Speaker

Dr Chan Joined HKAS as an Accreditation Officer in November 2012.  Before joining the family, Dr Chan worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and an Honorary Research Associate in Stem Cell Biology research at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for 4 years.  Dr Chan holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) from HKU, as well as the degrees of Master of Philosophy (Physiology) and Bachelor of Science (Biology) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). 

In 2004, Dr Chan received research training at the University of British Columbia (Canada).  Two years later, he was invited to be a visiting scholar at the University of California, Davis (U.S.) and underwent research training at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California (Sacramento, U.S.).  In the past, Dr Chan was a Chartered Biologist and a member of the Society of Biology (U.K.).  In HKAS, Dr Chan is responsible for the accreditation of medical testing laboratories and proficiency testing providers.

Ivy Chao is a seasoned business development and strategy executive currently overseeing strategy formulation, business development, and fundraising at C-Ray Therapeutics, where she recently orchestrated a landmark $100M+ Series A+ financing round in 2024. Her expertise in driving value-creating transactions was honed prior to C-Ray through roles where she spearheaded mergers & acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, strategic investments, and financing initiatives. She has applied this strategic acumen at a diverse range of leading healthcare organizations, including China’s prominent radiopharmaceutical company Dongcheng Pharmaceutical and the global healthcare giant Covidien (Medtronic) China. Ivy’s strong educational foundation includes a B.S. in Management Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an International MBA from the University of Hong Kong and Fudan University.

Mr. CHEN Bing is currently Vice President of AstraZeneca International Business Development and Venture Fund, Co-founding Managing Director of AZ-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund. With rich industry experience and business acumen, Bing has successfully led numerous strategic collaborations and investments both domestically and internationally, driving continuous business growth. He also spearheaded the establishment of the AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund, which focuses on identifying and incubating early-stage local pharma innovations, supporting the global expansion of China’s innovation.

Dr. Bo Chen is a specially-appointed expert for overseas high-level talents . He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at China Resources Pharmaceutical Group Limited. He has more than 20 years of international career in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including basic research and innovative drug R&D team leadership in top scientific research institutions and pharmaceutical companies such as the National Institutes of Health, AstraZeneca, etc. He has R&D background in the entire R&D value chain from target discovery to clinical development and commercial operation. He received his PhD. degree from the Air Force Medical University (China), completed the postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and later obtained an MBA degree from Hood College (U.S.A). He has published dozens of academic papers, book chapters and patents in peer-reviewed journals, including papers published in top journals such as Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Nature Communication, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, PNAS, etc.

Ms. Cynthia Chen serves as Chairman and Executive Chairman of Pulnovo Medical, the first Chinese cardiovascular medical device company to be included in international guidelines. She provides China with the first globally approved cardiac interventional treatment for patients with heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.

Ms. Chen previously worked at the World Health Organization headquarters in Switzerland and at Medtronic. She has been named twice to Forbes Asia and Forbes China Under 30, and twice to Hurun Under 30 China Entrepreneurs. She is also listed in Forbes China’s Top 100 Global Chinese Elite and 36Kr’s Most Noteworthy Female Entrepreneurs. She was selected for the United Nations-European and Central European Outstanding Technology Entrepreneurship Program and was recognized as a “Technology Leader” by the Suzhou Industrial Park.

Ms. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Emory University, a master’s degree in healthcare policy analysis and management from Columbia University, and an Executive MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Professor Chen Gong is a National Distinguished Expert and serves as the Director of the Center for Brain Repair at the Jinan University Institute of CNS Regeneration for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. He graduated from Fudan University in 1987 and earned his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993. In 1994, he conducted postdoctoral research at Yale University and Stanford University in the United States. From 2002 onward, he served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor (with tenure), and Full Professor at Penn State University, and was appointed as the Verne M. Willaman Endowed Chair Professor in 2013.

In 2020, he joined Jinan University full-time as the Director of the Center for Brain Repair, driving the translation of in situ brain neuroregeneration technology toward clinical applications. Professor Chen’s team achieved a milestone by reporting for the first time the highly efficient in situ reprogramming of endogenous glia into functional neurons using the neural transcription factor NeuroD1. This groundbreaking work was named the “2014 Best Paper” by the top-tier stem cell journal Cell Stem Cell, pioneering a novel neuroregenerative gene therapy for brain repair. In 2015, he published again in Cell Stem Cell on small-molecule-induced reprogramming of cultured human glial cells into functional neurons, laying the foundation for drug-based neuronal regeneration therapies. In 2020, his team reported another milestone achievement—the first successful in situ neuroregeneration in the primate brain. Professor Chen holds 58 granted patents in China, the U.S., EU, Japan, and other major economies. In 2021, NeuExcell Therapeutics, founded by Professor Chen, entered a collaboration agreement with Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group. In 2023, NeuExcell received the “Asia-Pacific Gene Therapy Innovation Award” from Frost & Sullivan and won the First Prize in the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Finals. In 2024, NeuExcell’s glioma gene therapy product NXL-004 achieved the world’s first successful NeuroD1 AAV gene therapy administration in a patient with malignant glioma, marking a historic zero-to-one breakthrough from bench to bedside. In March and April 2025, the company further initiated first-in-class clinical trials for in situ neuroregeneration therapy targeting stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, bringing new hope to millions of patients worldwide.

