Peter Myers, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Leonard Post, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Sofie Qiao, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President

Daniel Chu, Ph.D.
Vice President of Chemistry

Jerry Shen, Ph.D.
Vice President of Biology

Peter Myers, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Myers was most recently VP of Drug Discovery at SGX Pharmaceuticals and led the bcr-abl program which formed the basis of a major collaboration with Novartis. He was previously VP of R&D for Onyx Pharmaceuticals and initiated the Discovery Program that ultimately led to the discovery of Nexavar. Before his position at Onyx, Dr. Myers was VP of Research Chemistry at Glaxo, Inc. in RTP and initially had overall Therapeutic Leadership for their Anti-inflammatory programs and latterly their Metabolic Disease Programs. He was also Deputy Chairman for the Oncology area; this led to the discovery of the 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor Avodart. Formerly as a Director of Medicinal Chemistry in Glaxo UK, he was responsible their chemistry projects in Anti-bacterials and Anti-virals and initiated their research activities in the HIV area. Previously he held senior leadership positions at G.D.Searle and Reckitt and Colman.

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Leonard Post, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Post is a virologist by training. Most recently, he was at Onyx Pharmaceuticals as SVP and was responsible for the co-development (50:50 with Bayer) of Nexavar from IND through FDA approval for renal cell carcinoma. Previously, as VP of Discovery Research at Parke-Davis he led a multi-national drug discovery organization of over 800 people, in cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation, cardiovascular and CNS. Prior to that, he held several positions at the Upjohn Company, including Director of Infectious Disease Research. During his industry career spanning more than 25 years, he has led numerous programs that have resulted in multiple clinical candidates across various therapeutic areas.

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Sofie Qiao, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President

Dr. Qiao was previously Director of Business Operations at Discovery Partners International, Inc. (DPI), a San Diego-based drug discovery CRO, with responsibilities in business development, strategic initiatives and marketing. Prior to DPI, she was Director of Business Development at Syrrx, Inc., a venture-backed structure-based drug discovery company. She started her industry career as a medicinal chemist in small molecule drug discovery at Genzyme Corporation, and transitioned to the business side by joining McKinsey & Company, where she focused on pharmaceutical and biotech clients. She received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry at MIT, and her A.B. in chemistry from Harvard University. A native of Beijing, China, she started her undergraduate studies at Peking University, and transferred after two years to Harvard. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Sino-American Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SABPA).

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Daniel Chu, Ph.D.
Vice President of Chemistry

Dr. Chu has over 35 years of R&D experience in small molecule drug discovery, with over 20 of them at Abbott Laboratories, where he was Director of Antibacterial Research and Distinguished Research Fellow. Besides leading many small molecule discovery programs into late preclinical studies, Dr. Chu has led several chemical entities from conception to IND, and more than half of them (antibacterials) went to market. He was most recently VP of Medicinal Chemistry at Galileo Pharmaceuticals, and prior to that served as Senior Director or Vice President at Kosan, Chiron and Anacor. A recognized expert in infectious diseases, he has also directed medicinal chemistry projects in other therapeutic areas, including obesity, cancer, and inflammatory diseases. Besides building and managing internal research operations, he has extensive experience managing external collaborations and CROs in the US and China. Dr. Chu has more than 100 scientific publications and more than 160 US and foreign patents.

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Jerry Shen, Ph.D.
Vice President of Biology

Dr. Shen has over 17 years of research and drug development experience, both in academics and in biotechnology industry. He co-founded Applied Biomics, a California-based proteomics CRO company in 2005. As VP of Research at Applied Biomics, he recruited and managed the company’s marketing and customer service team and led its technology innovation program. Prior to Applied Biomics he was at Onyx Pharmaceuticals for 6 years, where he led the oncolytic virus program from research to pre-IND and early clinical development. A significant part of his responsibility at Onyx was to identify and manage CROs to complement Onyx’s own drug development activities. For the past 3 years he was also a consultant for Murex Pharmaceuticals, where his major responsibility was to select therapeutic targets for cancer patients. A native of Shanghai, China, Dr. Shen received his B.S. in biology from Fudan University in Shanghai, Ph.D. in molecular biology from SUNY Buffalo, and conducted postdoctoral studies at Princeton University.

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