Wen-Hsiung Li

Wen-Hsiung Li, Ph.D.

Distinguished Research Fellow
Academia Sinica

Dr. Wen-Hsiung Li received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at Brown University in 1972. Next year he joined The University of Texas Health Science Center as an assistant professor in population genetics, and he was appointed as a professor in 1984. Since 1998 he has been the James Watson Chair Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, and he was the Director at the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica from 2008 to 2016. Dr. Li is currently an academician of Academia Sinica, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Sciences.
Before 1979, Dr. Li focused on population genetics and studied genetic differences between populations. In late 1970’s, DNA sequencing technologies were developed and applied to obtain DNA sequencing data. As a pioneer of DNA sequencing evolution, Dr. Li decided to devote himself to studying the evolutionary biology using DNA sequencing data, and he utilized the molecular clock model to analyze and calculate the evolutionary distance between species. Later, Dr. Li’s group investigated the evolution of gene regulation in yeast strains and species, avian evolutionary genetics and genomics, and the transforming C4 genes into the rice genome. In 2003, Dr. Li received the International Balzan Prize for Genetics and Evolution, and he was the third recipient and first Chinese scientist to receive this honor. In 2009, he became the first Asian scientist to receive the Mendel Lecture and Medal from the Genetics Society in the UK for his contribution to genetics and evolutionary study.

Heng-Chi Lee

Heng-Chi Lee, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
University of Chicago

Dr. Heng-Chi Lee received his bachelor’s degree in life science program from National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan and his Ph.D. in genetics and development from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2008. He then became a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Craig Mello’s lab at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Molecular genetics and cell biology department at Chicago University from 2016.
Recently, Dr. Lee’s research interest is understanding how small non-coding RNA regulates gene expression and promotes genome stability. He used C. elegans as a model organism and showed that P-element induced wimpy testis (PIWI) protein binds PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA), and the piRNA complex played critical roles in silencing foreign nucleic acids such as transposons or viruses to reduce the possibility of gene mutation. He further demonstrated that piRNA is able to silence its targets over multiple generations. His research findings have been published in several prestigious journals including Molecular Cell, Nature and Cell. This year Dr. Lee published an article in Science about how does piRNA distinguish endogenous from foreign nucleic acids. He provided a novel solution to achieve transgene expression (e.g. GFP labeling) in the germline by avoiding piRNA recognition and degradation.

Jen-Yi Huang

Jen-Yi Huang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Purdue University

Dr. Huang obtained his B.S. in Agricultural Machinery Engineering and M.S. degree in Food Science and Technology at National Taiwan University. After completed Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at University of Cambridge, UK, He moved to Singapore and studied nanomaterials from food packaging at the National University of Singapore. In 2016, Dr. Huang joined Purdue University as an assistant professor. His research interest includes the studying of food life cycle assessment and methodologies to enhance the sustainability of food processing. He demonstrated that the nanocomposite food-packaging film can decrease oxygen permeability and reduce the oxidation of ascorbic acid and lycopene in tomato paste. Recently he showed that LED light exposure can induce the maturation and ripening of bananas; furthermore, the accumulations of nutrient including ascorbic acid, phenols, and sugars in banana fruit were increased as well.

Stanley Huang

Stanley Huang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Case Western Reserve University

Dr. Stanley Huang obtained his bachelor degree in Chemistry, and master degree in Microbiology from Chung- Yuan Christian University and Chang Gung University, Taiwan respectively. In 2010, Stanley received his Ph.D. degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Imperial College London, UK; then joined the laboratory of Professor Edward Pearce as an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, where he worked to understand how the cytokine signaling and metabolic reprogramming dictate immunological fate of macrophages in infection and the tumor microenvironment. In late 2015, he joined the laboratory of Professor Marco Colonna at the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine. There, he investigated the regulation between cell activation and metabolic network of group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Stanley is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, his lab is aiming to understand the molecular mechanisms of innate immunity that control inflammatory states, with a particular focus on elucidating how different cellular signaling and metabolic pathways are rewired to fine-tune immune cell activation and function in response to inflammatory diseases and cancer (https://stanhuang-lab.com).

