Management Team
Mireille Gingras, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Gingras founded HUYA in 2004 and has grown this privately-held company to become the global leader in accelerating the co-development of novel biopharmaceutical product opportunities originating in China. Dr. Gingras was the first to establish extensive collaborations with Chinese academic and commercial biopharmaceutical organizations to speed the development and value creation in worldwide markets for China-sourced novel biopharmaceutical compounds. Dr. Gingras has 18 years experience in the biotechnology industry that includes drug development, pre-clinical research design, and experience in establishing academic partnering programs. She has also made significant contributions to the study of complex addictive diseases as well as in the research and development of neuroactive steroids and neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Gingras completed post-doctoral fellowships at Bordeaux University and Scripps Research Institute and holds a Ph.D. from Radboud University Nijmegen.
Marc Cluzel, MD, PhD
Executive Vice President, Product Development
Dr. Cluzel, an established innovator and leader in the pharmaceutical industry, has more than 20 years of extensive knowledge and experience in Research & Development and product pattern registration in U.S., Europe, and Japan. Prior to becoming one of HUYA's most prized assets, Dr. Cluzel served as Executive Vice President of Research & Development for sanofi-aventis, SA. His career began in hospital medical care and gradually transitioned to research at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and Guy's Hospital, London. Dr. Cluzel holds both a Doctorate of Medicine and Doctorate of Science from the University of Montpellier, France.
Clement Gingras
COO China & CTO
Mr. Gingras joined HUYA in 2007 and assumed responsibility for overseeing the Company's China operations as well as for implementing the Company's compound database strategy. In 2010, Mr. Gingras was given the position of Chief Technical Officer of HBI Pharma, Ltd. with responsibilities for, among other things, managing the Company's existing technologies, identifying and implementing new technologies to support business development activities and developing and executing strategic plans for discovery and development of new technologies which meet the Company's strategic and business growth objectives. Prior to joining HUYA, Mr. Gingras was a telecom engineer for Ericsson for 11 years where he began as a TDMA OSS systems integration engineer. Mr. Gingras played an active role in Ericsson's transfer to GSDC technology where he served as a systems integrator. Mr. Gingras also served as a technical coordinator for three years with responsibilities for project management, budgeting, cost estimates, quotes, change requests and resource management. Prior to joining Ericsson, Mr. Gingras was systems integrator for STS Systems. Mr. Gingras graduated from Concordia University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Specialization Hydrology. Mr. Gingras also received a Computer Programming Post Graduate Certificate from Concordia University.
Sabrina Martucci Johnson, MIM
Acting CFO, COO
Sabrina Martucci Johnson has an outstanding track record in areas including Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance, Investor Relations, Business Development, Marketing & Sales, Alliance Management, Operations, and Project Management. Ms. Johnson was a key member of the executive management team at Cypress Bioscience, Inc. through August 2011 and most recently served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Cypress Bioscience, Inc. She joined Cypress in 1998 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2002. She was appointed Chief Operating Officer in January 2008 and previously served as Chief Business Officer and in a variety of commercial functions including Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In these roles at Cypress she has been responsible for mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, strategic partnerships, capital raises, investor relations, commercial leadership, product launches and competitive analysis and market opportunity assessment and planning. Ms. Johnson previously held marketing and sales positions with Advanced Tissue Sciences, where she was responsible for global product positioning and development of promotional materials, strategic marketplace analysis reports and technical product support, and spent a year in sales at Clonetics Corporation. Ms. Johnson has an MIM from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and a MSc. in Biochemical Engineering from the University of London, and a BSc. in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University, where she graduated magna cum laude. Ms. Johnson began her career in the biotechnology industry as a research scientist with Baxter Healthcare, Hyland Division. She currently serves on the YWCA of San Diego County Board of Directors, Tulane University School of Science & Engineering Board of Advisors, University California San Diego Librarian’s Advisory Board, and Project Concern International Audit Committee. She is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the CONNECT Springboard program for entrepreneurs, and is a member of Women Give San Diego, which funds non-profit organizations serving women & girls and Athena, which promotes professional growth for women executives.
Curtis M. Tyree, PhD
Vice President, Operations
Dr. Tyree has 15 years of drug discovery experience in therapeutic areas of oncology, inflammation, and neurology. At Ligand Pharmaceuticals and TorreyPines Therapeutics, Dr. Tyree has worked on several significant projects with Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eisai. He was a major contributor in the discovery of Promacta, the first oral thrombopoietin receptor agonist. Dr. Tyree received his B.Sc. from McGill University, Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and postdoctoral fellowship at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin. He also served 5 years as an instructor for UCSD Extension Bioscience.
Yung-Chih Wang, PhD, MBA
Vice President, Corporate Development, China
Dr. Wang has nearly 11 years' industry experience in pharmaceutical R&D of therapeutic proteins, peptides, and small molecules. Previously at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Wang led various projects to success in drug target identification and validation, drug screening and characterization, and mode of action determination. She also established and managed multiple collaborations with external research groups, formed and implemented strategic plans for drug discovery programs, and synthesized knowledge from scientific and marketing data to facilitate management decision-making. Dr. Wang received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, postdoctoral training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York, and her MBA from the Rady School of Management at University of California San Diego. She also received her MS in Biochemistry and BS in Botany from National Taiwan University.
