• About Us
  • Our Approach
  • Discovery Platform
  • Pipeline
    • HMBD-001
    • HMBD-002
    • Covid-19 mAb
  • News
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Our Approach
  • Discovery Platform
  • Pipeline
    • HMBD-001
    • HMBD-002
    • Covid-19 mAb
  • News
  • Careers

ABOUT US

Hummingbird Bioscience is a clinical-stage biotech company founded in 2015 by a team of interdisciplinary scientists with a shared belief that there was a better way to deliver a new generation of transformative medicines.

At Hummingbird, we harness powerful modern approaches to systems biology and data science to better understand disease mechanisms and how to treat these, through the development of rationally engineered bio-therapeutics.

We are advancing a rich pipeline of first and best-in-class drug candidates in oncology, autoimmune and infectious diseases, in collaboration with global partners in academia and industry.

With operations in Singapore and the US, we have strong internal capabilities spanning antibody discovery, pharmacology and production, to clinical and business development.

Together we aim to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinical care.

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Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

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John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

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Jianzhu Chen, PhD

Professor of Biology at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT

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Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

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Padmanee Sharma, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

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Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

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James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

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Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

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Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

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Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

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Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Piers Ingram is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. Seeing the exciting progress in systems biology and immunology over the last decade, Piers co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience in 2015 in order to apply these advances to drug discovery and development.

Biography

Prior to co-founding Hummingbird, Piers spent 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry across various disciplines from academic research to R&D consulting and commercial strategy. He obtained his PhD in Systems Biology at Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, kickstarting a career in academia where he held several roles including as a research group leader at Imperial College London. He then moved to biopharma R&D consulting and commercial strategy roles at Sanofi, an international pharmaceutical company. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD.

John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

Focus

Immune monitoring and immunometabolism

Biography

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 Ph.D. 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

Focus

Cancer Immunology

Biography

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 Principle 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.

Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

Focus

Target Discovery

Biography

Wei Yang, PhD is Director of Target Discovery at the Institute for Protein Innovation at Harvard University. Previously, Wei Yang served as Director of Molecular Biology at Novo Nordisk Research Centre China. He led an international team that successfully produced and screened for interactions between all human secreted proteins and single transmembrane cell surface proteins. This receptor-ligand de-orphaning effort identified the previously unknown receptors for GDF15 and VISTA, which are novel therapeutic targets for obesity and cancer, respectively. Dr Yang received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jilin University and a PhD. from Peking University.

Padmanee Sharma, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Focus

Mechanisms and pathways within the immune system which are responsible for tumor rejection and clinical benefit; development of novel immunotherapy strategies for cancer treatment

Biography

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, is a leading cancer immunotherapy scientist. Dr. Sharma currently serves as co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immumotherapy 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 allow her to investigate immune responses and pathways critical for eliciting anti-tumor responses which provide clinical benefit in cancer patients.

Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

Focus

Guy Heathers is responsible for the business development activities of the company, particularly helping to integrate the intellectual property activities to align with business development objectives to maximize the company's value.

Biography

Guy has over 30 years work experience in the pharma/biotech/tech transfer environment. Initially working at Hoffman La Roche in the drug discovery division, he worked for Cancer Research Technology, helping to create a number of early stage spin outs including Cyclacel, Kudos, Crusade, CRV. Moving to Singapore in 2000, he created Biotech Research Ventures, a joint venture between CRT, NCCS and Temasek, which in turn helped to spin out 4 early stage Biotech companies. In Australia, he joined Gateway Capital as CEO to assist early stage biotech companies to list on the ASX. He was also instrumental in setting up Cancer Therapeutics, which received over AUD 100 million in funding over a 14 year period and creating two high profile pharma therapeutics. He worked as the interim CEO for Amaranth Medical and a consultant for NCCS and SingHealth, responsible for a number of commercial collaborations as well as the creation of Enleofen Bio. More recently, he spent 5 years with Tessa Therapeutics. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Leeds University, a PhD from Bath University and an MBA from Farleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey.

James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

Focus

Mechanisms of T cell development and activation; development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy

Biography

Prof. James P. Allison serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology. Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in 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.

Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Focus

Dr. Eric Rowinsky is the Chief Medical Officer (Consultant) at Hummingbird Bioscience, focusing on the clinical and registrational strategies of anticancer therapeutics.

Biography

Dr. Rowinsky is a practicing clinical oncologist and veteran clinical drug developer in the oncologics and biotherapeutics space. He led the Food and Drug Administration approval of Erbitux for head and neck and colorectal cancers and advanced eight other biological therapeutics through clinical development during his time at ImClone.

