Gary Kiang, M.B.A. is Chief Financial Officer at Apeximmune Therapeutics, where he leads fundraising, licensing deals and company business development. Gary has over 25 years’ experience on Wall Street in operating companies, investment management and investment banking with extensive experience in financing corporate capital structures and private-equity backed and strategic acquisitions, licensing deals across a wide range of industries. He served in a variety of senior finance and operations leadership positions during his career.

He also serves on the Boards of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy and the Undergraduate Financial Aid Leadership Council of the University of Pennsylvania.

He obtained his BS and MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jason Lih, Ph.D., is Vice President of Research & Development at Apeximmune Therapeutics, where he leads preclinical research, IND filings, and translational medicine efforts. Dr. Lih brings over 20 years of experience in biomedical research and development. He previously established a molecular and genomic characterization laboratory at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and led several national clinical precision oncology studies, earning an achievement award for his contributions.

He has also directed translational research across multiple therapeutic areas at pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Exelixis, and the biotech firm Sana Biotechnology.

Dr. Lih received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from National Yang-Ming University and completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University under Dr. Stanley Cohen.

Kan Lu, Ph.D. is Director of Biology at Apeximmune Therapeutics, where he leads the identification and preclinical evaluation of novel biologics across all target programs to activate host immune cells into targeting tumors.

Dr. Lu joined Apeximmune as its first scientist from Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie Company, where he led efforts to characterize the immune modulating properties of the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib. He has extensive experience studying the interplay between tumor cells and immune components of the tumor microenvironment in disease progression and during the course of therapeutic intervention and resistance.

Dr. Lu holds a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco.

Michihisa Umetani, Ph.D. is Director at Apeximmune Therapeutics where he leads the efforts on the identification and preclinical evaluation of novel molecules to target tumors.

Previously, Dr. Umetani held a faculty position at the University of Houston where he led his research lab investigating the role of cholesterol metabolites through nuclear hormone receptors in metabolism and cancer.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is a recognized scholar in lipid metabolism.

Ricky Cheng, Ph.D., is Senior Principal Scientist and Associate Director of Protein Science at Apeximmune Therapeutics, where he leads efforts in protein and antibody expression and purification.

Dr. Cheng brings extensive hands-on experience in the purification of recombinant proteins, as well as bispecific and multispecific antibodies. Prior to joining Apeximmune, he worked at Amberstone Biosciences, where he established and optimized the protein expression and purification infrastructure and led the Protein Science team in the production and quality control of bi- and multispecific antibodies. Dr. Cheng has extensive experience studying structure and dynamics of ion channels and transporters.

He earned his Ph.D. from McMaster University in Canada and completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University under Dr. Merritt Maduke.

Hsieng Lu Ph.D. is Director of Apeximmune Therapeutics where he helps CMC efforts. Dr. Lu is an expert in analytical protein characterization with more than 30 years of experience in the development of large molecular pharmaceuticals. Over his long career at Amgen, Inc., he was instrumental to the discovery and identification of several important protein therapeutic candidates including novel cytokines/growth factors, Fc-fusion proteins, as well as antibodies and derivatives including antibody-drug conjugates and bispecifics. He contributed to numerous IND filings for protein therapeutics and BLA filings for marketed biologics.

As a Director of Research, he led a core group performing protein structural analysis, characterization, and CMC analytical support. His group harnessed emerging analytical technologies in physicochemical analytics, mass spectrometry, and molecular interaction platforms using state of the art instrumentation. He also served on the Amgen Biologics senior team, collaborating cross-functionally with project teams to facilitate IP support, lead candidate selection, technology development, and in-licensing opportunities.

Dr. Lu received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Texas. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is a co-inventor on numerous patents for protein biologics and antibodies.

Bin He is a CEO of Huahai investment. Under his leadership, Huahai has completed a number of investments and acquisitions globally, such as Eutilex, Iview Therapeutics, Micurx Pharmaceutical, Changxing Pharmaceutical, Hangzhou DAC Biotech, Elpis..etc.

He also serves on the Board of Directors of several biotech companies.

David Yu is the CTO of Dexter Networks, an expert network focused on the precision medicine industry. David is a passionate entrepreneur who previously co-founded Discovereads, which was acquired by Goodreads & Amazon. Its software lives on every Kindle. As CTO of Q.Digital, a media company with 12 million total monthly audience, David was in charge of the company’s product roadmap and helped its acquisition of another company. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, David worked at the Bioinformatics and Protein Chemistry departments at Genentech and received achievement awards from both departments.

Outside of work, David is the co-founder and manager of the Keidel Endowment Fund at Yale, which has awarded students summer grants for computer science projects since 2016. David also served as a board member of the Harvard Law School Association of Europe.

