Speaker

Mr Lot Chan studied pharmacy in UK and public health in Hong Kong. He has joined the Department of Health of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for 30 years. For may years he has been involved in the approval of pharmaceutical products registration and clinical trials, import/export control of medicines, licensing and inspection of pharmaceutical traders, and enforcement of drug-related laws. During his service in the Department of Health, Mr Lot Chan has led the application for the accession to the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme and the statutory regulation of advanced therapy products.

Currently, Mr Lot Chan is the Assistant Director of Health, responsible for the preparatory work of the establishment of the Centre for Medical Products Regulation (CMPR).

Piu Chan, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology and Geriatrics, is the Chair of the faculty of Geriatrics and the Director of Clinical and Research Center for Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Capital Medical University. He serves as the director of the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders and the Parkinson’s Disease Center of Beijing Institutes of Brain Disorders, Xuanwu Hospital. He is also the council member of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), past Secretary of the IAGG Asia-Oceania Region, and the deputy President of the Chinese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (CAGG). He has participated in the development of WHO ICOPE project and its implementation in China. Dr. Chan has participated in drafting the Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for PD and for Prodromal PD of MDS. He published more than 400 peer-reviewed SCI articles with a Google H-index of 92. Dr Chan has been the Principal Investigator for more than 10 international and domestic multi-center clinical register trials, served as consultant for NMPA-CDE. He is currently serving as associate editor of Neuropharmacology and Therapy.

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.

She has previously worked for the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and Alibaba, providing services to international enterprises and academic institutions such as Baosteel, Infosys (India), and Wageningen University (Netherlands). She has managed and operated biotechnology industrial parks spanning over 1 million square meters, and served biopharmaceutical and bio-manufacturing companies including Zenshine Pharma, Zhejiang Guobang Pharma, Qihan Biotech, Asta Biotech, and Gancao Doctor. She is dedicated to “empowering scientists, accelerating future development”

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.