Prior to joining ImClone in 2005, Dr. Rowinsky was a longstanding NCI principal investigator on anticancer drug development grants and integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which lead to the development of both classical chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies, including a wide variety of cytotoxic and targeted anticancer therapeutics.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec Inc., Fortress Bio, Verastem, Biophytis, Rgenix and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several other leading Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies.

He is a distinguished thought leader in the field of oncology with over 300 manuscripts in both the preclinical and clinical research field and holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of Cancer Research (Associate Editor and Reviews Editor), Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, Cancer Biology and Therapy and several other oncology journals.

He is an adjunct Professor at New York University School of Medicine.

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Focus

Konrad Paszkiewicz is the Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Bioscience and leads Hummingbird's internal platform technologies, including mAbPredict, omics-technologies, single-cell analysis, machine learning and infrastructure.

Biography

Konrad has held several academic positions including Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Informatics and the Genomics facility at the University of Exeter, UK.

Konrad's background is a blend of structural bioinformatics, genomics and data science. He is an author on over 45 peer reviewed publications and an organizer and speaker at several renowned scientific workshops and seminar series. He holds an MSci in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College, London.

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. He is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies and intellectual property, designing experimental strategies for drug discovery, leading the development and testing of novel therapeutics, and overseeing the drug pipeline.

Biography

Jerome is a molecular systems biologist by background with extensive experience at the interface of computational and wet lab biology, and a career research focus of applying systems biology approaches to tackling human disease. Before co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience in 2014, he was an academic at top institutions in the UK and China.

He holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Focus

Miemie Strydom oversees and manages the day-to-day activities cross-functionally for all corporate divisions and workstreams including Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Fundraising/Transactions.

Biography

A medical scientist by training, Miemie brings more than 13 years of commercial, strategy and investment advisory experience in the Lifesciences and Healthcare industry. She has held both in-house as well as advisory positions, making her uniquely appreciative of the workings of the industry?s ecosystem and how corporate functions are best suited to help realise ground-breaking science and return on investment. Prior to Hummingbird, she has advised on over 100 product development- and launch strategies for leading global pharmaceutical players as Strategy Consultant with IQVIA (UK, Singapore). She also has strong M&A, IPO and financing transactions experience with Deutsche Bank Healthcare Investment Banking, and Davita International where she drove high priority International Finance, M&A and business development initiatives to facilitate sustainable and?profitable growth and expansion outside of the US.

She holds an MBA from London Business School, UK (2016), a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management Studies and a Bachelor's degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2005).

Founders

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Piers Ingram is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. Seeing the exciting progress in systems biology and immunology over the last decade, Piers co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience in 2015 in order to apply these advances to drug discovery and development.

Biography

Prior to co-founding Hummingbird, Piers spent 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry across various disciplines from academic research to R&D consulting and commercial strategy. He obtained his PhD in Systems Biology at Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, kickstarting a career in academia where he held several roles including as a research group leader at Imperial College London. He then moved to biopharma R&D consulting and commercial strategy roles at Sanofi, an international pharmaceutical company. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. He is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies and intellectual property, designing experimental strategies for drug discovery, leading the development and testing of novel therapeutics, and overseeing the drug pipeline.

Biography

Jerome is a molecular systems biologist by background with extensive experience at the interface of computational and wet lab biology, and a career research focus of applying systems biology approaches to tackling human disease. Before co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience in 2014, he was an academic at top institutions in the UK and China.

He holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Senior Management Team

Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Focus

Dr. Eric Rowinsky is the Chief Medical Officer (Consultant) at Hummingbird Bioscience, focusing on the clinical and registrational strategies of anticancer therapeutics.

Biography

Dr. Rowinsky is a practicing clinical oncologist and veteran clinical drug developer in the oncologics and biotherapeutics space. He led the Food and Drug Administration approval of Erbitux for head and neck and colorectal cancers and advanced eight other biological therapeutics through clinical development during his time at ImClone.

Prior to joining ImClone in 2005, Dr. Rowinsky was a longstanding NCI principal investigator on anticancer drug development grants and integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which lead to the development of both classical chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies, including a wide variety of cytotoxic and targeted anticancer therapeutics.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec Inc., Fortress Bio, Verastem, Biophytis, Rgenix and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several other leading Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies.

He is a distinguished thought leader in the field of oncology with over 300 manuscripts in both the preclinical and clinical research field and holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of Cancer Research (Associate Editor and Reviews Editor), Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, Cancer Biology and Therapy and several other oncology journals.

