Meet Our Leadership Team
Our Leadership Team harnesses extensive experience across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and CRO industries. Together, we are committed to advancing our clients’ drug discovery and development programs, ensuring that every step forward is a step towards better patient outcomes.
John Gu joined Crown Bioscience from WuXi Nextcode, a global leader in genomic data analysis, where he was General Manager for the China business, as well as Chief Digital Officer. Prior to Wuxi Nextcode, John was Managing Director for Silver Sand Technologies, a consultancy in digital transformation, and Chief Information Officer for Baidu, the leading internet search engine in China. He held successive senior technology and operations positions at Alcatel-Lucent in Europe and the US. John has played key roles in global business and operational transformation and the growth of various technology platforms. John holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in Computer Science from Loyola University of Chicago, and a double-major BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Eva Ho is responsible for leading the company’s global finance organization and serves as a member of the company’s Executive Committee. Eva joined Crown Bioscience in June 2016 as Chief Financial Officer.
Eva has extensive finance leadership experience at multinational corporations across several industries. Before joining Crown Bioscience, she served as CFO for TWi Pharmaceuticals, CFO and Spokesperson for Acer Computer, and EVP and CFO for The Test Rite Group. Prior to that, she held senior finance positions with Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Oracle.
Eva holds an MBA degree in accounting from the University of Denver, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from National Taiwan University. Eva is a certified public accountant in the state of Colorado, USA.
Shirley Huang leads Crown Bioscience’s human resources, driving strategic programs in Crown Bioscience and the JSR Life Sciences group of companies.
Shirley has deep HR leadership experience in multinational companies in multiple industries. Before joining Crown Bioscience, Shirley was the Regional HR Director, Strategic Markets (APAC, EMEA, Brazil South America) for clinical diagnostics company DiaSorin S.p.A. Before that, Shirley was the Regional HR Director under Sonepar Group, a global B2B distributor of electrical/automation products and solutions. Prior to this Shirley worked for a prominent US-based Human Capital Consulting Firm.
Shirley holds dual MBA's from BI Norwegian Business School and Fudan University. Shirley also holds advanced qualifications in Human Resource Management from the Manchester Metropolitan University and Executive Leadership from the Kellogg School of Management.
Luke works as the Senior Vice President of Crown Bioscience’s Global Scientific Operations, where he oversees a wide array of discovery processes in vivo, in vitro, and biologicals, alongside veterinary affairs. Before joining Crown Bioscience, Luke was the Global Head of Pharmacology at Biocytogen, steering the preclinical and translational pharmacology divisions to enhance R&D and CRO services worldwide. He has significantly contributed to Gemini Pharmaceuticals, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he played a key role in advancing numerous drug programs from preclinical studies to clinical trials, leading to several of them receiving market approval.
Luke brings over two decades of experience across various therapeutic areas, including oncology and immuno-oncology, with expertise in target identification, lead selection, and drug progression to Investigational New Drug (IND) submissions. His knowledge covers diverse therapeutic modalities like antibodies, biologics, and small molecules. Luke holds a PhD in Neurobiology from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences and an M.D. from Hubei Medical University, reinforcing his academic foundation with research positions at Emory University, Yale University, and Harvard Boston Children’s Hospital.
Davy Ouyang is a seasoned biotech executive and scientific leader with over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and preclinical development across oncology, immuno-oncology, and autoimmune diseases. Davy serves as SVP of Innovation at Crown Bioscience following roles as Executive Vice President of R&D at Sidewinder Therapeutics and Vice President of Biology at InnoCare Pharma. Earlier in his career, Davy held research scientist positions at Merck & Co. and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
Dr. Ouyang has significant experience driving first-in-class ADC and biologics programs and a strong track record of advancing innovative drug candidates, including more than 20 IND-enabling molecules and 10 IND approvals across small molecules and biologics. Davy has extensive research experience, particularly in the areas of translational oncology, preclinical pharmacology, and platform development with a strong academic foundation and 44 peer-reviewed publications.
He received his PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Hong Kong and completed postdoctoral training in oncology pharmacology with Dr. Cory Abate-Shen at Rutgers University.
