Team

Our team of experts begins with highly trained PhD and MS scientists from around the world. A majority of Crown Bioscience scientists bring deep understanding of pharmaceutical industry having lead major departments within the top US pharmaceutical R&D and pre-clinical programs.  CrownBio scientists engage in the design and execution of your pre-clinical drug development program using our AAALAC approved animal facilities, proprietary animal models, and in vivo surgical expertise. This results in fast delivery, cost-effective pre-clinical research services for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies.

Senior management

Alex Wu, Ph.D.   Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Alex Wu has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and research. Before co-founding Crown Bioscience, he was CBO of Starvax, Inc., a biopharmaceutical R&D company. Prior to Starvax, he was the Head of Asian Operations with Burrill & Company, a life science venture capital and merchant bank. He also co-founded and was COO of Unimicro Technologies, a life science instrumentation company. Dr. Wu started his career with Hoffmann-La Roche, where he was manager of business development and strategic planning. Dr. Wu obtained his B.S. in biochemistry from Fudan University, China and Ph.D. and MBA from University of California at Berkeley.

Jean-Pierre Wery Ph.D  President

Prior to joining CrownBio, Dr. Wery was Chief Scientific Officer at Monarch Life Sciences, a company dedicated to the discovery and development of protein biomarkers. Prior to joining Monarch, Dr. Wery spent three years at Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was VP of Computational Drug Discovery. Before joining Vitae he worked for 12 years at Eli Lilly and Company in various scientific and management positions. Dr. Wery received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the U. of Liege, Belgium. Following his Ph.D., he did postdoctoral studies at Purdue University with Prof. Jack Johnson. Dr. Wery has authored more than 50 abstracts and publicationsPrior to joining Crown, Dr. Zhang has spent 12 years at Eli Lilly & Co. While at Lilly, he served as Global Head of Drug Discovery and Development, Statistics and Information Sciences.

Yiyou Chen, Ph.D.     Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Chen has over a decade of experience in drug R&D. Prior to co-founding Crown Bioscience Inc., he was Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Starvax Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics against cancer and infectious disease. Before founding Starvax, Dr. Chen was a senior scientist and project leader at Palo Alto-based biotech company, Genencor International Inc., involved in research projects in animal modeling, protein engineering, and Immunology. Dr. Chen obtained his PhD in Experimental Pathology from University of Utah, and BS in Biochemistry from Peking University.

Chuan Joe Shih Ph.D  Executive Vice President Integrated Drug Discovery

Prior to joining Crown, Dr. Joe Shih, Ph.D., was a Distinguished Lilly Scholar of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technology at Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL), a Division of Eli Lilly and Company. Joe received a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1982. He was also awarded a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan in 1976, and a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1979. Dr. Shih completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University under Nobel Laureate Professor E. J. Corey from 1982 to 1984. Following his postdoctoral studies, he joined Lilly as a Senior Organic Chemist in 1984. He was promoted to Research Scientist in 1989, to Senior Research Scientist in 1993, to Research Advisor in 1999, to Distinguished Research Fellow in 2004 and to Distinguished Lilly Scholar in 2007. During his tenure at Eli Lilly, Dr. Shih has distinguished himself as a premier drug hunter by contributing to many LRL oncology drug discovery efforts. Through his collaboration with Princeton University, Dr. Shih contributed to the successful antifolate drug discovery program that has led to the development of ALIMTA([R]), a blockbuster anticancer agent approved by various regulatory agencies around the globe for the treatment of mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer. Dr Shih is a co-inventor of ALIMTA([R]) and a pioneer in the elucidation of the unique "multi-targeted antifolate" mechanism of action of ALIMTA[R]. Dr. Shih was awarded the 2006 American Chemical Society "Heroes of Chemistry" Award for his role in the discovery and development of ALIMTA([R]).

Dr. Shih was also instrumental in leading various medicinal chemistry and drug discovery initiatives and efforts in the identification of several novel anticancer agents currently in the Lilly Oncology pipeline. Dr. Shih is widely recognized for his expertise in cancer and medicinal chemistry research. He is frequently invited to lecture and chair sessions at national and international meetings. Dr. Shih has authored and co-authored more than 180 scientific publications and presentations and holds numerous patents. Dr. Shih is also holding a position of visiting Distinguished Chair Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

William Pan, Ph.D.       Chief Operating Officer,  R&D Taicang

Dr. William Pan obtained his B.S. in Biology from Sun Yat-sen University, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Sussex University, and had his postdoctoral training in University of California at Berkeley. He has more than 18 years of experiences in biopharmaceutical research and development and is a co-founder of Crown Bioscience Inc.. Dr. Pan was a research scientist and project leader at TerraGen Discovery Inc. (later acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.), and thereafter he co-founded and served as General Manager of TsingYuan TongMao Biotechnology Inc. in ShenZhen, China. Dr. Pan has also served as vice president of TsingHua YuanXing Biopharmaceutical Science and Technology Co., Inc., another ShenZhen-based biopharmaceutical company.

Faming Zhang  Ph.D Chief Business Officer

Prior to that, Dr. Zhang led Lilly’s protein kinase/phosphatase crystal structure platform. He is the co-inventor of several patents in the area of kinase inhibitors and novel anti-obesity protein therapeutics. He also played a major role in the progression of cell cycle kinase inhibitors to the clinic. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Inst. of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and an MBA from Kelly Business School, Indiana University. He had 4 year of postdoctoral training in Protein Crystallography from U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is also an Assoc. Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Indiana University. Dr. Zhang has authored more than 30 scientific publications.

Michelle Xia, Ph.D. Vice President, In Vitro and Cell Biology

Dr. Michelle Xia has over 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical industry and academic research. She is currently Vice President of In vitro & Cell Biology with Crown Bioscience.  Prior to joining Crown Bioscience, Dr. Xia worked at PDL BioPharma (now Facet Biotech), one of the pioneer therapeutic antibody technology and drug development company, in San Francisco Bay Area, where she served as a core member in CMC project teams overseeing drug substance and product process development / manufacturing, and FDA registration / IND enabling process.  She led a team developing antibody production process, transferring technology to manufacture and producing drug products for clinical studies.  Prior to that Dr. Xia worked at CMC Process Development Department of Bayer HealthCare in Berkeley.  In this role, she was responsible in building the Pathogen Safety facility at Bayer and performing viral safety evaluation / purification process validation for manufacturing of recombinant therapeutic proteins.  Dr. Xia began her biopharmaceutical career at AXY Pharmaceuticals company, which acquired by Celera Genomics in 2001.  During the six years service with Celera, she played both scientific and managerial roles in various fields, including target protein expression, structure-based drug development, cell-based drug screening, as well as to coordinate drug discovery programs including kinase and protease inhibitors, from target validation through IND enabling.   Dr. Xia received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Zhangshan University in China and earned her Ph.D in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from University of Newcastle in U.K.  She did her postdoctoral research at University of Glasgow in U.K. and University of Louisville in U.S.

Scientific management