He is an adjunct Professor at New York University School of Medicine.

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Focus

Konrad Paszkiewicz is the Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Bioscience and leads Hummingbird's internal platform technologies, including mAbPredict, omics-technologies, single-cell analysis, machine learning and infrastructure.

Biography

Konrad has held several academic positions including Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Informatics and the Genomics facility at the University of Exeter, UK.

Konrad's background is a blend of structural bioinformatics, genomics and data science. He is an author on over 45 peer reviewed publications and an organizer and speaker at several renowned scientific workshops and seminar series. He holds an MSci in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College, London.

Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Focus

Miemie Strydom oversees and manages the day-to-day activities cross-functionally for all corporate divisions and workstreams including Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Fundraising/Transactions.

Biography

A medical scientist by training, Miemie brings more than 13 years of commercial, strategy and investment advisory experience in the Lifesciences and Healthcare industry. She has held both in-house as well as advisory positions, making her uniquely appreciative of the workings of the industry?s ecosystem and how corporate functions are best suited to help realise ground-breaking science and return on investment. Prior to Hummingbird, she has advised on over 100 product development- and launch strategies for leading global pharmaceutical players as Strategy Consultant with IQVIA (UK, Singapore). She also has strong M&A, IPO and financing transactions experience with Deutsche Bank Healthcare Investment Banking, and Davita International where she drove high priority International Finance, M&A and business development initiatives to facilitate sustainable and?profitable growth and expansion outside of the US.

She holds an MBA from London Business School, UK (2016), a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management Studies and a Bachelor's degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2005).

Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

Focus

Guy Heathers is responsible for the business development activities of the company, particularly helping to integrate the intellectual property activities to align with business development objectives to maximize the company's value.

Biography

Guy has over 30 years work experience in the pharma/biotech/tech transfer environment. Initially working at Hoffman La Roche in the drug discovery division, he worked for Cancer Research Technology, helping to create a number of early stage spin outs including Cyclacel, Kudos, Crusade, CRV. Moving to Singapore in 2000, he created Biotech Research Ventures, a joint venture between CRT, NCCS and Temasek, which in turn helped to spin out 4 early stage Biotech companies. In Australia, he joined Gateway Capital as CEO to assist early stage biotech companies to list on the ASX. He was also instrumental in setting up Cancer Therapeutics, which received over AUD 100 million in funding over a 14 year period and creating two high profile pharma therapeutics. He worked as the interim CEO for Amaranth Medical and a consultant for NCCS and SingHealth, responsible for a number of commercial collaborations as well as the creation of Enleofen Bio. More recently, he spent 5 years with Tessa Therapeutics. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Leeds University, a PhD from Bath University and an MBA from Farleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey.

Scientific Advisory Board

James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

Focus

Mechanisms of T cell development and activation; development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy

Biography

Prof. James P. Allison serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology. Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in 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, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Padmanee Sharma, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Focus

Mechanisms and pathways within the immune system which are responsible for tumor rejection and clinical benefit; development of novel immunotherapy strategies for cancer treatment

Biography

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, is a leading cancer immunotherapy scientist. Dr. Sharma currently serves as co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immumotherapy 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 allow her to investigate immune responses and pathways critical for eliciting anti-tumor responses which provide clinical benefit in cancer patients.

John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

Focus

Immune monitoring and immunometabolism

Biography

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 Ph.D. 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

Professor of Biology at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT

Focus

Cancer Immunology

Biography

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 Principle 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.

Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

Focus

Target Discovery

Biography

Wei Yang, PhD is Director of Target Discovery at the Institute for Protein Innovation at Harvard University. Previously, Wei Yang served as Director of Molecular Biology at Novo Nordisk Research Centre China. He led an international team that successfully produced and screened for interactions between all human secreted proteins and single transmembrane cell surface proteins. This receptor-ligand de-orphaning effort identified the previously unknown receptors for GDF15 and VISTA, which are novel therapeutic targets for obesity and cancer, respectively. Dr Yang received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jilin University and a PhD. from Peking University.

Non-Executive Directors

Chik Wai Chiew, MBA

CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management

Chik Wai Chiew, MBA

CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management

Biography

Chik Wai Chiew is the CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management. He has more than 20 years of experience in global investment management and strategic business development, having been active in leading various companies on transformational growth strategies, fund raising and M&A. He initiated Heritas Venture Fund in 2017 which has since invested in digital health, insuretech, diagnostics, and health foodtech etc. Wai Chiew was awarded the Glaxo-EDB scholarship and holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University, UK; MA from Yale University, USA; and completed his EMBA at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China.

