• Prioritize pipeline projects, provide target selection and technical guidance, guide compound screening, design in vitro and in vivo POC studies, develop siRNA drug discovery workflows across multiple therapeutic areas for private biotech companies• Review/edit patent applications and manuscripts

Oversaw research activities at CROs and managed external FTEs• Explored extrahepatic delivery in solid tumors with lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and GalNac & other bioconjugated ASOs or siRNAs• Collaborated with CROs to establish PK/PD/efficacy models including orthotopic liver cancer and humanized knock-in mouse models• Established and optimized cell-based oligo screening cascade (cytotoxicity, qPCR and luciferase-based reporter systems) to support oncology discovery programs from lead identification, lead optimization and development candidate nomination• Led HCC oligonucleotide projects utilizing multiple oligo modalities (siRNA/ASO/SSO) against undruggable oncology targets (PCT/US2022/053895, PCT/US2022/053896)• Supported HBV projects and established RNA-seq platform for off-target assessment of HBV siRNAs and authored study reports for regulatory filing of clinical candidate ALG-125755Hong, J., et al. Selective inhibition of human b-catenin DNA transactivation activity using splice switching oligonucleotides for an improved therapeutic window in treating hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of Hepatology, S548-S549, EASL Congress 2023Hong, J., et al. Second generation HBV siRNAs with novel chemistries demonstrate improved profiles compared with ALG-125755 and other clinical stage siRNAs. Journal of Hepatology, S727-S728, EASL Congress 2024Hong, J., et al. Incorporation of novel siRNA chemistries significantly improves the potency and durability of HBV siRNAs in the AAV-HBV mouse model. 2021 AASLD The Liver MeetingCai, D., et al. Suppression of PD-L1 Expression By a Novel Liver-Targeted siRNA Leads to Potential Restoration of Immune Responses against HBV. Liver 57 (2022): 6. 2022 AASLD The Liver Meeting

• Characterized molecular targets of tumor specific patient-derived antibodies by proteomics, peptide arrays, and other biochemical approaches. • Led target identification/screening team and managed three direct reports (Associate Scientist, Sr. RA, RA II)• Designed and executed hypothesis-based experiments and investigated mechanism of action (MOA) for an engineered version of a patient-derived human antibody targeting a tumor-restricted ribonucleoprotein complex (ATRC-101) • Collaborated with external collaborators and manage research activities at CROsDiscovered chemotherapeutic agents enhanced immunoreactivity of ATRC-101 in vitro (Co-inventorship of patent PCT/US2020/018350)Vad, N. et al. Preclinical Evaluation of Pegylated Liposomal Doxorubicin or Doxorubicin with mATRC-101 in the EMT6 Syngeneic Mouse Model. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer Nov 2021, 9 (Suppl 2) A588. 2021 SITC meeting

• Optimized exRNA extraction protocols and contributed towards the development of cell free mRNA (cf-mRNA) liquid biopsy based molecular assays for neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases using NGS and multiplex qPCR platforms. •Collaborated with bioinformaticians to build analysis pipeline and mentored/trained interns.•Contributed to characterization of human bone marrow by NGS based cf-mRNA transcriptome profilingIbarra, A., Zhuang, J., Zhao, Y. et al. Non-invasive characterization of human bone marrow stimulation and reconstitution by cell-free messenger RNA sequencing. Nat Commun 11, 400 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14253-4

Supported small molecule drug discovery and development programs for selective translation regulators (STRs) and played a key role in advancing eFT508 (first-in-class dual MNK1/2 kinase inhibitor) from concept to the clinico Investigated mechanism of action (MOA) in immune-oncology and assessed compound efficacy in cancer cell lines and xenograft models.o Designed and performed cell-based assays to support target identification and validation o Applied ribosome profiling technology (Ribo-seq) to support multiple oncology drug discovery programs and contributed to patent applications (US PCT/US2015/014919) and IND filings.Reich SH et al. Structure-based Design of Pyridone-Aminal eFT508 Targeting Dysregulated Translation by Selective Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Interacting Kinases 1 and 2 (MNK1/2) Inhibition. J Med Chem. 2018 Apr 26;61(8):3516-3540. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.7b01795Webster, KR. et al. eFT508, a potent and highly selective inhibitor of MNK1/2 regulates immune checkpoint and cytokine expression promoting anti-tumor immunity. Cancer Res (2017) 77 (13_Supplement): 596. 2017 AACR meeting Webster, K. R. et al. eFT508, a potent and selective mitogen-activated protein kinase interacting kinase (MNK) 1 and 2 inhibitor, is efficacious in preclinical models of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Blood (2015) 126 (23): 1554. 2015 ASH meeting

Provided research support for the internal drug discovery programs in the Department of Discovery Oncology and Molecular Diagnostics and Cancer Cell Biology-Designed and performed cell based assays for MOA studies.

1. Identified and functionally characterized Ccnb1-promoter targeting miRNAs in mouse cells and their implications in tumorigenesis Huang V, et al. Upregulation of Cyclin B1 by miRNA and its implications in cancer. Nucleic Acids Res. 2012 Huang V*, Li LC. miRNA goes nuclear. RNA Biol. 2012 *co-corresponding authorHuang V. Endogenous miRNAa: miRNA-Mediated Gene Upregulation. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2017;983:65-79. 2. Investigated the nuclear functions of the Argonaute proteins and mapped Ago1-chromatin interactions in prostate cancer cellsHuang V et al. Ago1 Interacts with RNA Polymerase II and Binds to the Promoters of Actively Transcribed Genes in Human Cancer Cells. PLoS Genet. 2013Huang V*, Li LC. Demystifying the nuclear function of Argonaute proteins. RNA Biol. 2014 *co-corresponding author 3. Explored clinical utility of small activating RNA (saRNA) in cancer therapeutics and iPSC reprogrammingPlace et al. Formulation of Small Activating RNA Into Lipidoid Nanoparticles Inhibits Xenograft Prostate Tumor Growth by Inducing p21 Expression. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2012 Ren S et al. Targeted induction of endogenous NKX3-1 by small activating RNA inhibits prostate tumor growth. Prostate. 2013 Wang J et al. Prognostic Value and Function of KLF4 in Prostate Cancer: RNAa and Vector-Mediated Overexpression Identify KLF4 as an Inhibitor of Tumor Cell Growth and Migration. Cancer Res. 2010 Wang J et al. Identification of Small Activating RNAs that Enhance Endogenous OCT4 Expression in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Stem Cells Dev. 2015Wang X et al. Induction of NANOG expression by targeting promoter sequence with small activating RNA antagonizes retinoic acid-induced differentiation. Biochem J. 2012