David received his JD from Harvard Law School, and his BS from Yale College, double-majoring and receiving distinction from both the Computer Science and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry departments.

Jenny Ting Ph.D. is an internationally esteemed immunologist and a pioneer of innate immunity. She is currently a William Rand Kenan Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Director at Center for Translational Immunology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Her lab studies innate immune sensors and receptors and their roles in cancer and inflammation. Her lab first described the human NLR gene family to include a few known and sixteen new genes. These new genes include NLRC3 and NLRP12. Her lab was one of the first groups to show the unexpected finding that NLRP3, ASC and caspase 1/11 protected against colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer.

Dr.Ting has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, with many in high impact journals such as Cell, Nature, and Science. She is an inventor on five patents and is on the Board of Directors of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, American Asthma Foundation, and NIH Board of Scientific Council. Dr. Ting has received numerous honors and awards, including NIH Merit Award, NIH, Distinguished Scientist Series, AAI-Life Technologies Meritorious Career Award, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Microbiology-Immunology, UNC-CH, Hyman L. Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award…etc.

She was elected as Academy Sinica Member in 2015 and as Vice President (2019-2020) and President of the American Association of Immunology (2020-2021).

Dario Vignali Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor in Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Vignali’s lab focuses on the inhibitory mechanisms that limit anti-tumor immunity in cancer and are insufficient in autoimmune disease, including inhibitory receptors and regulatory T cells.

He also has discovery-based programs aimed at identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. His lab has been instrumental in studying the inhibitory receptor LAG3 for the last 20 years, demonstrating with collaborators for the first time that LAG3 regulates Treg activity and function and cooperates with PD1 to regulate T cell exhaustion following chronic viral infection. Importantly, he led a team that was the first to show synergistic cooperation between LAG3 and PD1 in limiting anti-tumor immunity. This study, combined with IP licensed to BMS, served as a direct impetus for a clinical trial with anti-LAG3 (Relatlimab) with or without anti-PD1 (Nivolumab) that has recently progressed to Phase III. Additionally, he has made significant contributions in the identification and dissection of pathways that mediate and control Treg function with emphasis on IL-35 and neuropilin-1 (Nrp1).

Dr. Vignali is a co-founding scientist of several companies including Potenza Therapeutics [sold to Astellas], Tizona Therapeutics [sold to Gilead], Trishula Therapeutics [partnership with Abbvie], and Novasenta. He also serves on the SAB for numerous companies.

Dr. Vignali earned his Ph.D. at the University of London and completed postdoctoral fellowships at German Cancer Research Center and Harvard University.

Lawrence Steinman M.D. is a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Pediatrics, and Genetics at Stanford University. He also served as Chair of the Stanford University Interdepartmental Program in Immunology from 2003-2011.

Dr. Steinman's research focuses on what provokes relapses and remission in multiple sclerosis (MS), the nature of the molecules that serve as a brake on brain inflammation, and the quest for a tolerizing vaccine for autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes and neuromyelitis optica. He has developed two antigen specific therapies, using DNA vaccines, for MS and type 1 diabetes. He was senior author on the seminal 1992 Nature article that reported the key role of a particular integrin in brain inflammation. This research led to the development of the drug Tysabri, which is used to treat patients with MS and Crohn's disease.

Dr. Steinman has received numerous honors and awards, including the John M. Dystel Prize from the American Academy of Neurology and the National MS Society for his research on MS, and the Charcot Prize for Lifetime Achievement in MS research. He has twice been awarded the Senator Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. Dr. Steinman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Steinman holds a number of patents in the areas of immunology, and for therapies of Huntington Disease, type 1 diabetes and MS. He co-founded Neurocrine Biosciences, Bayhill Therapeutics (now named Tolerion), Nuon Therapeutics, Transparency Life Sciences and Atreca.

Dr. Steinman received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his M.D. from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the chemical immunology program at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Makoto Murakami, Ph.D. is a Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine and Laboratory of Microenvironmental and Metabolic Health Science at the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Murakami is a long-standing pioneer in the phospholipase and lipid mediator field, beginning with the discovery of elevated levels of secreted PLA2 (sPLA2) in inflammation 30 years ago. His lab has generated an array of gene-manipulated mice for lipid-metabolizing enzymes and receptors to clarify novel lipid-orchestrated mechanisms underlying various diseases such as metabolic and immune disorders.

Currently, his lab focuses on the roles of various PLA2s in cancer, allergy, immunity, atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome, reproduction, and skin homeostasis. Dr. Murakami has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, with many in high impact journals in the PLA2 field.

Dr. Murakami received his B.A. and Ph.D. from University of Tokyo and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School.