Victor E. Tong, MBA

Partner at Decheng Capital

Victor E. Tong, MBA

Partner at Decheng Capital

Biography

Victor E. Tong is a partner at Decheng Capital focusing on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies in the US and China. He has served on the boards of over ten successful Decheng backed companies leading to numerous aquisitions and IPOs. Prior to joining Decheng, Victor was a Principal at Bay City Capital and was a member of the founding team of Nevro. He was also an investment banker with Morgan Stanley advising healthcare companies on IPOs and specialized in strategic advisory work. Victor is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and holds a degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.

Jonggil Choi

Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings

Jonggil Choi

Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings

Biography

Jonggil Choi is a Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings. In his role, he oversees M&A and investments focusing on next generation biotech initiatives. Jonggil has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He started his career as a researcher at Group's subsidiary, SK Biopharm, before moving into a role in corporate strategy development. He holds a M.S. in Biochemical engineering and a B.S. in Life Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Minsop Song, MBA

Director of GNTECH Venture Capital

Minsop Song, MBA

Director of GNTECH Venture Capital

Biography

Minsop Song is Director of GNTECH Venture Capital where he focuses on investing in biotechnology companies. Prior to joining GNTECH, he was Senior Associate at M-Venture Investment focusing on investments in therapeutics, diagnostics companies. He started his career at SK Biopharmaceuticals and Lifescience Division of SK Holdings. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Sogang University. He also holds an MBA from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) College of Business.

Ahryon Cho, PhD

Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment

Ahryon Cho, PhD

Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment

Biography

Dr. Cho is Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment, the venture capital arm of Korea-based Mirae Asset Financial Group, a leading financial services group in Asia. She has completed multiple equity investments in companies developing innovative therapeutics and diagnostics. Previously, Dr. Cho was a research assistant professor at Yonsei University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, NJ, USA, and completed her post-doctoral training in Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.

Hear From Our Team

Fabien Decaillot, PhD

Head of Antibody Discovery

I get to bring my experience to exciting ventures in the field of the molecular design of biologics. I believe that Hummingbird is at the cutting-edge of delivering a new way of drug discovery and I am excited to be a part of this creation process.

Michelle Su

Lab Operations Director

My job is to ensure that Hummingbird’s lab workflow and practices are set at high industry standards, and that we are operating at our best. I am glad to be part of our world-class team at Hummingbird; every day brings fresh challenges in a very fast-paced environment.

Namita Gandhi, PhD

Head of Antibody Discovery

As Head of Translational Biology at Hummingbird, I get to work on complex scientific problems that have meaningful impact on drug discovery and development every day.

Carlo Polo

Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

My work is centred around the safety and quality of our research programs. Hummingbird is a great environment for learning and growth as we expand our pipeline and prepare our lead programs for clinical trials; you get great exposure and vast opportunities to learn on-the-job.

Siyu Guan, PhD

Head of Production

What attracted me to Hummingbird was its mission to do great discovery science, and how the company culture nurtures entrepreneurial spirit. I focus on establishing reliable production processes which will enable our preclinical work.

Dipti Thakkar, PhD

Head of Pharmacology

I get to work in collaboration with some of the most brilliant and creative minds across various disciplines in the industry. Together we work to discover novel and integrative approaches to disease biology and revolutionising treatment outcomes. I am also working with data science to scale up our in-house analytics capacity for our expanding projects.

Fabien Decaillot, PhD

Head of Antibody Discovery

I get to bring my experience to exciting ventures in the field of the molecular design of biologics. I believe that Hummingbird is at the cutting-edge of delivering a new way of drug discovery and I am excited to be a part of this creation process.

Michelle Su

Lab Operations Director

My job is to ensure that Hummingbird’s lab workflow and practices are set at high industry standards, and that we are operating at our best. I am glad to be part of our world-class team at Hummingbird; every day brings fresh challenges in a very fast-paced environment.

Namita Gandhi, PhD

Head of Antibody Discovery

As Head of Translational Biology at Hummingbird, I get to work on complex scientific problems that have meaningful impact on drug discovery and development every day.

Carlo Polo

Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

My work is centred around the safety and quality of our research programs. Hummingbird is a great environment for learning and growth as we expand our pipeline and prepare our lead programs for clinical trials; you get great exposure and vast opportunities to learn on-the-job.