Dr. Haifeng Chen is a globally recognized leader in gene therapy, with over 30 years of pioneering contributions to adeno-associated virus (AAV) technology. He earned his B.S. in Biology from Sun Yat-sen University (1982), M.S. from Sichuan University (1985), and Ph.D. from the University of Saarland, Germany (1992). That same year, he was awarded the prestigious Marion-Merrell-Dow Post-Doctoral Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Dr. Chen has held senior scientific and leadership positions at leading gene therapy companies, including Cell Genesys, Genovo, Avigen, and Asklepios BioPharmaceutical. In 2006, he co-founded Virovek, where he invented the BAC-to-AAV system—revolutionizing AAV manufacturing by achieving significantly higher yields using baculovirus and Sf9 cells. He later co-founded Avirmax, serving as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer until 2022.

After returning to Virovek as Chief Scientific Officer in 2022, Dr. Chen developed PACE (Precision AAV Capsid Engineering), a groundbreaking platform for cell-specific AAV targeting. This innovation led to the launch of AAVivo, now advancing in vivo CAR-T and solid tumor immunotherapies.

Dr. Chen has served on the ASGCT Viral Vector Committee and the editorial board of Molecular Therapy – Methods & Clinical Development, continuing to shape the future of gene and cell therapy.

Chen Ruixiang, Professor at ​Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, former Director of the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the College of Chinese Materia Medica, and member of the Teaching Guidance Committee. Vice Chairman of the ​Beijing Research Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine Orthopedics and Traumatology. Awarded the ​Outstanding Contribution Award​ by the UNESCO Association in 2014. Key academic achievements: established a modern logical system for Chinese characters; his monograph was selected as an official gift book for the ​2008 Beijing Olympics Cultural Exchange Activities​ and licensed merchandise for the ​2010 Shanghai World Expo; developed an axiomatic system for modeling fundamental principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine theory and diagnosis/treatment algorithm models; constructed the ​11-tier Life Philosophy System of Chinese Culture; served as first editor or co-editor for over 10 nationally planned textbooks; led or participated in more than 10 scientific research projects.

Xuemei Chen received a B.S. degree from Peking University, China in 1988 and a doctorate from Cornell University, USA in 1995. After postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology, she started her assistant professor position in 1999 at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and won the Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence at Rutgers University. She moved to University of California, Riverside in 2005 as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2009 and distinguished professor in 2013. In 2006, she received the prestigious Charles Albert Shull award from American Society of Plant Biologists. In 2011, she was elected an AAAS Fellow. She was an HHMI-GBMF investigator from 2012 to 2018. In 2013, she was elected into the US National Academy of Sciences. She received the Martin Gibbs Medal from American Society of Plant Biologists in 2023 and the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award from Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundations in 2024. In 2023, she returned to China to take up a full-time academic position and currently serves as Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, as well as Director of Beijing Advanced Center for RNA Biology (BEACON). Her work has focused on flower development, small RNAs, and RNA modifications in plants.

Dr. Qiang Cheng obtained his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2016 and subsequently completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) during 2017 to 2021. Since September 2021, Dr. Cheng established his research lab as an Assistant Professor at Peking University. His research interests focus on mRNA targeted delivery. The core is to innovate lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology to achieve targeted delivery of mRNA in tissues and cells, providing a powerful tool for precise mRNA-based therapy to address unmet clinical needs. To date Dr. Cheng has developed tissue-targeted (SORT, PILOT, STAR) and cell-targeted (SELECT) mRNA-LNP delivery platforms, enabling targeted delivery and treatment of mRNA drugs in various major organs and cells, including the liver, lungs, spleen, bone, muscle, thymus, kidneys, and tumors. These works have been published as first or corresponding author in journals including Nature Materials (2025, 2021), Nature Nanotechnology (2020), Nature Communications (2023, 2020), PNAS (2023, 2021), and Advanced Materials (2024, 2023, 2018). Notably, the Selective Organ Targeting (SORT) mRNA-LNP technology was highlighted in “Seven Technologies to Watch in 2022” by Nature. Several international patents resulting from his research have been commercialized, leading to the advancement of at least two pipeline projects into Phase 1 clinical trials and the initiation of multiple new mRNA drugs into Investigator Initiated Trial (IIT).