Nien-Pei Tsai

Nien-Pei Tsai, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai received his Ph.D. from University of Minnesota and his postdoctoral training at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Since 2014, he is appointed as an assistant professor in Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published multiple significant papers in journals such as Cell, Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, and EMBO J. He has also received multiple awards, been appointed in journals’ editorial boards, and served as a chair in the annual meeting in Society of Neuroscience.
Dr. Tsai is currently interested in understanding the molecular mechanism underlying excitability homoeostasis in neurological disorders, including epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders. Various approaches including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and mouse genetics were applied in his lab. Two particular areas on which he focuses are the ubiquitin proteasome system and protein translation control in neuronal excitability regulation.

Richard Liang

Richard Liang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
University of Michigan

Richard Liang’s research career focuses on human disease modeling to decipher the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis. His early scientific achievements include the establishment of the in vitro scratch assay for cancer research, the generation of the first autophagosome & dystonia animal model, and the discovery of a novel mechanism driving developmental neurodegeneration. At present, he is collaborating with bioinformaticians to identify biomarkers and therapeutic targets for developing suitable preventive interventions for the dystonia patients. He served as an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to supervise all operating research in 10 vertebrate species at the Uni- versity of Michigan for 3 years. He is a current editorial board member of Scientific Reports.

Hsinjin Edwin Yang

Hsinjin Edwin Yang, Ph.D.

President
Pioneer Scientific Solutions, LLC

Dr. Hsinjin Edwin Yang received his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry/Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He has spent more than 27 years in the industry and accumulated valuable experiences in R & D, product development, and management. Over the years, he has received or filed 26 patents (21 issued and 4 filed), authored more than 50 scientific articles (including journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings), and delivered more than 60 invited seminar talks.
Dr. Yang currently serves as the president of Pioneer Scientific Solution, LLC., and the Editor for “Durability and Reliability of Polymers and Other Materials in Photovoltaic Modules”, and has been served as the technical consultant for Far East Enterprises, GAF Materials Corp., Niagara Bottles, Deatak Inc. China National Key Laboratory of Environmental Adaptability, and Medical Chain International (MCI) . His research and consulting areas cover polymers/materials for biomedical devices, medication delivery, ophthalmic optical lenses, flammability, and biofuels.

Tzu-Hsuan (Leon) Huang

Tzu-Hsuan (Leon) Huang, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist III
AbbVie
Assistant Professor
Northwest University

Dr. Tsu-Hsuan Huang received his Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles and his postdoctoral training at University of California, San Francisco and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Then he decides to join pharmaceutical company, including Amgen and Abbive. Now he is the group leader in Immuno-oncology discovery at Abbive and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern University. He conducts innovative research in cytokine fusion antibodies, cancer cell signaling and cancer immunotherapy that have been testified by numerous awards, patent, scientific publications, and government/private research funding.
Dr. Huang is the inventor of the tumor-targeting antibodies and IFN-α fusion technology that has been licensed to pharmaceutical companies for clinical development. He currently interested in developing next-generation tumor immunotherapy that combines data mining in bioinformatics. He supervises and coordinates multidisciplinary teams to generate lead immune-oncology therapeutics for clinical development.

Yujing Huang, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist
Eli Lilly

Dr. Yujing Huang graduated from the University of Taxes School of Public Health in 2011 and her dissertation topic was on identifying genetic markers to predict cancer susceptibility and clinical outcomes. She then continued to pursue her postdoctoral training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and her research interest was focused on the identifying genetic risk modifiers influencing age of onset and studying the role of genetic anticipation in Lynch syndrome.
In 2014, Dr. Huang joined Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, IN as a Research Scientist providing strategic epidemiology and risk management planning to support global product development, including study design, implementation and analysis of observational studies using real-world data. She serves as an in-house subject matter expert in epidemiology to contribute to other activities such as regulatory submission documents, regulatory response documents, safety signal management, and post-approval safety studies. In 2016, Dr. Huang was promoted to Senior Research Scientist.