Siyu Guan, PhD

Head of Production

What attracted me to Hummingbird was its mission to do great discovery science, and how the company culture nurtures entrepreneurial spirit. I focus on establishing reliable production processes which will enable our preclinical work.

Dipti Thakkar, PhD

Head of Pharmacology

I get to work in collaboration with some of the most brilliant and creative minds across various disciplines in the industry. Together we work to discover novel and integrative approaches to disease biology and revolutionising treatment outcomes. I am also working with data science to scale up our in-house analytics capacity for our expanding projects.

Fabien Decaillot, PhD

Head of Antibody Discovery

I get to bring my experience to exciting ventures in the field of the molecular design of biologics. I believe that Hummingbird is at the cutting-edge of delivering a new way of drug discovery and I am excited to be a part of this creation process.

Michelle Su

Lab Operations Director

My job is to ensure that Hummingbird’s lab workflow and practices are set at high industry standards, and that we are operating at our best. I am glad to be part of our world-class team at Hummingbird; every day brings fresh challenges in a very fast-paced environment.

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Piers Ingram is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. Seeing the exciting progress in systems biology and immunology over the last decade, Piers co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience in 2015 in order to apply these advances to drug discovery and development.

Biography

Prior to co-founding Hummingbird, Piers spent 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry across various disciplines from academic research to R&D consulting and commercial strategy. He obtained his PhD in Systems Biology at Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, kickstarting a career in academia where he held several roles including as a research group leader at Imperial College London. He then moved to biopharma R&D consulting and commercial strategy roles at Sanofi, an international pharmaceutical company. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. He is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies and intellectual property, designing experimental strategies for drug discovery, leading the development and testing of novel therapeutics, and overseeing the drug pipeline.

Biography

Jerome is a molecular systems biologist by background with extensive experience at the interface of computational and wet lab biology, and a career research focus of applying systems biology approaches to tackling human disease. Before co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience in 2014, he was an academic at top institutions in the UK and China.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Focus

Dr. Eric Rowinsky is the Chief Medical Officer (Consultant) at Hummingbird Bioscience, focusing on the clinical and registrational strategies of anticancer therapeutics.

Biography

Dr. Rowinsky is a practicing clinical oncologist and veteran clinical drug developer in the oncologics and biotherapeutics space. He led the Food and Drug Administration approval of Erbitux® for head and neck and colorectal cancers and advanced eight other biological therapeutics through clinical development during his time at ImClone.

Prior to joining ImClone in 2005, Dr. Rowinsky was a longstanding NCI principal investigator on anticancer drug development grants and integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which lead to the development of both classical chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies, including a wide variety of cytotoxic and targeted anticancer therapeutics.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec Inc., Fortress Bio, Verastem, Biophytis, Rgenix and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several other leading Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies.

He is a distinguished thought leader in the field of oncology with over 300 manuscripts in both the preclinical and clinical research field and holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of Cancer Research (Associate Editor and Reviews Editor), Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, Cancer Biology and Therapy and several other oncology journals.

He is an adjunct Professor at New York University School of Medicine.

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Focus

Konrad Paszkiewicz is the Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Bioscience. He leads Hummingbird’s structural biology, computational genomics, machine learning and internal platform technologies.

Biography

Prior to Hummingbird, Konrad held several academic positions including Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Exeter, UK and was the head of the University of Exeter Sequencing and Genomics facility.

An expert in bioinformatics, Konrad is author of over 45 peer reviewed publications and a frequent organizer and speaker at several renowned scientific workshops and seminar series. He holds an MSci in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College, London.

Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Focus

Miemie Strydom oversees and manages the day-to-day activities cross-functionally for all corporate divisions and workstreams including Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Fundraising/Transactions.

Biography

A medical scientist by training, Miemie brings more than 13 years of commercial, strategy and investment advisory experience in the Lifesciences and Healthcare industry. She has held both in-house as well as advisory positions, making her uniquely appreciative of the workings of the industry’s ecosystem and how corporate functions are best suited to help realise ground-breaking science and return on investment. Prior to Hummingbird, she has advised on over 100 product development- and launch strategies for leading global pharmaceutical players as Strategy Consultant with IQVIA (UK, Singapore). She also has strong M&A, IPO and financing transactions experience with Deutsche Bank Healthcare Investment Banking, and Davita International where she drove high priority International Finance, M&A and business development initiatives to facilitate sustainable and profitable growth and expansion outside of the US.

She holds an MBA from London Business School, UK (2016), a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2005).

Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

Focus

Guy Heathers is responsible for the business development activities of the company, particularly helping to integrate the intellectual property activities to align with business development objectives to maximize the company’s value.

