2006 SABPA Pacific Forum Speaker Biography

Zhu Shen, Ph.D., MBA
Senior Director, Business Development, Immusol Inc.
Board of Directors and Chair of Pacific Alliances and Entrepreneurship, SABPA San Diego; Conference Chair

Dr. Zhu Shen is the Senior Director of Business Development at Immusol, a private, biopharmaceutical company in San Diego developing novel therapeutics in oncology, HCV, and ophthalmology.  Her key responsibilities include leading all of Immusol’s licensing and corporate partnering activities, marketing, and corporate communication.  Previously, Dr. Shen founded BioForesight, Inc., a life science strategic consulting company focusing on licensing, partnering, and financing for its clients in the US and Asia/China.  She also held positions at The Wilkerson Group/ IBM, Bayer, and Chiron, with increasing responsibilities in marketing, strategic planning and business development. 

Dr. Shen is an organizer, speaker, and chair of numerous life science business conferences on licensing, venture capital investing, and Asia Pacific partnering.  She is the author of numerous articles published on Pharmaceutical Executive, Ernst & Young Global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Reports, and BioExecutive International.  She has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Reporter, Drug Discovery News, Genetic Engineering News, San Diego Business Journal, and ASIA Media.  She received the 2006 Asian Heritage Award in Science, Technology, and Research.  She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado, and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.  She attended Peking University and Peking Union Medical College in China.

Kevin Chen, Ph.D.
Vice President of BioDuro LLC

Dr. Kevin Chen is VP of BioDuro LLC, and is in charge of China operation.  BioDuro is a Life Science Outsourcing company based in San Diego, USA and has R&D operation in Beijing, China.  Kevin was general manager and co-founder of IgCon Therapeutic Company, a biotech company focusing on therapeutic human antibody development for Asian health care market.  Dr. Chen was appointed as the Director of R&D Center, Novo Nordisk China in 1997 and served as a member of board of directors of China Management Group, Novo Nordisk China. Dr. Chen worked at Shanghai VC as the head of Biotech from 2001 to 2002. He is the member of biotech strategic planning committee under National Development and Reform Commission, P.R. China, and the senior consultant of PuDong New Area Biomedical Industrial Development, Shanghai, China.

 
Before joining Novo Nordisk, Dr. Chen worked as a principal investigator at Central Research & Development, DuPont Company, USA, and as a senior postdoctoral fellow in the Bioprocess Engineering Development Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He pioneered the concept and technology of directed molecular evolution for protein engineering in non-aqueous solvent.  Dr. Chen is originally from Shanghai, China.  He received a Ph.D. degree from University of Minnesota, Twin cities, USA in 1990.

Charles Hsu, PhD, MBA
Venture Partner, Pappas Ventures

Charles has been an active venture capital investor since 1990 and joined Pappas in early 2005. He was a General Partner of the Walden Group or its affiliate, Walden International, from early 1996 through early 2003. Prior to joining Walden, he co-managed life sciences investments at Advent International, a global private equity firm based in Boston. He has served as a lead investor or board member for more than 25 life science and healthcare companies, and he was a founding investor of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (IPO in 1996). He received his Ph.D. and MBA from Stanford University, and AB in biochemistry from Harvard University. 

Jason (Gang) Jin, Ph.D.
President and CEO, MaxyBio Corporation and Senior Vice
President, Global Business Development ShanghaiBio Corporation
(Shanghai Biochip, Ltd).

Dr. Jason (Gang) Jin is President/CEO of MaxyBio Corporation and Senior VP of Global Business Development in ShanghaiBio Corporation (Shanghai Biochip, Ltd). Dr. Jin is developing globalization solutions to American and Chinese pharmaceutical/biotech industries for broad collaborations in R&D and product distribution and manufacturing. He also serves as Professor and Oversea Director of Technology Transfer Office (USA) for Shanghai Institutes of Biology Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Jin has extensive experience in genomics, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, pre-clinical research, and clinical studies. He held positions as Directors of Genomics Lab at Purdue Pharma, Functional Genomics at Salk Institute, National Engineering Center for Biochip at Shanghai, and radiologist at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital. Dr. Jin received Postdoctoral Fellow, Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Bioengineering from U.C. San Diego, and medical trainings from School of Medicine at Fudan University.

