USA Team

Yuelei Shen, Ph.D.

Chairman of the Board, CEO and Executive Director

Dr. Yuelei Shen is the founder, President and CEO of Beijing Biocytogen Co., LTD. Dr. Shen received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2004. He performed his postdoctoral training under Dr. Dan R. Littman in New York University School of Medicine from 2003-2008. In 2008, Dr. Shen founded Biocytogen in Worcester, MA and in 2009, he moved back to Beijing, China and established Beijing Biocytogen Co., LTD. In 2015, Biocytogen Jiangsu Co., Ltd was established, and in 2018, Biocytogen Boston Corporation began operations in Wakefield, MA. In the past 10 years, Biocytogen has transformed from a business that solely provides custom gene-targeted models to one that offers a comprehensive set of Immuno-Oncology (I/O) and antibody development platforms. These platforms cover innovative animal model generation, large scale production, pharmacology studies and therapeutic antibody discovery services. Our chief goal is to promote drug discovery more efficiently.

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Chaoshe Guo, Ph.D., M.D.

Deputy General Manager Dr. Guo graduated from University of Goettingen & Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, Germany and received a doctoral degree in Biochemistry in November, 2003, where he worked on the functional study of molecular chaperones via biochemistry, structural biology, and gene knockout mouse models. In 2005-2013, Dr. Guo has focused on cardiovascular and blood system development in Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His research has been published in JCI, Development, and other highly reputed journals. Dr. Guo is experienced in animal model generation and phenotype analysis. In October, 2013, Dr. Guo served as the Senior R&D Director and Key Account Manager of Beijing Biocytogen Co., Ltd, to help the company establish CRISPR based gene editing platform and marketing promotion, and also got involved in humanized immune checkpoint animal model generation. Since June 2015, Dr. Guo served as the Vice President of Marketing and Global Head of Business Development.

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Qingcong Lin, Ph.D.

CEO of Biocytogen Boston Corporation

Dr. Qingcong Lin is SVP of Biocytogen and CEO of Biocytogen Boston Corporation. Dr. Lin focuses on Biocytogen’s global business development for antibody discovery services, RenMab/RenLite licensing and therapeutic antibody co-development, and on providing gene targeting services and humanized mouse models for in vivo efficacy and toxicity assessments of immuno-oncology antibody candidates. Prior to joining Biocytogen, Dr. Lin was SVP of Shenogen Pharma Group. Dr. Lin has extensive expertise in multiple therapeutic areas, including cancer, CVMD, neurology, immunology & inflammation and various technologies, including genetically engineered mouse models, therapeutic antibody engineering, affinity maturation and optimization. Prior to joining Sheongen, Dr. Lin worked at Pfizer as a principal research scientist II and group leader of antibody engineering group. Before joining Pfizer, he worked at Wyeth and Harvard Medical School as Director of Gene Modification Lab of Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. Dr. Lin received a Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.

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Benny Yang, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer & Director of Antibody Discovery

Dr. Yang graduated from Fudan University with a Master’s degree in Microbiology. He received his Ph.D. degree in Immunology from University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) and completed his postdoctoral training at New York University School of Medicine in Dr. Dan Littman’s research group. Then Dr. Yang was recruited to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. In 2016, he joined Biocytogen and has been leading the antibody drug discovery.

   

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Lei Chen, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Antibody Discovery Lei Chen has served as Senior Director of Antibody Discovery at Biocytogen since October, 2019. He brings to Biocytogen a decade of biologics R&D leadership and experience moving protein therapeutics through development for world-renowned large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Chen joined Biocytogen from Merck Sharp & Dohme, where he most recently served as associate principal scientist, biologics discovery & engineering. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Chen spent 7 years at Abbott/Abbvie Bioresearch Center. He served as senior scientist of Antibody Discovery & Engineering at Global Biologics, Abbvie. Dr. Chen holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington at Seattle, WA, USA. After graduation, he had his postdoctoral training with Dr. Andrew Bradbury, a world renowned scientist on protein engineering, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.

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Zhaoxue (Luke) Yu, Ph.D.

Deputy General Manager & Global Head of Preclinical Pharmacology Dr. Zhaoxue (Luke) Yu joined Biocytogen as Global Head of Preclinical Pharmacology in 2020. Dr. Yu brings more than 15 years of research and technical leadership experience in drug discovery and development for immune/autoimmune diseases, oncology, neurological diseases, ocular diseases and metabolic diseases across various therapeutic modalities including antibodies, biologics, small molecules, mRNAs, and AAVs. Prior to Biocytogen, Dr. Yu served as a pharmacology technical leader at Gemini Pharmaceuticals, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Yu has been a major contributor to multiple drug development programs from preclinical to clinical stages, some of which have subsequently obtained success approvals by the FDA. Dr. Yu received his Ph.D in Neurobiology and M.D. in China. He has held postdoctoral research positions at institutions including Emory University, Yale University, and Harvard Boston Children’s Hospital.