Biography

Guy has over 30 year’s work experience in the pharma/biotech/tech transfer environment. Initially working at Hoffman La Roche in the drug discovery division, he worked for Cancer Research Technology, helping to create a number of early stage spin outs including Cyclacel, Kudos, Crusade, CRV. Moving to Singapore in 2000, he created Biotech Research Ventures, a joint venture between CRT, NCCS and Temasek, which in turn helped to spin out 4 early stage Biotech companies. In Australia, he joined Gateway Capital as CEO to assist early stage biotech companies to list on the ASX. He was also instrumental in setting up Cancer Therapeutics, which received over AUD 100 million in funding over a 14 year period and creating two high profile pharma therapeutics. He worked as the interim CEO for Amaranth Medical and a consultant for NCCS and SingHealth, responsible for a number of commercial collaborations as well as the creation of Enleofen Bio. More recently, he spent 5 years with Tessa Therapeutics. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Leeds University, a PhD from Bath University and an MBA from Farleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey.

James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

Focus

Mechanisms of T cell development and activation; development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy

Biography

Prof. James P. Allison serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology. Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in 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, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Focus

Mechanisms and pathways within the immune system which are responsible for tumor rejection and clinical benefit; development of novel immunotherapy strategies for cancer treatment

Biography

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, is a leading cancer immunotherapy scientist. Dr. Sharma currently serves as co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immumotherapy 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 allow her to investigate immune responses and pathways critical for eliciting anti-tumor responses which provide clinical benefit in cancer patients.

John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

Focus

Immune monitoring and immunometabolism

Biography

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 Ph.D. 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

Focus

Cancer Immunology

Biography

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 Principle 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.

Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

Focus

Target Discovery

Biography

Wei Yang, PhD is Director of Target Discovery at the Institute for Protein Innovation at Harvard University. Previously, Wei Yang served as Director of Molecular Biology at Novo Nordisk Research Centre China. He led an international team that successfully produced and screened for interactions between all human secreted proteins and single transmembrane cell surface proteins. This receptor-ligand de-orphaning effort identified the previously unknown receptors for GDF15 and VISTA, which are novel therapeutic targets for obesity and cancer, respectively. Dr Yang received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jilin University and a PhD. from Peking University.

Chik Wai Chiew, MBA

CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management

Biography

Chik Wai Chiew is the CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management. He has more than 20 years of experience in global investment management and strategic business development, having been active in leading various companies on transformational growth strategies, fund raising and M&A. He initiated Heritas Venture Fund in 2017 which has since invested in digital health, insuretech, diagnostics, and health foodtech etc. Wai Chiew was awarded the Glaxo-EDB scholarship and holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University, UK; MA from Yale University, USA; and completed his EMBA at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China.

Victor E. Tong, MBA

Partner at Decheng Capital

Biography

Victor E. Tong is a partner at Decheng Capital focusing on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies in the US and China. He has served on the boards of over ten successful Decheng backed companies leading to numerous aquisitions and IPOs. Prior to joining Decheng, Victor was a Principal at Bay City Capital and was a member of the founding team of Nevro. He was also an investment banker with Morgan Stanley advising healthcare companies on IPOs and specialized in strategic advisory work. Victor is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and holds a degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.

Jonggil Choi

Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings

Biography

onggil Choi is a Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings. In his role, he oversees M&A and investments focusing on next generation biotech initiatives. Jonggil has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He started his career as a researcher at Group’s subsidiary, SK Biopharm, before moving into a role in corporate strategy development. He holds a M.S. in Biochemical engineering and a B.S. in Life Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Minsop Song, MBA

Director of GNTECH Venture Capital

Biography

Minsop Song is Director of GNTECH Venture Capital where he focuses on investing in biotechnology companies. Prior to joining GNTECH, he was Senior Associate at M-Venture Investment focusing on investments in therapeutics, diagnostics companies. He started his career at SK Biopharmaceuticals and Lifescience Division of SK Holdings. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Sogang University. He also holds an MBA from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) College of Business.

Ahryon Cho, PhD

Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment

Biography

Dr. Cho is Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment, the venture capital arm of Korea-based Mirae Asset Financial Group, a leading financial services group in Asia. She has completed multiple equity investments in companies developing innovative therapeutics and diagnostics. Previously, Dr. Cho was a research assistant professor at Yonsei University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, NJ, USA, and completed her post-doctoral training in Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Piers Ingram is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. Seeing the exciting progress in systems biology and immunology over the last decade, Piers co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience in 2015 in order to apply these advances to drug discovery and development.

