Xiaodong Yang

Biography

Dr. Yang founded Apexigen in July of 2010, and serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors. Prior to forming Apexigen, he served as Vice President of Research and Preclinical Development at Intradigm Corporation (now Silence Therapeutics). Dr. Yang began his career as a founding scientist at Abgenix, Inc. (now Amgen) where he was Senior Director and headed the Oncology Therapeutic Program Team responsible for setting strategy and managing the company’s oncology portfolio. While at Abgenix he served as the project team leader for Vectibix® (panitumumab) and played a key role in its discovery, development and BLA approval. Dr. Yang also managed Abgenix’s partnerships on a number of therapeutic antibody collaboration programs. He has over 20 years of experience in the research and development of antibody and siRNA therapeutics. Dr. Yang was an American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation post-doctoral fellow in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his Medical Degree from Beijing Medical University and was awarded his Doctorate in Immunology from University of Bern in Switzerland. Mark Nevins, MA, MBA Vice President Business Development Mr. Nevins joined Apexigen near its founding and serves as Vice President, Business Development. Prior to joining Apexigen, Mr. Nevins served as Director, Business Development at Aradigm Corp., and at Abgenix, Inc. and held positions of increasing business development responsibility at G. D. Searle & Co, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of Monsanto Company. Mr. Nevins has more than 35 years of pharmaceutical industry experience; nearly 20 of those years have been devoted to business development and licensing. He has negotiated license agreements and strategic alliances, managed research collaborations, and, while at Abgenix, he participated in the transformative strategic alliance with AstraZeneca for the development of antibodies against multiple oncology targets. Earlier in his career, he conducted drug discovery research for G. D. Searle & Co. Mr. Nevins holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Central Michigan Universty and an MBA from Dominican University. Ovid Trifan, MD, PhD Chief Medical Officer Dr. Trifan joined Apexigen in September of 2014 as Vice President, Clinical Development, and was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in January of 2017. Prior to joining Apexigen, Dr. Trifan served as Senior Medical Director in the Clinical Science group at Onyx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen), where he co-chaired the Onyx-Bayer joint development committee for the clinical development of Nexavar® (sorafenib) and Stivarga® (regorafenib), and supported business development efforts of the company. Prior to joining Onyx, Dr. Trifan, served as Group Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he lead clinical development teams for Erbitux® (cetuximab), necitumumab, CT-322 and contributed to the development of Ixempra® (ixabepilone). Prior to that, he trained in clinical oncology research at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development and contributed to the development of Yondelis® (trabecitidin). His experience also encompasses the discovery of novel anti-cancer agents while working in the Oncology Discovery group at Pharmacia Corporation (acquired by Pfizer). Dr. Trifan was awarded a Medical Degree and a Doctorate in Cell Biology from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania; Dr. Trifan conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Amy Wong Vice President, Finance Ms. Wong joined Apexigen in April of 2014 and serves as Vice President, Finance, in which she holds responsibility for both finance and human resource functions. Prior to joining Apexigen, Ms. Wong served as Vice President of Finance and Operations at Tobi.com, overseeing all financial affairs of the company as well as managing 24/7 fulfillment operations. Prior to Tobi, Ms. Wong served as Director of Finance and Human Resources at Mozes (now ePrize), whith responsibility for all finance and human resource operations. While at Mozes, she helped raise two rounds of venture financing and supported the acquisition of the company by ePrize. Prior to Mozes, Ms. Wong served as accounting manager for Montalvo Systems (acquired by Sun Microsystems) and Airgo Networks (acquired by Qualcomm), and held positions of increasing responsibility at the publicly traded companies, Foundry Networks and Redback Networks. Ms. Wong has more than 20 years of public and private company experience in finance, accounting and human resources, and has managed all facets of accounting issues, including financial reporting, SEC filings, audit compliance, closing strategies, M&A and foreign subsidiaries. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from California State University, Sacramento. Kenneth Fong, Ph.D. Chairman of the Board Dr. Fong is the Chairman of Kenson Ventures, LLC. Kenson specializes in venture financing and strategic consulting to biotech companies. As of January 2003, Kenson has 18 investments that mostly fall into 3 major categories: a) Innovative Research Tools, b) Platform Technologies, and c) Drug Development. Prior to founding Kenson, Dr. Fong was the founder and CEO of CLONTECH Laboratories, acquired by Becton Dickinson (BD) in late 1999. CLONTECH was the leader in the Molecular/Cell Biology market and in the last 4 years before its acquisition, the company had experienced an average growth rate of 36% a year. The company also had 48 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth and profits. In 1994, 1995, 1998, and 1999, CLONTECH was selected as one of the fastest-growing companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Fong's past experience is best suited to young companies and to those that desire to grow more rapidly. He is also adept at crafting development strategy and realistic implementation plans to promote the long-term growth of a company. Under Dr. Fong's leadership, companies that either were acquired or went public between 2007 and 2010 are: Epitomics (to Abcam); SA Biosciences (to Qiagen); DHI (to Quidel); Fermentas (to ThermoFisher); Panomics (to Affymetrix); Bioform (IPO); and Optimer (IPO). Dr. Fong obtained his Ph.D. from Indiana University. William J. Rutter, Ph.D. Board Member Dr. Rutter is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Synergenics LLC, which provides strategic science and business advice to concept-stage biotechnology startup companies. Dr. Rutter also serves as Chairman Emeritus of Chiron, the company he co-founded in 1981. As Chairman of the Board and the executive committee from Chiron's inception until 1999, Dr. Rutter was involved directly in management of virtually all activities of the company, especially in operations. He had direct responsibilities of Research and Development, Vaccines, Diagnostics, Strategic Planning, Business Development and Legal; he negotiated all major deals. Dr. Rutter also serves on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has published more than 380 scientific articles and holds more than 20 patents and patent applications. Dr. Rutter served as director of the Hormone Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) from 1983 to 1989 and chairman of the university's department of biochemistry and biophysics from 1979 to 1982. During his tenure at UCSF, Dr. Rutter and his lab made key contributions to the emerging discipline of biotechnology, including work on the development of recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering. George J. Lee, Ph.D. Board Member George J. Lee, Ph.D. is a general partner and co-founder of AmKey Ventures, LLC, a venture management company specializing in investments in the biotech and pharmaceutical fields. AmKey Ventures has been dedicated to building a strong biotech portfolio in regions of the US and Asia over the last decade. Dr. Lee has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked productively at a major pharmaceutical company (Syntex) for 13 years and early stage biomedical companies (Sonus and Shaman Pharmaceuticals) for 7 years. Dr. Lee is an internationally known pioneer in the field of steroid hormones research. His HPLC-RIA method has been recognized as the most accurate and sensitive method for the determination of trace amounts of steroid hormones in the complex biological matrices. Dr. Lee has in-depth experience in analytical methods development and validation for New Drug Application (NDA) as well as various applications to the Food & Drug Administration. Dr. Lee earned his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his B.S. degree in agricultural chemistry from National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Dan Zabrowski, Ph.D. Board Member Dr. Dan Zabrowski is a Venture Partner at Decheng Capital and has been with the firm since July 2016. Prior to joining Decheng, Dr. Zabrowski worked over 20 years for Roche in a number of key global leadership positions, including Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, Global Head of Development Operations, Global Head of Roche Pharma Partnering, President of Ventana Medical Systems and President of the Roche Sequencing Unit. During his tenure in Business Development and Diagnostics, Dr. Zabrowski and his teams delivered 300+ acquisition and partnership deals. In addition, he was Board member of Chugai Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Zabrowski worked at Syntex, Fujisawa (now Astellas) and G.D. Searle in their pharmaceutical R&D organizations and served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Illinois — Chicago. Dr. Zabrowski received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University, Bloomington and his BA degree in Chemistry from Saint Louis University. Xiaodong Yang, MD, P.h.D. Board Member Dr. Yang founded Apexigen in July of 2010, and serves as President, CEO and a member of the board of directors. Prior to forming Apexigen, he served as Vice President of Research and Preclinical Development at Intradigm Corporation (now Silence Therapeutics). Dr. Yang began his career as a founding scientist at Abgenix (now Amgen) where he was Senior Director and headed the Oncology Therapeutic Program Team