Business Development and Licensing

• Identified and evaluated external business opportunities for in/out-licensing, co-development, structured transactions and investment.• Developed persuasive business cases for prioritized external opportunities, using robust analyses, key assumptions and risks, and internal and external input to provide clear recommendations to the management team.• Led cross-functional execution from proposal to deal closure and alliance management, working closely with R&D, CMC, Clinical, Regulatory, Operations, Finance and Legal teams, and provided regular executive reporting.• Represented cooperation at industry, investor, and partnering conferences, and foster strong relationships with a diverse range of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry participants.

• Managed existing life science, biomedical and biotech project pipelines while developing new business opportunities, leading in-licensing, distribution, and partnership projects from initial to deal negotiation, and closing.• Identified 50+ transformational technologies while shaping emerging science to address unmet needs ranging from ideas, IPs, research articles, conferences, presses, and events. • Participated in global investment and M&A by deal sourcing, underwriting investment opportunities, providing scientific insights, cross-functional Due Diligence, and generating Due Diligence reports across target markets. • Facilitated in investments for internal and external (VC/PE) entities across 20+ new tech ventures spanning early- to late-stage privately held companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

• Advised 2 FDA regulatory applications and 7 novel product innovations and strategy design initiatives.• Managed 40+ life science/biomedical projects.• Established collaborative research and selected valuable patents from joint research for evaluation and incubation.

• Designed, proposed, and executed research projects to investigate host antiviral immunity and pathogenic mechanisms of viral infection at in vivo and in vitro levels.• Delivered 4 significant presentations at well-known professional conferences, focused on the molecular function of host genes that influences viral pathogenesis and disease outcomes.• Led 3 research proposals and School of Medicine’s annual research program review panel, completed fundraising for the NIH and University of Connecticut.• Served as reviewer over 2 years in the School of Medicine’s Annual Research Program review panel.

• Led 2 NIH and 1 NSF grants to investigate biomolecular interaction mechanisms and diagnostic designs.• Benchmarked intracellular fluorescence resonance energy transfer using in-house protein-protein interaction library.• Mentored and trained 14 laboratory members across different education levels.• Selected as Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Scientific Teaching Fellow, awarded to those with a demonstrated commitment to mentoring biomedical research.

• Introduced innovative new methods for characterizing protein-protein interactions.• Demonstrated novel PPI applicability in discovering functions of yet unknown proteins in the human and animal genome.

• Reported on molecular epidemiology of 8 emerging, re-emerging, and zoonotic viruses in China that are of public health importance.• Characterized the structure, function, and molecular mechanisms of 7 structural and nonstructural proteins in PRRS virus genome.• Developed 3 novel genetically engineered vaccine candidates against PRRSV or PCV type 2, which causes substantial financial and economic loss globally.• Evaluated the efficiency of a novel adjuvant for commercialized vaccines against influenza virus (won Excellent Thesis Award, top 3%).