Biography

Prior to co-founding Hummingbird, Piers spent 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry across various disciplines from academic research to R&D consulting and commercial strategy. He obtained his PhD in Systems Biology at Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, kickstarting a career in academia where he held several roles including as a research group leader at Imperial College London. He then moved to biopharma R&D consulting and commercial strategy roles at Sanofi, an international pharmaceutical company. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Focus

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. He is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies and intellectual property, designing experimental strategies for drug discovery, leading the development and testing of novel therapeutics, and overseeing the drug pipeline.

Biography

Jerome is a molecular systems biologist by background with extensive experience at the interface of computational and wet lab biology, and a career research focus of applying systems biology approaches to tackling human disease. Before co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience in 2014, he was an academic at top institutions in the UK and China.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Eric Rowinsky, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Focus

Dr. Eric Rowinsky is the Chief Medical Officer (Consultant) at Hummingbird Bioscience, focusing on the clinical and registrational strategies of anticancer therapeutics.

Biography

Dr. Rowinsky is a practicing clinical oncologist and veteran clinical drug developer in the oncologics and biotherapeutics space. He led the Food and Drug Administration approval of Erbitux® for head and neck and colorectal cancers and advanced eight other biological therapeutics through clinical development during his time at ImClone.

Prior to joining ImClone in 2005, Dr. Rowinsky was a longstanding NCI principal investigator on anticancer drug development grants and integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which lead to the development of both classical chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies, including a wide variety of cytotoxic and targeted anticancer therapeutics.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec Inc., Fortress Bio, Verastem, Biophytis, Rgenix and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several other leading Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies.

He is a distinguished thought leader in the field of oncology with over 300 manuscripts in both the preclinical and clinical research field and holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of Cancer Research (Associate Editor and Reviews Editor), Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, Cancer Biology and Therapy and several other oncology journals.

He is an adjunct Professor at New York University School of Medicine.

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Focus

Konrad Paszkiewicz is the Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Bioscience. He leads Hummingbird’s structural biology, computational genomics, machine learning and internal platform technologies.

Biography

Prior to Hummingbird, Konrad held several academic positions including Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Exeter, UK and was the head of the University of Exeter Sequencing and Genomics facility.

An expert in bioinformatics, Konrad is author of over 45 peer reviewed publications and a frequent organizer and speaker at several renowned scientific workshops and seminar series. He holds an MSci in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College, London.

Miemie Strydom, MBA

VP, Finance and Shared Services

Focus

Miemie Strydom oversees and manages the day-to-day activities cross-functionally for all corporate divisions and workstreams including Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Fundraising/Transactions.

Biography

A medical scientist by training, Miemie brings more than 13 years of commercial, strategy and investment advisory experience in the Lifesciences and Healthcare industry. She has held both in-house as well as advisory positions, making her uniquely appreciative of the workings of the industry’s ecosystem and how corporate functions are best suited to help realise ground-breaking science and return on investment. Prior to Hummingbird, she has advised on over 100 product development- and launch strategies for leading global pharmaceutical players as Strategy Consultant with IQVIA (UK, Singapore). She also has strong M&A, IPO and financing transactions experience with Deutsche Bank Healthcare Investment Banking, and Davita International where she drove high priority International Finance, M&A and business development initiatives to facilitate sustainable and profitable growth and expansion outside of the US.

She holds an MBA from London Business School, UK (2016), a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2005).

Guy Heathers, PhD, MBA

VP, Business Development

Focus

Guy Heathers is responsible for the business development activities of the company, particularly helping to integrate the intellectual property activities to align with business development objectives to maximize the company’s value.

Biography

Guy has over 30 year’s work experience in the pharma/biotech/tech transfer environment. Initially working at Hoffman La Roche in the drug discovery division, he worked for Cancer Research Technology, helping to create a number of early stage spin outs including Cyclacel, Kudos, Crusade, CRV. Moving to Singapore in 2000, he created Biotech Research Ventures, a joint venture between CRT, NCCS and Temasek, which in turn helped to spin out 4 early stage Biotech companies. In Australia, he joined Gateway Capital as CEO to assist early stage biotech companies to list on the ASX. He was also instrumental in setting up Cancer Therapeutics, which received over AUD 100 million in funding over a 14 year period and creating two high profile pharma therapeutics. He worked as the interim CEO for Amaranth Medical and a consultant for NCCS and SingHealth, responsible for a number of commercial collaborations as well as the creation of Enleofen Bio. More recently, he spent 5 years with Tessa Therapeutics. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Leeds University, a PhD from Bath University and an MBA from Farleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey.