responsible for setting strategy and managing the company’s oncology portfolio. While at Abgenix he served as the project team leader for Vectibix® (panitumumab) and played a key role in its discovery, development and BLA approval, and managed the company’s partnerships on a number of therapeutic antibody collaboration programs. He has over 20 years of experience in the research and development of antibody and siRNA therapeutics. Dr. Yang was an American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology. He received his medical degree from Beijing Medical University and was awarded his doctorate in Immunology from University of Bern in Switzerland. William J. Rutter, Ph.D. Dr. Rutter is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Synergenics LLC, which provides strategic science and business advice to concept-stage biotechnology start-up companies. Dr. Rutter also serves as Chairman Emeritus of Chiron, the company he co-founded in 1981. As Chairman of the Board and the executive committee from Chiron's inception until 1999, Dr. Rutter was involved directly in management of virtually all activities of the company, especially in operations. He had direct responsibilities of Research and Development, Vaccines, Diagnostics, Strategic Planning, Business Development and Legal; he negotiated all major deals. Dr. Rutter also serves on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has published more than 380 scientific articles and holds more than 20 patents and patent applications. Dr. Rutter served as director of the Hormone Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) from 1983 to 1989 and chairman of the university's department of biochemistry and biophysics from 1979 to 1982. During his tenure at UCSF, Dr. Rutter and his lab made key contributions to the emerging discipline of biotechnology, including work on the development of recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering. David Ho, M.D. David D. Ho is the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, a world-renowned biomedical research institute. He is also the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Ho received his degrees from California Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, respectively. Dr. David Ho has been at the forefront of AIDS research for 33 years, publishing over 400 papers. His elegant studies, beginning in 1994, unveiled the dynamic nature of HIV replication in vivo and revolutionized our basic understanding of this horrific disease. This knowledge led Dr. Ho to champion combination antiretroviral therapy that resulted in unprecedented control of HIV in patients. AIDS mortality in richer nations has declined dramatically since 1996, and a massive international effort is now underway to bring such life-saving treatment to millions in the developing world. To date over 10 million patients have benefitted from combination antiretroviral therapy. Dr. Ho has been the major driving force behind this major medical breakthrough in what is arguably the worst plague in human history. Dr. Ho’s research team is now devoting considerable efforts to develop HIV vaccines, as well as antibody-based strategies and long-acting antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure prophylaxis to halt or slow the spread of the AIDS epidemic. Dr. Ho has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments. He is the recipient of thirteen honorary doctorates. He has been chosen as the commencement speaker at Caltech, MIT, and Harvard School of Public Health. Additional accolades include the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, the Squibb Award, and the Hoechst Marion Roussel Award. Dr. Ho has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science in the United States. He was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Recently, Dr. Ho was recognized by the Kingdom of Thailand with the Prince Mahidol Award in Medicine. Dr. Ho was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology. He is currently a board member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation. Dr. Ho was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1996, and was the recipient of a Presidential Medal from Bill Clinton in 2001. Ronald Levy, M.D, Ph.D. Dr. Ronald Levy is a Professor of Medicine, Director of the Lymphoma Program, and Former Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University. He obtained his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1963 and his medical degree from Stanford University in 1968. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

Research Interest

Dr. Levy's research has focused for more than 20 years on monoclonal antibodies to B cells. He was the first to successfully treat human lymphoma with a monoclonal antibody, and went on to make important contributions to the development of rituximab (Rituxan®), for the treatment of patients with resistant low-grade lymphomas. He is currently conducting clinical trials of a lymphoma vaccine. His research concentrates on the study of malignant lymphoma, using the tools of immunology and molecular biology to develop a better understanding of the initiatio