Steven Kradjian, RAC
President, Kradjian Consulting, LLC

Steven Kradjian, RAC, is President of Kradjian Consulting, LLC, a multidisciplinary senior consulting firm capable of expediting new drug product development from candidate selection through clinical evaluation via a structured team of experienced product development professionals.

Mr. Kradjian earned a degree in Chemistry from Occidental College and completed the Kellogg School of Management’s program for senior regulatory affairs professionals.  He was Principal Investigator for NIH Regulatory Submissions for HIV Vaccines.  During his career, including service at Amgen and Vical, he has served on various product management committees, filed or supported numerous IND/CTA submissions, and participated in four product approvals. 

Henry Q. X. Li, Ph.D.
Director of Oncology and Metabolic Diseases, Immusol Inc.

Dr. Li currently heads the therapeutic discovery/development areas of the oncology and metabolic disease programs at Immusol Inc., a San Diego based biopharmaceutical company.  These include preclinical development of both biologics and small molecules that are now at stage of IND filing for human trials, which also involved outsourcing and collaborations with both domestic and overseas partners and CROs.  He has been instrumental in spearheading the cancer target discovery/validation efforts and related technology development in Immusol, and led a major collaboration in cancer with Novartis. 

Dr. Li is currently on the editorial board of the journal Current Signal Transduction Therapy, an editor of a book and an author on numerous scientific publications.  He received postdoctoral training at UCLA School of Medicine, Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine, M.S. from Shanghai Medical University (Fudan), and B.S. from University of Science and Technology of China.

Zili Li, MD, MPH
Direct of Clinical Research Operations – Asia Pacific
Merck & Co., Inc.

Dr. Li is a Direct of Clinical Research Operations – Asia Pacific at Merck, responsible for regulatory policy development in China and selected countries in the region. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Li had worked at US FDA for seven years, holding various clinical positions, including medical team leader with the office of new drugs.  He was a recipient of eight FDA awards, including 2003 FDA Scientific Achievement Award.  He speaks frequently at the US and international conferences/seminars on the regulatory and clinical issues related to IND and NDA review practice and process in the US.  Prior to joining US FDA, Dr. Li had worked as a senior epidemiologist at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego for more than seven years. Dr. Li, a graduate of Peking Union Medical College in Beijing China, completed his residency training at Johns Hopkins in 1999 and is board-certified in preventive medicine.  In addition, Dr. Li holds two master degrees in public health.

Alan Paau MBA, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of California, San Diego

Prior to UCSD (invent.ucsd.edu), Dr. Alan Paau was Executive Director of the Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc. and Director of Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer at Iowa State University (Ames, IA). Previously, he was Associate Director of the Biotechnology Center at the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) with responsibilities in research administration, technology management, and industry liaison. Dr. Paau held faculty appointments while at Iowa State University in the departments of Preventive Medicine, Immunology & Microbiology, and Genetics & Zoology, and at the Ohio State University in the departments of Microbiology, and Plant Pathology.

Before returning to the academic environment, Dr.Paau held various research and management positions in the Cetus Corporation and the W.R. Grace & Co. organization for over 10 years. Dr. Paau holds a Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences and a Master of Business Administration degree. He is the inventor to 8 US patents and has contributed thirty peer-reviewed research articles to scientific journals and six invited reviews/ chapters to technical books. As a director of intellectual property and a licensing executive, he supervised the execution of over 500 licenses and option agreements and the formation of over 30 startup companies using university innovations.