Shawn Zhang, PhD
Director of Molecular Medicine
Shawn Zhang has more than 10 years of biomedical R&D experience as principal investigator and consultant in pharmaceutical industry and more than 25 years experience in biomedical research. Prior to joining HUYA, Dr. Zhang served at Tanabe Research Laboratories, the US subsidiary of Tanabe Seiyaku Co., where he served various leading roles in new technology acquisition, project management and preclinical drug discovery for cancer, inflammation and metabolic diseases. He also served as consultant in MediciNova for licensing of drug candidates from US, Japan and Europe. Dr. Zhang completed Ph.D in Biochemistry at The Salk Institute and the University of California at San Diego. He completed his postdoctoral training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He was also an Assistant Fellow at the Institute of Genetics, ChineseAcademy of Sciences. He holds MS in Genetics from The Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences and BS in Biology from BeijingNormalUniversity
Ning Li, PhD
Portfolio Director
Dr. Li brought 10 years of biomedical research & development, management and corporate partnering experience to HUYA. He manages the sourcing and following up of therapeutic opportunities from China and is also in charge of HUYA portfolio database. Prior to joining HUYA, Dr. Li was a consultant in scientific research for Polgenix, a biotechnology company. He previously worked as a group leader and a senior scientist at Novasite Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biotechnology company focusing on therapies targeting neurological and metabolic diseases. At Novasite, he was the scientific leader of a partnership with Amgen. He was also awarded two SBIR grants from the National Institute of Health as the principal investigator. Dr. Li received a BS in Molecular Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
Mei Li, PhD
Associate Director, Business Development
Doctor Li received her BS in Cell Biology and Genetics from Peking University in Beijing, China and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. She is the former Director of Business Development at Assay Depot Inc. Dr Li also held positions as Senior Scientist at Harbor Biosciences (former Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals) and Immunogenex.
China Management Team
Rulun Zhou , MD, MS
Director of Beijing Office
Rulun Zhou, MD, MS, joined HUYA as the director of Beijing office. He previously held senior research and administrative positions in multiple pharmaceutical and IT companies. Dr. Zhou graduated from the department of medicine, Shanghai Medical University in 1988, and from the postgraduate school (major in genetics) of Beijing Medical University in 1991. He has around 20 years expertise as both researcher and organizer in biomedical field, with working experiences in many prestigious universities and institutes, including Peking University Health Science Center, Tsukuba University of Japan, Washington University at St. Louis, Harvard University and NIH. He initiated and organized several large research projects such as key clinical research projects from Chinese Ministry of Health, coordinative research projects of WHO and Sino-US research projects. He was the principal investigator of a drug research project in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, US Department of Defense. Dr. Zhou has published more than 60 papers and won several scientific awards worldwide.
Quentin Liu, MD, PhD
Senior Scientific Advisor
Dr. Liu received his PhD and MD from the University of Illinois, and graduated with a BS from Nanjing University. He was trained as a clinical resident doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital (New York) in 2000-2003. In 2003, he joined in Harvard Medical School as a research associate of Cell Biology and make key discoveries about the role of Aurora-A kinase in the cell cycle. He was recruited back to China as a recipient of One hundred Talented Scholar Program in Sun Yat-Sen University in 2006. In 2008, he received Distinguished Young Scholar Fund at National Natural Science Foundation (China). Major interests of his research are on molecular mechanisms of anti-cancer therapy. He has published more than 30 papers in well-known scientific journals. Dr. Liu is a professor of Cancer Biology at State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Cancer Centre, and Sun Yat-Sen University in China. He is a senior scientific advisor to the HUYA Guangzhou office.
Manwen Li, PhD
Director of Government Affairs
Mr. Li obtained his executive juridical degree from China University of Political Science and Law, master in science from China Academy of Military Medical Sciences, MBA from Tsinghua University, and bachelor degree in science from Wuhan University. He joined HUYA with a variety of experience in research, project management, investment and law from academic and pharmaceutical fields. As a senior technical manager, he had worked in China Academy of Military Medical Sciences and SFDA affiliated organization for 13 years. At HUYA, he is in charge of obtaining information of government policies, laws and regulations from central and local governmental departments, science parks as well as other governmental agencies.
Wenying Kang, PhD
Senior Scientific Liaison Manager
Dr. Kang graduated from Shanghai Second Medical University, and she received her PhD in hematology. Before joining HUYA, she worked in Shanghai Asia United Antibody Medical Limited Company as project manager. She was in charge of research and development, manufacture, and SFDA registration of a chimeric antibody. It was approved for clinical trial by State Food and Drug Administration in China. She is a Scientific Liaison Manager at HUYA.
Zhiyong Yang, PhD
Senior Scientific Liaison Manager
Dr. Yang attained his PhD in pharmacology from China Pharmaceutical University and his master’s degree of science from Lanzhou University. Before joining HUYA, Dr. Zhiyong Yang had worked in pharmaceutical areas for 12 years including at the Lanzhou University affiliated hospital as a pharmacist and Tianjin Tasly Pharmaceutical Company as head of new drug screening center. He has extensive experiences in drug development, project management, and new drug registration. He was in charge of the new drug screening center; registration of new drugs in over 20 countries including EU and USA. He also has successful experience in leading national level funding projects. He is an expert at research fields of tumor, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases. Now he is senior Scientific Liaison Manager to work in HUYA Beijing office.
Liyan Zheng, MD, PhD
Scientific Liaison Manager-Diagnostics
Dr. Zheng obtained a PhD in molecular immunology from Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China and a MD from Qingdao University School of Medicine. She was a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in USA. Dr. Zheng has more than 10 years of R&D and project management experience in pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions. From 2007 to 2009, she served as project manager and team leader in Beijing Hanmei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Research Center and developed therapeutic protein products with her team. As a Scientific Liaison Manager in diagnostics, Dr. Zheng focuses on the sourcing of biomarkers and other diagnostic opportunities.