Che Liu

Che Liu, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Che Liu, originally from Taipei, Taiwan, came to the U.S. in 2005. He is now a senior scientist at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, where he works on developing animal models for RNA interference drug targeting cancers. He also leads the Flow Cytometry Core at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.
Before joining Arrowhead, Dr. Liu was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He studied the roles of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and showed that HCMV infection increases the drug-resistance of GBM cells.
Prior to moving up to Wisconsin, Dr. Liu studied his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in Biomedical Sciences, Physiology and Pharmacology concentration. There he investigated how chemokine receptors regulate the growth of GBM cells and the infiltration of tumor-associated immune cells. He received multiple awards, including UF-HHMI Science for Life Graduate Student Awards, Outstanding Achievement Award, McKnight Brain Institute Graduate Student Award, and UF Medical Guild Research Incentive Award.

Johanna Lee

Johanna Lee, Ph.D.

Scientific Writer
Promega

Johanna Lee obtained a bachelor degree in Biochemical Science and Technology from National Taiwan University in 2006 and a Ph.D. degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in 2012. Her Ph.D. research focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of the RNA-dominant disease myotonic dystrophy type 1, and developing alternative therapeutic strategies for the disease.
After graduation, Johanna joined the Johns Hopkins Univeristy Science Writing online program and transitioned into a career in science writing. She currently works as a Science Writer at Promega Corporation. Her job involves writing and reviewing promotional content in support of Promega products and services. This includes product web pages, social media posts, blogs, technical manuals, feature articles, tradeshows, webinars, and media advertisements.

Amr Sabry Alaarg

Amr Sabry Alaarg, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist
AbbVie

Dr. Alaarg was born to an Egyptian family in Saudi Arabia. He obtained his Master degree from the department of Pharmaceutics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where he worked under Dr. Wim Hennick in developing and applying anti-EGFR and anti-VEGFR nanobody- liposomes loaded with kinase inhibitor for cancer treatment. Subsequently, he moved to England and worked at the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Wood at the University of Oxford on the project investigating the use of extracellular vesicles as bioinspired drug delivery systems. He then pursued his doctoral degree at the department of pharmaceutical sciences at Twente University, Netherland. During his doctoral study, he worked in a multidisciplinary team conducting his research in both Netherland and the US at Utrecht University, Amsterdam Medical center, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY under the supervision of Dr. Willem Mulder developing and applying novel targeted therapeutics for the treatment of an inflammatory disease- Atherosclerosis.
After finishing his PhD in 2017, he soon joined AbbVie in North Chicago as a Senior scientist in the New Biological Entities Process Development Group working on the formulation of Parenteral Products, their scalability, and technology transfer to commercial manufacturing.

Li-Chun Tsou

Li-Chun Tsou, Ph.D., MBA

Director
Devices & Combination Products
AbbVie

Lead combination products innovation through patient centric design to treat Parkinson’s disease. Create synergy among global Operations, Research, and Commercial divisions to develop unique drug products enhancing patient quality of life. Anticipate device performance to mitigate risks during post approval stage. Strive to provide intelligent drug delivery devices for unmet medical needs in oncology therapy. Strategize device platforms to deliver valuable new drug molecules for enhancing quality of life for patients. Direct cutting edge device technology for global initiatives on drug delivery devices and combination products. Drive technology transfer and process validation to ensure clinical readiness and successful pre-approval inspection by FDA. Achieve prompt product commercialization through shoulder-to-shoulder engineering to meet both short-term and long-term pipeline needs.

Haofan (Eric) Peng

Haofan (Eric) Peng, Ph.D.

Senior Engineer
Biogen Idec

Dr. HaoFan Peng is a senior engineer in Biogen focusing on biologics process development in Multiple Sclerosis, Hemophilia, and Alzheimer. His main role is to ensure large scale manufacturing’s success in upstream and downstream as well as in clinical and commercial campaign (2,000 L to 15,000 L). He also supported next generation facility design focusing on continuous perfusion process. He leads several cross-company projects including CMO partnership, raw material investigation, cell line robustness, medium optimization, instrument automation, product quality comparability, assay alignment in BIIB’s internal high titer development. Aside from the lab, he works closely with external partners in supporting domestic or international vendor qualification, raw material analysis and trace metal impurity to ensure supply chain consistency. Eric published several papers in mitigating the cell damaging and raw material qualification in collaboration with AD, QC, regulatory, supply chain, and external partners/vendors. He obtained his BS degree in National Taiwan University and PhD in SUNY Buffalo in gene therapy, regenerative medicine and preclinical animal model.