roles in Silicon Valley science fair, and served as CABS journal editor “Trends in Bio/Pharmaceutical Industry” for seven years. He is also an active writer with many readers.
Kai Zheng
Dr. Zheng received his Ph.D. from Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas. After graduation, he joined Pharm. Technical Development department in Genentech at Oceanside, California and focused on formulation development of biotherapeutics at early stage. In 2011, Dr. Zheng joined Late Stage Pharmaceutical Development department in Genentech at South San Francisco site, where he focuses on Phase III and commercial formulation development of biotherapeutics and related regulatory filings. Dr. Zheng was vice president 2015.
He has been a board member and volunteer of Chinese Bioscience Association (CBA) in the last three years. His duty in CBA includes managing CBA membership and helping organizing numerous workshops and annual conferences.
Michelle Chen
Dr. Chen works as a corporate and business development executive at BioMarin. She started her biotech career in R&D at Scios (now Johnson & Johnson) and later Abgenix (now Amgen) as a group leader. She then went on to gain marketing and business development experience at global companies such as Merck, Roche, and Agilent where she was responsible for business development licensing, collaborations, M&A and external pharma partnerships in personalized medicine, Dx and drug development deals. She also advised multiple start ups on fund raising, partnerships, R&D strategies, PR and IR.
Dr. Chen obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, followed by the post-doctoral training at UCSF.
Lin Sun-Hoffman
A founding partner in Liu, Zheng, Chen & Hoffman LLP, Dr. Lin Sun-Hoffman is a patent attorney with 20-year experience focused on innovative life sciences. Lin has deep knowledge in all aspects of patent practices, ranging from policy, patent preparation and prosecution, due diligence, opinion work, through licensing and technology transfer negotiation.
In addition to her patent work, Lin has extensive experience with Chinese regulatory authorities, i.e., the Chinese FDA and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and broader expertise in US and Chinese government affairs, serving clients ranging from start-up to Fortune-100.
Lin’s diverse background has prepared her to tackle the toughest challenges facing innovative life sciences companies today, starting with her time as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). She left USPTO to serve as managing patent counsel at Celera Genomics before joining the Life Technologies Corporation (formerly Applied Biosystems, now ThermoFisher). She is a frequent speaker in China, the US, and Europe, including participation at the invitation of USPTO to speak at SIPO and WIPO Conferences.
Lin also has over ten years of biomedical research experience including several years as a postdoctoral research fellow with several publications at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Frederick and Bethesda, Maryland. Lin currently serves as vice chair of LES International University-Industry-Government subcommittee, Bay Area Chapter head for BayHelix, Secretary General of US-China Green Energy Council. Lin was President of the Chinese Bioscience Association in Silicon Valley in 2013, and President of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA) 2008-2009. Lin also served as Chief Advisor for Asia at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) during 2011-2015, and Chief Advisor for Asia at Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) during 2009-2011.
Lin is also active in community activities including serving on the PTA executive council board (2015-2017) of Palo Alto School District, and teaches underprivileged students in rural area Yunnan China every summer.
Lin obtained her J.D., from University of Maryland School of Law (Maryland, U.S.); Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Nevada Reno (Nevada, U.S.); and B.S. in Biology, East China Normal University (Shanghai, China). She is admitted in Maryland and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Shian-Jiun (SJ) Shih (CBA Founding President)
Dr. Shih is a consultant serving pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, with more than twenty years’ of industrial experience and specializing in assay development and biomarkers.
From 2009 to 2015 she worked at the Translational Medicine Research Centre, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck Sharp & Dohme, most recently as the Director and Site Lead of Molecular Biomarkers and Diagnostics. She lead 29 scientists with broad translational research skills, including immunoassays, nucleic acid-based assays and next generation sequencing, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, cell-based assays, immunohistory chemistry, and bioinformatics. Her group was responsible for developing clinical biomarker assays to support early phase clinical trials, including those for Keytruda, as well as for collaborating with academic leaders in biomarker discovery, and for building primate disease models for target validation studies.