James P. Allison, PhD

2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

Focus

Mechanisms of T cell development and activation; development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy

Biography

Prof. James P. Allison serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology. Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in 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, M.D. PhD

Professor of Medical Oncology,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Focus

Mechanisms and pathways within the immune system which are responsible for tumor rejection and clinical benefit; development of novel immunotherapy strategies for cancer treatment

Biography

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, is a leading cancer immunotherapy scientist. Dr. Sharma currently serves as co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immumotherapy 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 allow her to investigate immune responses and pathways critical for eliciting anti-tumor responses which provide clinical benefit in cancer patients.

John Conolly, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

Focus

Immune monitoring and immunometabolism

Biography

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 Ph.D. 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

Focus

Cancer Immunology

Biography

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 Principle 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.

Wei Yang, PhD

Director of Target Discovery at Institute for Protein Innovation, Harvard University

Focus

Target Discovery

Biography

Wei Yang, PhD is Director of Target Discovery at the Institute for Protein Innovation at Harvard University. Previously, Wei Yang served as Director of Molecular Biology at Novo Nordisk Research Centre China. He led an international team that successfully produced and screened for interactions between all human secreted proteins and single transmembrane cell surface proteins. This receptor-ligand de-orphaning effort identified the previously unknown receptors for GDF15 and VISTA, which are novel therapeutic targets for obesity and cancer, respectively. Dr Yang received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jilin University and a PhD. from Peking University.

Chik Wai Chiew, MBA

CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management

Biography

Chik Wai Chiew is the CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital Management. He has more than 20 years of experience in global investment management and strategic business development, having been active in leading various companies on transformational growth strategies, fund raising and M&A. He initiated Heritas Venture Fund in 2017 which has since invested in digital health, insuretech, diagnostics, and health foodtech etc. Wai Chiew was awarded the Glaxo-EDB scholarship and holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University, UK; MA from Yale University, USA; and completed his EMBA at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China.

Victor E. Tong, MBA

Partner at Decheng Capital

Biography

Victor E. Tong is a partner at Decheng Capital focusing on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies in the US and China. He has served on the boards of over ten successful Decheng backed companies leading to numerous aquisitions and IPOs. Prior to joining Decheng, Victor was a Principal at Bay City Capital and was a member of the founding team of Nevro. He was also an investment banker with Morgan Stanley advising healthcare companies on IPOs and specialized in strategic advisory work. Victor is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and holds a degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.

Jonggil Choi

Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings

Biography

onggil Choi is a Director of the Pharma Healthcare Group at SK Holdings. In his role, he oversees M&A and investments focusing on next generation biotech initiatives. Jonggil has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He started his career as a researcher at Group’s subsidiary, SK Biopharm, before moving into a role in corporate strategy development. He holds a M.S. in Biochemical engineering and a B.S. in Life Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Minsop Song, MBA

Director of GNTECH Venture Capital

Biography

Minsop Song is Director of GNTECH Venture Capital where he focuses on investing in biotechnology companies. Prior to joining GNTECH, he was Senior Associate at M-Venture Investment focusing on investments in therapeutics, diagnostics companies. He started his career at SK Biopharmaceuticals and Lifescience Division of SK Holdings. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Sogang University. He also holds an MBA from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) College of Business.

Ahryon Cho, PhD

Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment

Biography

Dr. Cho is Director of Mirae Asset Venture Investment, the venture capital arm of Korea-based Mirae Asset Financial Group, a leading financial services group in Asia. She has completed multiple equity investments in companies developing innovative therapeutics and diagnostics. Previously, Dr. Cho was a research assistant professor at Yonsei University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, NJ, USA, and completed her post-doctoral training in Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.

JLABS Texas Medical Center
2450 Holcombe Blvd Suite J Houston, TX 77021

Registered Company No:
201505192N
Temasek Lifescience Laboratories
1 Research Link
Singapore 117604
For general enquiries, please contact contact@hummingbirdbio.com

For career enquiries, please contact careers@hummingbirdbio.com
JLABS Texas Medical Center
2450 Holcombe Blvd Suite J
Houston, TX 77021
Temasek Lifescience Laboratories
1 Research Link
Singapore 117604
Registered Company No: 201505192N
For general enquiries, please contact contact@hummingbirdbio.com
For career enquiries, please contact careers@hummingbirdbio.com
PRIVACY POLICY | © 2020 Hummingbird Bioscience
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