Glenn Rice, Ph.D.
Founder, CEO, and President, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Glenn Rice, Ph.D. is founder and CEO and President of Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Bridge is the leading preclinical contractor of Asian FDA compliant drug development services for the US and EU markets.  Previously (2002-2004), Dr. Rice headed life sciences at SRI International (Stanford Research Institute- VP Biosciences), consisting of a department of approximately 180 scientists and staff.  Prior to SRI, Dr. Rice was Board Director and VP Research at ILEX Oncology, which was sold to Genzyme Corp. in 2004.  Prior to ILEX he was a founder and CEO, President and Chairman of Convergence Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held cancer biopharmaceutical company, which was sold to ILEX Oncology.

 

He is currently founder and founder of EmergingMed, an online clinical trial prequalification and matching database and a co-founder of C-PATH, an Institute focused on drug development and regulatory innovation he helped found with the FDA and the University of Arizona. Prior to Convergence, Dr. Rice was Vice President of Research at Cytokine Networks (1998-1999), and  Director of Cell Therapeutics (CTI) from 1993-1998.  He headed a discovery laboratory at Genentech from 1987-1993.  Dr. Rice is currently an inventor on over 20 patents or patent applications and has authored over 75 manuscripts and book chapters.

Richard M. Soll, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Soll has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience including 11 years at Wyeth Ayerst and 8 years at 3-D Pharmaceuticals where he founded the Chemistry Dept. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College and conducted post doctoral research at Harvard. He is an author on numerous scientific publications and is named as an inventor or co-inventor on more than 65 issued or pending patents.

 

 

Peng Chen, Ph.D.
Attorney,  Morrison Foerster law firm

Dr. Chen's practice focuses on patent prosecution, client counseling, opinion and litigation and encompasses all fields of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Chen has a significant amount of experience in preparing and prosecuting biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents. He has managed entire patent portfolios for biotechnology clients, advising the clients on maximizing their own patent positions and designing patent strategy in dealing with other entities' patents. Dr. Chen also has been litigating biotechnology patents, especially in the area of in vitro diagnostics.  Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Chen practiced patent law at a national intellectual property boutique firm and a major California general practice firm. Peng Chen obtained his B.S. in Beijing Normal University in 1986 , and got  Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine  in 1993. Later he decided to start a career for patent law,  and went to Columbia Law School and got his J.D. in 1997

Sylvie Sakata, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Chemistry, Pfizer La Jolla and Nagoya

Sylvie received her Bachelor of Science with Honors at the University of California Irvine in 1993. She continued her studies organic chemistry and natural product synthesis with Professor Larry Overman, and obtained her PhD at UCI in the fall of 1998. She started her career in industry at Agouron Pharmaceutical in the Chemical Research and Development as a research scientist and had the opportunity to lead projects within Development. Over a three year period, while in CRD, she worked on the development of the Rhino Virus (common cold) and HIV NNRTI programs.  In 2001, she redirected her career to move to Medicinal Chemistry where she has had the opportunity to continue to work in many Antiviral programs at Warner Lambert now Pfizer. During the same period, she lead the entire chemistry sourcing initiative for Pfizer La Jolla. She is currently the Associate Director of Chemistry Sourcing in charge for both sites at Pfizer La Jolla and Nagoya. She is also a member of the Pfizer Global Discovery Chemistry Sourcing Group.

Ming Guo, Ph.D.
Vice President of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Manufacturing
Ascenta Therapeutics

Dr. Guo has joined Ascenta Therapeutics in March 2005. He has assumed the responsibilities of Vice President of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Manufacturing. He came to Ascenta from Pfizer, where, for eight years, he led many aspects of drug development activities, both in-house and outsourced, for multiple clinical drug development candidates in oncology, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases (anti-viral agents). In addition to his technical leadership in process chemistry and manufacturing at Pfizer, Dr. Guo was also responsible for project management of exploratory drug candidates focusing on CMC issues. One of the oncology project teams he led was the recipient of a Team Recognition Award in 2004. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Guo was responsible for process chemistry research and development of pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals at Monsanto and ABC Laboratories for seven years. Before his industrial career started at the beginning of 1991, Dr. Guo was an organic chemistry research associate at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the Institute of Materia Medica (IMM) in China. He holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCSD and an M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from IMM. Dr. Guo is a co-founder of SABPA (www.sabpa.org) and the first Chairman of the Board of Directors from its inauguration on 8 June 2002 until June 2005.

