About Us
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a proprietary and differentiated Rational Antibody Discovery (RAD) platform, developing a broad pipeline of novel, precision therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease.
We are focused on targets with significant biological validation and disease association that have not been drugged, or are inadequately drugged to date, which we refer to as “hard targets”.
FOUNDERS
Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director
Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA
Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder
Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD
SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
Eric Rowinsky, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Eric Rowinsky, MD
Since June 2016, he has also been the Chief Scientific Officer of Clearpath Development Co., a start-up biotechnology company that advances development stage therapeutic assets to pre-defined human proof-of-concept milestones. From January 2012 to November 2015, he was the Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer of Stemline Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focusing on the discovery and development of therapeutics targeting cancer stem cells, and has been an independent consultant since January 2010. Prior to that, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Primrose Therapeutics, Inc., a start-up biotechnology company focusing on the development of therapeutics for polycystic kidney disease, from August 2010 until its acquisition in September 2011. From 2005 to December 2009 he served as the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of ImClone Systems Incorporated, a life sciences company. At ImClone, Dr. Rowinsky and his team developed and registered cetuximab (Erbitux) in two indications, ramucirumab in five indications, and two other monoclonal antibodies. From 1996 to 2004 he held several positions at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center’s Institute for Drug Development, including Director of the Institute and Director of Clinical Research. During that time, he held the SBC Endowed Chair for Early Drug Development and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. From 1988 to 1996 he was an Associate Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and on the staff of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In academia, he played an integral role in the development and registration of multiple cancer therapies including paclitaxel, docetaxel, irinotecan, topotecan, erlotinib, gefitinib, panitumumab, temsirolimus, trabectedin, and many other agents. He also serves as a director of Fortress Biotech Inc., Purple Biotech Ltd. (f/k/a Kitov Pharma Ltd.) and Verastem, Inc., which are biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Rowinsky received his MD at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD
Chief Technology Officer
Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD
Joshua House
Chief Financial Officer
Joshua House
Leah DiMascio, PhD
Chief Development Officer
Leah DiMascio, PhD
Leah brings over 14 years of biotech industry experience to her role at Hummingbird Bioscience. Over the course of her career, she has managed the development of multiple pre-clinical and clinical stage programs, including supervision of CMC, Nonclinical, Clinical, Regulatory and Quality functions. She has also been responsible for the oversight of several key business functions including project management, corporate operations and budgeting, IT, and human resources.
Prior to Hummingbird Bioscience, she served as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the Texas Medical Center Innovation Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics (TMC ACT) program and an independent consultant to several domestic and international biotech start-ups. Leah previously co-founded and served as COO of MAIA Biotechnology, where she worked to in-license and fund the development of multiple assets as well as to direct business operations and product development. Prior to MAIA she was Senior Director, Project Management and Corporate Operations at ESSA Pharmaceuticals where she was instrumental in establishing the company’s Houston operations and advancement of its clinical program. Before her time at ESSA, she held project management positions of increasing responsibilities at Vermillion, Apocell, and Emergent BioSolutions.
Leah received her PhD in Pharmacology from Duke University and her BS in Biology from Virginia Tech.
Dipti Thakkar, PhD
VP-Target Biology & Pharmacology
Dipti Thakkar, PhD
As a molecular biologist by training, she has garnered over 12 years of experience developing disease-relevant assay models to support in vivo/in vitro efficacy and safety assessment for disease therapeutics. Dipti’s work has led her to be shortlisted by the prestigious Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer from a global search, as one of 29 young lead investigators, to address obstacles in the field of cancer immunotherapy in 2018.
In her previous academic roles at University of Oxford and National Neuroscience Institute, she worked extensively towards understanding patient heterogeneity and identifying gene signatures for patient stratification. She plays a pivotal role in the development of Hummingbird Bioscience’s two lead assets from discovery to IND filing.
Brendon Hanson, PhD
VP-Discovery and Research Platforms
Brendon Hanson, PhD
Brendon has been developing antibodies for nearly 30 years, initially to provide research reagents during his academic career. Moving to DSO National Laboratories in 2004, he was the Principal Scientist in the Biodefense Program, developing platforms for rapid therapeutic antibody discovery against infectious disease pathogens over the last 17 years. He then co-established and was later appointed Head of the Antibody Core Facility at the National University of Singapore’s Life Sciences Institute. Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Brendon led efforts toward rapid discovery of potently neutralizing antibodies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brendon holds a PhD in Biochemistry from La Trobe University (Australia). He has also authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications.
Namita Gandhi, PhD
VP-Disease Area Strategy
Namita Gandhi, PhD
Upon joining Hummingbird Bioscience in 2020, she also served as Head of Translational Biology in Singapore and in the US as VP, HER3 Program Development, for the lead indication, NRG1 fusions, for HMBD-001.
Prior to her position at Hummingbird Bioscience, Dr. Gandhi held short-term assignments in Singapore at ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (Taiwan and NYSE: ASLN) as Senior Director of Development Strategy (April 2018—Feb 2019) and Asset Development Leader at Experimental Drug Development Centre, A*STAR (March 2019—Jan 2020).
Between Dec 2007 to Jan 2018, Dr. Gandhi worked at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NYSE American: REGN) starting as Clinical Scientist and advancing to Director, Translational Medicine leading early development planning for the Immunology, Inflammation & Infectious Disease pipeline.
Between Jun 2005 and Nov 2007, Dr. Gandhi worked at Vanda Pharmaceuticals (NYSE American: VNDA) as Clinical Research Scientist. She served in clinical trial operational roles such as clinical research associate and data manager for contract research organizations, prior to her graduate work.
Dr. Gandhi earned her PhD in Immunology from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and BS from University of Maryland, College Park.