Prior to joining Merck, she was with Cell Genesys, a biotechnology company developing cell-based immunotherapy and oncolytic adenovirus-based gene therapy products from 2001 to 2008. As the Director of Assay Development there, her group developed quality control and clinical monitoring assays for phase 3 clinical trials, and conducted product characterization studies to answer inquires from FDA, and from regulatory authorities from other countries.
During her time at Bayer Pharmaceuticals (2000-2001), SJ successfully developed liquid parenteral formulations and explored several novel drug delivery routes for biological drugs. From 1994 to 2000 she worked at Aventis (currently Sanofi) in various capacities, including characterization and purification of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, development of a cell isolation medical device for bone marrow transplantation, liquid formulation and enhanced cellular delivery for gene therapy products. She started her industrial career in 1993 at BioSource (currently Invitrogen) and produced antibody reagents for research and in vitro diagnostic use.
SJ received a BS degree in Chemistry from National Taiwan University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin–Madison, and completed her post-doctoral training at the department of Molecular Pharmacology at Stanford University.
Patty H Kiang
Dr. Kiang is a consultant in Bio/Pharmaceutical industry supporting CMC Combination Products development and Quality systems.
Patty was Head of Delivery device development for Genentech. Prior to Genentech, she held positions as Director, Drug Product Delivery for Schering Plough, and Director of Technology Development for West Pharmaceutical Services in Exton, PA. Patty is a member of the faculty of the PDA’s Training and Research Institute, where she teaches courses on Prefilled Syringe & injection devices and Parenteral Packaging; she has also served as committee or conference chair for USP Packaging Expert Committee, PDA Sterilization of Polymeric Materials Committee and PDA Global Prefilled Syringe & Injection Device Conference. She was president of the Chinese Bioscience Association in Northern CA – 2011, and continue serving as an advisor. She holds five patents in the field of polymeric surface coatings. She received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Villanova University and holds an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.
Sydney Chen
Dr. Chen is currently Director of Quality Control & Bioanalytics at Solstice Neurosciences. Her seventeen plus years of biopharmaceutical industry experience encompassed discovery and development of diagnostic markers and therapeutic drugs, assay development as well as quality management. In her current role, Dr. Chen is responsible for assay analytical development and product quality control of company’sprotein drug. She is also the CMC lead for regulatory correspondences for product’sworldwide commercial market. Prior joining Solstice, she has made significant contributions at various roles for Telik, diaDexus, GeneMed and Bristol Myers Squibb. She received her doctoral degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutgers, State University of New Jersey. Being a long time CBA volunteer, Dr. Chen has served in various capacities in the past, including two terms of vice president in 1999 and 2009.
Kelley Liu
2019 marks the 17th years Dr Liu joined as an adjunct faculty in chemistry at several local community colleges. Outside of her teaching career, Kelley currently serves as a business consultant and focuses on early market development and sales support for biotech companies. She is also working with start-ups to identify business development opportunities with established companies or institutions across the Pacific.
She was the lead expert in the biotech and healthcare sectors for CITS Consulting Group and ITRI International. Her expertise focuses on biotech market research and pre-sales development for biomedical and medical device companies. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she worked for White Pigment and Materials business unit, DuPont. She had worn multiple hats, from process chemist, six-sigma trainer, to new product development project leader, organization change consultant and mid-level manager. With her background in analytical method development, she was instrumental in redirecting the company’s strategy in developing physical test to replace pigment end-user test.
Dr. Liu received her Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After an intensive career in chemical industry, she returned to school and attained a M.S. degree in Management of Technology from MIT Sloan executive program with a focus on strategic management of biotechnology enterprises. Most recently she has completed certificate course work in biotechnology and bioinformatics.
A firm proponent in community efforts, she is actively involved in non-profit activities. She was 2007 Chinese Bioscience Association President and co-founder of the Life Science Forum in MIT Club, among many others. She is Under Secretary General for Chinese Cultural Center Volunteer troop and 2011-2012 President of the American Cancer Society California Chinese Unit. She chaired 2011 Chinese Relay for Life event, which ranked 9th in net income and event size among the 400+ relay events across the State. In her spare time, she enjoys putting together literature, philharmonic, and film programs for her hobby group.