Dr. XIA has over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research. Prior to founding our Group, Dr. XIA held senior leadership roles (including senior vice president) from April 2008 to March 2012 at Crown Bioscience Inc., where she played a decisive role in constructing Crown Bioscience’s platform, building its team, setting and implementing its strategies, and forging its joint venture with Pfizer (the Pfizer-Crown Asian Cancer Research Centre). From July 2006 to March 2008, Dr. XIA served as a senior scientist and group leader at PDL BioPharma, Inc. (later acquired by Abbvie). From January 2006 to June 2006, Dr. XIA served as a senior process development scientist at Bayer Corporation in the U.S.. At both PDL BioPharma and Bayer, Dr. Xia oversaw CMC, process development and manufacturing of therapeutic protein and antibody drugs. Dr. XIA began her pharmaceutical career at Axys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (later acquired by Celera Genomics), where she held both scientific and managerial roles in drug discovery programs from December 2000 to December  Dr. XIA received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from Sun Yat-Sen University in the PRC in 1988. She earned her Ph.D. degree in molecular biology and microbiology from Newcastle University in the U.K. in 1994. Dr. XIA completed her postdoctoral research training at the University of Glasgow in the U.K. from 1993 to 1996, and she also conducted cancer immune therapy research at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in the U.S from 1996 to2000. Dr. XIA has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. XIA is also the grantee of 16 issued patents and pending patent applications.

Dr. Baiyong Li is an expert in immunology and antibody drug discovery. Prior to founding Akeso Biopharma, he was a senior scientific leader at Pfizer since 1999 and specialized in new drug discovery for the treatment of immune-related diseases and cancer. He led and participated in multiple projects on discovery, pre-clinical and clinical studies of new antibody drugs. Dr. Li was appointed head of Pfizer Crown drug discovery group and led the formation of the Pfizer – Crown Asian Cancer Research Center in 2010. He displayed instrumental leadership in advancing multiple Drug discovery projects at the joint venture, pioneering antibody drug discovery research in China. Dr. Li obtained his B. S. in Biochemistry from Nankai university in 1991 and his Ph. D. in molecular and cell biology from Pennsylvania State University in 1996. He conducted postdoctoral research at Dr. Richard Flavell's lab at Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Max Wang has over 20 years of industrial and academic experience in structure biology and drug discovery. Prior to founding Akeso Biopharma, he was executive director at Crown Biosciences, responsible for establishing and managing protein and structural biology group. He also started a structure based antibody engineering platform there, carrying out antibody humanization and affinity maturation. Prior to joining Crown Bioscience, Dr. Wang worked at Ardea Biosciences (acquired by AstraZeneca), where he made major contributions to several kinase inhibitor candidates through x-ray crystallography and structure based drug design. Before that, Dr. Wang was a group leader at Trimeris, Inc. (acquired by Alexion), leader in peptide based HIV fusion inhibitors. He had crystallized and determined more than 30 complex structures, which led to new generations of fusion inhibitors. Before that, Dr. Wang worked at New Century Pharmaceuticals, Inc., focusing on albumin based drug discovery and other blood related protein therapeutics. He led a group of scientists and solved more than 200 complex structures of albumin with leading drugs on the market. Dr. Wang obtained his B. S. in Physics from University of Science and Technology of China in 1991, and his Ph. D. in Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics from Baylor College of Medicine in 1998. 

Dr. Peng Zhang is an expert in protein biochemistry and analytical science. Prior to founding Akeso Biopharma, he was senior director of the protein group at Crown Bioscience, in charge of protein and antibody reagent provision services to major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. During three years of time, he led the group to successfully deliver more than 100 projects to JnJ, Pfizer, Teva, Lundbeck, GSK, and many other clients with very high satisfaction. Before joining Crown Bioscience, he was a scientific leader at PDL Biopharma, making contributions to analytical data packages for several FDA filing.  Dr. Zhang obtained his Bachelor and Master degree in Chemistry from Shandong University in 1998 and Ph. D. in Biochemistry from University of Kentucky in 2006. 

Mr. Xiayu is mainly responsible for manufacturing, quality and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining our Group, Mr. Xia (Ph.D.) primarily focused on the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sector in Canada and U.S. Mr.  Xia  (Ph.D.)  obtained  his  bachelor ’s  degree  in  applied  chemistry  from  Peking University in July 1992, he subsequently obtained a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom, in January 2001.Mr. Xia (Ph.D.) has published and contributed to four scientific publications. Mr. Xia (Ph.D.) is an awardee of the Pearl River Talents Scheme in April 2017, and has been recognized as a Level 3 talent of the Shortage of High Level Talents of Zhongshan in December 2017.

Prior to joining our Group, Dr. Jin first served as the biostatistician of a pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo Inc. and participated in the clinical studies of new oncological medicine indications from July 2005 to June 2014. He then served as the scientific director of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc from June 2014 to April 2017, and  was  responsible for  setting  clinical study  strategies to  identify indications, designing clinical study plans, managing clinical studies, analysing relevant data and drafting clinical study reports.  Dr. Jin obtained his bachelor ’s degree in chemistry from the University of Nanjing (南京大學) in the PRC, in July 1997. He subsequently obtained his master ’s degree in statistics from the Washington State University in the U.S. in August 2001. He further obtained his Ph.D. degree in biostatistics from the University of Minnesota in the U.S., in June 2005. He has published 16 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Jin is selected in the Pearl River Talents Scheme in April 2018.

Mr. Xi brings over 15 years of financial industry experience in the U.S. and China, including investment banking and private equity investment with many public and private companies. Prior  to  joining  us,  he  was  a  director  at  SIN  Capital  (HK)  Limited,  focusing  on investments in healthcare industry in China, and was an investment banker at Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and CLSA securities executing high profile transactions, including IPOs, debt and equity financings and M&As for leading companies in China.  Mr. Xi earned his M.B.A degree with distinction from New York University, Stern School of Business in 2008. He obtained his Master of Science degree from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2002, with major in biochemistry and computer science, and his bachelor ’s degree in biochemistry from Wuhan University in 1997.