Annie Lim
VP-Human Resources
Annie Lim
Annie brings over 25 years of HR experience across several industries. Through her many leadership roles in multinational corporations such as Sanofi, Danaher Corporation, GSK, Adecco and Citrix, Annie supports and drives strategic business decisions, providing leadership direction in driving talent management, employee engagement, recruitment practices, organizational development excellence. Her expertise is in catalyzing workforce strategies to power up talent engagement for a highly motivated and productive workforce, and embed diversity and inclusion into human capital strategy to enhance employer building.
Annie holds a Masters in Human Resource Development (HRD) from The George Washington University (USA), a Masters of Counselling, and a degree in Business Marketing from Monash University (Australia). She is a certified career coach (ICF/e2i), a Provisional Clinical Member (Singapore Association of Counselling), and a certified facilitator with Workforce Singapore (ACTA & CFP).
Lisa Ooi, PhD
VP-Strategy
Lisa Ooi, PhD
Iris Tan
VP-Finance
Iris Tan
Gary Khoo, PhD
VP-CMC
Gary Khoo, PhD
With over 16 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals, Gary is a CMC strategy and operations leader with experience at leading cross functional CMC programs, external/internal manufacturing product technology transfer and process development programs. Gary previously held leadership and research roles at various large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as Tessa Therapeutics, Takeda, Baxter Bioscience, A-Biopharma (currently Luye Pharma), UCB Celltech, and A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute. From his long-spanning career in biomedical manufacturing, he has amassed expertise across modalities including antibodies/recombinant proteins, recombinant virus products and cell/gene therapies.
Gary holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering (Biochemical Engineering) from the University of Birmingham.
Kwek Kon Yew, BM BCh, DPhil
VP-Clinical Development
Kwek Kon Yew, BM BCh, DPhil
Kon Yew completed his undergraduate medical training at Oxford Medical School; and read for a doctorate in Molecular Biology on an EP Abraham Research Studentship at Oxford University. He also holds graduate diplomas in Family Medicine and Palliative Medicine from the National University of Singapore; and a Certificate in Human Pharmacology from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Royal Colleges of Physicians.
Haibo Wang
VP-Business Development
Haibo Wang
Haibo received his MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, MBA from Duke University, and bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University.
Jan Møller Mikkelsen
Chairman
Jan Møller Mikkelsen
Dan Estes, PhD
Non-Executive Director
Dan Estes, PhD
Kenneth Harrison, PhD
Non-Executive Director
Kenneth Harrison, PhD
Kiel Kim, MBA
Non-Executive Director
Kiel Kim, MBA
Thomas Lynch, MD
Non-Executive Director
Thomas Lynch, MD
Victor E. Tong
Non-Executive Director
Victor E. Tong
Piers Jamie Ingram, PhD, MBA
Executive Director
Piers Jamie Ingram, PhD, MBA
James P. Allison, PhD
2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine
James P. Allison, PhD
Dr. Allison serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre Department of Immunology. Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in the mechanisms of T cell development and activation, the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy. His research led to the development of ipilimumab, which was approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Most recently, Dr. Allison was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Dr. Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.
Padmanee Sharma, PhD, MD
Professor of Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Padmanee Sharma, PhD, MD
Padmanee Sharma, PhD, MD, is a leading cancer immunotherapy scientist. Dr. Sharma currently serves as co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and as Professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A co-founder of Jounce Therapeutics, she is a medical oncologist and immunologist, and is the principal investigator of several immunotherapy clinical trials, which allows her to investigate immune responses and pathways critical for eliciting anti-tumor responses which provide clinical benefit in cancer patients.
John Connolly, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer of The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
John Connolly, PhD
John Connolly, PhD, is a senior principal investigator and director for translational immunology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) A*Star. He is also the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
He previously served as CSO of Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical stage cell therapy company focused on solid tumor immunotherapy, where he led a team of researchers to develop next-generation T cell therapy treatments. Dr. Connolly is also an associate professor at National University of Singapore and an adjunct associate professor of Immunology at Baylor University, where he served on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.
Dr. Connolly has more than 20 years of research experience in immunotherapy and has published more than 100 papers and chapters in peer-reviewed journals. As a human immunologist, his research interests focus on immune monitoring and immunometabolism. He received his PhD in Immunology from Dartmouth Medical School, where he studied human dendritic cell biology.
Jianzhu Chen, PhD
Professor of Biology at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT
Jianzhu Chen, PhD
Jianzhu Chen, PhD is Professor of Biology at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Department of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was the lead Principal Investigator of the Infectious Disease Interdisciplinary Research Group of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). Dr Chen’s research seeks fundamental understanding of the immune system as well as its application in disease intervention. Recently, his research activity has focused on T cells and macrophages in immunity and diseases and cancer immunotherapy.
Wee Joo Chng, MB ChB, PhD
Yong Loo Lin Professor in Medical Oncology and Vice Dean, Research
at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Director and Senior Consultant at National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, National University Health System
Chng Wee Joo, MB ChB, PhD
Professor Wee Joo Chng is a Yong Loo Lin Professor in Medical Oncology and Vice Dean of Research at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, where he is also a Senior Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. He is concurrently the Director of the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore and the Group Director of Research, at the National University Health System.
Professor Chng currently serves as Executive Director of the Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium. His research focus is on the use of global genomics methods (microarray and sequencing platforms) to study the clinical and biological heterogeneity in haematologic malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma and lymphoma. Using these methods, he has identified novel prognostic markers as well as molecular abnormalities in these malignancies, thereby providing insights into disease pathogenesis and biology, and serve as potential targets for therapy. In particular he is focused on risk stratification and clinical trials in myeloma.
Together we aim to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinical care.