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James Jin, Ph.D.

Vice President of Biocytogen

Dr. James Jin received his PhD of virology at Wuhan University in 1997. He had his postdoctoral training at Colorado State University. He worked as a research assistant professor in University of Illinois at Chicago from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, he was recruited to Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. as a senior scientist. Dr. Jin joined Biocytogen as the director of technology in 2011, and then was promoted to vice president in 2012. His research covers virology, immunology, proteomics, protein structure, human stem cell, and gene-targeting animal model.

     

China Team

Yan Zhu, EMBA

Vice President of Operations

Yan Zhu joined Beijing Biocytogen in 2011, and she currently serves as the Vice President of Operations. Ms. Zhu is responsible for the company’s overall operations, such as research and development (R&D), production, services, human resources and general support. Ms. Zhu has more than 10 years of experience in clinical practices; she has been engaged in research and development management, project investment, operation management and sales in the biomedical industry for nearly 20 years. Ms. Zhu holds an EMBA from Tsinghua University and a bachelor’s degree from the Harbin Medical University (both in China).

   

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Haichao Zhang, Ph.D.

Operation Director of Haimen (Jiangsu) Animal Center

Dr. Zhang joined Beijing Biocytogen in 2010. Since 2016, Dr. Zhang has served as the Operation Director of Biocytogen Haimen (Jiangsu) Animal Center. In the past, Dr. Zhang has worked as the Director of Molecular Biology and the Director of Marketing. Dr. Zhang holds a Ph.D. from the China Pharmaceutical University and a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the Hebei Normal University (both in China).

 

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Jiawei Yao, Ph.D.

Director of Gene Editing

Dr. Yao received a bachelor of science in Bioengineering from Tianjin University of Technology, a master’s degree in Biochemtry from the Tianjin University, and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Engineering from the Tianjin University. Dr. Yao currently serves as the Director of the Gene Editing who oversees the research and development (R&D) of gene targeting.

       

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Rui Huang, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Preclinical Services

Dr. Huang joined Beijing Biocytogen in 2011. Dr. Huang has successively served as the Director of Technology, Director of Gene Targeting in the past, and she is now the Senior Director of Preclinical Services. Dr. Huang holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in science and biological sciences from the College of Life Sciences, Henan Normal University (both in China).

     

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Yanan Guo, Ph.D., M.D.

Director of Preclinical Services

Prior to joining Biocytogen Beijing in 2014 as the Director of Preclinical Services in 2014, Dr. Guo was working as a postdoc researcher in the Department of Translational Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School in the United States. With more than 10 years of research experience in cancer biology and neurobiology, Dr. Guo has an extensive understanding of the signaling pathways in human diseases, high-throughput gene sequencing, automated drug screening, animal model phenotypic analysis, and using animal models for drug efficacy studies. Dr. Guo holds a Ph.D. in Neurobiology/Pharmacology from the University of Rochester (in the United States), and a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Biological Science and Technology of Tsinghua University (in China). In 2015, she was selected as a member of the “Overseas Talent Aggregation Project” in Beijing.

     

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Zhihong Li, Ph.D.

Deputy general manager and chief regulatory and strategy officer

Dr. Zhihong Li has been the deputy general manager of our Company since December 2020, and our chief regulatory and strategy officer of the Eucure (Beijing) since March 2019. Dr. Li has clinical development and review experience in several therapeutics areas including oncology. He worked at Pfizer Inc., and was as staff fellow at Food and Drug Administration of the United States from May 2009 to December 2007. Dr. Li obtained a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in pharmacy in July 1992 and in June 1995 respectively from Beijing Medical University in the PRC. In March 2007, he obtained a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Minnesota in the United States.

     

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Sabrina Wang, EMBA

Deputy general manager and chief operation officer

Ms. You Wang has been the deputy general manager since December 2020, and the chief operation officer of Eucure (Beijing) since October 2019.

From May 2004 to May 2012, Ms. Wang was a laboratory assistant, project coordinator, senior project coordinator, associate project manager, project manager, associate business development manager and business development manager of Q Squared Solutions (Beijing) Co., Ltd. She was also the Asia Regional Pre-Analytical Services and Investigator Manager at Q Squared Solutions (Singapore) Co., Ltd. between May 2012 and July 2013. From July 2013 to July 2014, she held the role of associate business development director at IQVIA China. From September 2014 to August 2018, she served at Paraxel China Co., Ltd. as she was the director of business development, head of business development in China, and senior director of portfolio management. From September 2018 to October 2019, she was the head of Biotech Delivery Unit at IQVIA China.