 

Joseph D. Panetta, MPH
President and CEO of BIOCOM

Joseph Panetta is President and CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of BIOCOM, the regional association representing over 450 biotechnology, medical device, diagnostics, medical equipment and bioagriculture companies in the San Diego area, and the considerable number of service sector companies, civic organizations, municipalities, as well as the universities, colleges and biomedical research institutions in the San Diego region. As President and CEO, Mr. Panetta is responsible for executing on BIOCOM's mission of serving as a catalyst in positioning the San Diego biotechnology community to achieve global success working with a staff of 14 and a 52 member Board of Directors.

Mr. Panetta has been actively involved in biotechnology product development and commercialization for more than 20 years, having assuming leadership roles at Pennwalt Corporation, Mycogen Corporation, and Dow AgroSciences, before joining BIOCOM as its first President and CEO. Mr. Panetta's association involvement includes serving as founding member and chairman of numerous national and international level biotechnology committees including the International Biotechnology Forum. He has advised the National Academy of the Sciences on biotechnology policy issues and has testified before a number of congressional committees on legislation regarding biotechnology policy and international trade. Mr. Panetta has also been a representative to the Governor's Council on Biotechnology and a Delegate to the Global Consultation on Safety in Biotechnology under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program. Mr. Panetta received a bachelor of science degree in biology from LeMoyne College and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Sofie Qiao, Ph.D.
LEAD Therapeutics, Inc. President and Co-Founder

Sofie Qiao was born and raised in Beijing, started her undergraduate studies at Peking University and transferred to Harvard after two years. After receiving her B.A. in chemistry from Harvard and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from MIT, she worked as a medicinal chemist for two years at Genzyme Corporation before joining McKinsey & Company at its Boston office. From McKinsey, she joined Syrrx, Inc. as Director of Business Development in 2002, and later worked as Director of Business Operations at Discovery Partners International, Inc. She co-founded LEAD Therapeutics, a drug discovery company spanning the US and China, in spring of 2006.

 

 

Hui Li, Ph.D
Principle Scientist, Pfizer Global Research & Development
President, Sino-American Biotech & Pharmaceutical Association (SABPA)

Dr. Li received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Peking University and Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from University of California , San Diego under the guidance of Professor K. C. Nicolaou. He then joined Pfizer Global Research & Development where he has been working in drug discovery programs targeting virus (particularly Hepatitis C), diabetes and ophthalmology. Currently he is a project leader in the field of diabetes and diabetic complications at PGRD and serving as the President of the Sino-American Biotech & Pharmaceutical Association (SABPA).

 

 

Dr. Zhenping Wu
Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences at Phenomix Corporation

Dr. Zhenping Wu is currently Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Phenomix Corporationin San Diego , California . In this role, he is responsible for all Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control activities of development projects. Before joining Phenomix, Dr. Wu held a number of positions with increasing responsibilities in the Pharmaceutical Science Division at Pfizer Global Research & Development in San Diego , California where his last position was Director of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Dr. Zhenping Wu received a Ph. D. degree from Hong Kong University , and an MBA degree from the University of California at Irvine . He joined Syntex Corporation to start his career in the Pharmaceutical industry in 1991 and moved to San Diego in 1998 to join Agouron/Pfizer in 2000. Dr. Wu is currently the Chairman of the Board of Sino-American Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Association. He received a Colleague Recognition Award in 2003 for his work on the Sutent project, a new anti-cancer drug, and a Dean's Scholar Award from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine in the same year. He was the recipient of a Fellowship of the Hong Kong-Guangzhou culture exchange program in 1984 and of an American Heart association fellowship in 1990. He has published 18 scientific papers and is the co-inventors of four patents. Dr Wu has spoken on many technical and business issues related to drug discovery and development at international conferences.