Ludovic Bourré leads the Crown Bioscience Research and Innovation team, leveraging experience in the CRO/biotech industry and expertise in the preclinical development of oncology drugs and vaccines. Prior to this role, Ludovic held various positions in preclinical CROs working on oncology research program management and the development of imaging platforms. He has also worked in a hospital setting, collaborating with clinicians to develop a translational preclinical oncology platform for PDX and humanized mice.
Ludovic’s move to industry began with leading the preclinical and clinical evaluation of immuno-oncology programs, developing cancer vaccines and antibody therapies, from preclinical to phase I/IIa in hematological and solid tumor cancers. As the head of the pharmacology department, he was responsible for conducting POC and non-clinical evaluations for the different programs as well as managing the preparation and presentation of non-clinical pharmacology sections of external documents.
Ludovic earned a postdoc in Pharmacology and Drug Delivery Systems from the University College Cork, Ireland and University College London, UK.
Chen Gao joined Crown Bioscience from WuXi Nextcode, a global leader in genomic data analysis, where he served as Director of Product Management, focusing on the commercialization of population cohort data and pharma biomarker testing services.
Throughout his commercial career, Chen has held progressive product and innovation management roles within either regional or global teams of several established life science and in vitro diagnostic companies, including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Becton Dickinson, and Siemens Diagnostics. He honed his strategic skills while serving as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte (Monitor) Consulting, advising clients in the life science and pharma industries.
Prior to his corporate career, Chen completed a rigorous three-year internship at the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing after receiving a medical degree majoring in experimental medicine from the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China. Complementing his medical background, Chen holds an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a master degree in Chemical Engineering with a focus on bioprocessing control from the University of Southern Denmark.
Dr. Sheng Guo leads the Data Science and Bioinformatics team at Crown Bioscience, bringing with him extensive experience from his previous roles at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical Inc. and Syngenta.
Dr. Guo’s current research interests are tumor model omics, preclinical statistics, biomarker discovery, NGS product design, AI imaging analysis, and bioinformatics software development. Dr. Guo has authored more than 50 abstracts and manuscripts, with recent major-author papers in Cancer Research, Cancer Research Communications, NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, and BMC Cancer, amongst others.
Dr. Guo received his PhD in Genomics and Computational Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and his BSc in Biochemistry from Nankai University.
Maria Radino leads Crown Bioscience's Global Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance program, leveraging over 25 years of experience in the GxP arena. Her career has included key positions at numerous global CROs. In these roles, she has been responsible for implementing quality management systems that effectively and efficiently monitor quality, integrity, and regulatory compliance across various operations such as large and small molecule bioanalysis, preclinical studies, agrochemicals, animal health, and software systems validation.
Previously, she worked as the Executive Director of Quality Assurance at Wuxi AppTec/Xenobiotic Laboratories. Maria holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Concordia University and is an active member of the Chemical Institute of Canada, the American Chemical Society, as well as the Society of Quality Assurance.
At Crown Bioscience, Maria oversees quality and regulatory initiatives, including Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) and animal welfare, to ensure adherence to compliance and operational corporate standards and uphold the highest standards of quality and scientific integrity in our products and services.
Alexandra joined Crown Bioscience in 2015 and is now Vice President, Legal Affairs, providing strategic legal guidance across the global organization. She advises on corporate matters, governance, compliance, and data privacy, and is a trusted partner to leadership, embedding legal thinking into business decisions so the company can move quickly and confidently, not just manage risk.
Alexandra brings extensive experience navigating complex international business and regulatory environments, helping Crown Bioscience operate effectively while supporting its strategic priorities and growth.
Alexandra is admitted to the New York and Washington State Bars and holds CIPP/E and CIPP/US privacy certifications.
Scientific Advisory Board
Composed of accomplished professionals in their respective fields, our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) shapes Crown’s strategic direction and ensures the highest scientific standards in our research and development initiatives.
Leo Price joined Crown Bioscience in 2021 from OcellO, following Crown Bioscience’s acquisition of the company. Dr Price was the founder of OcellO, a leading provider of high content screening services, using organoids and other advanced 3D cell culture models, and served as their CEO and CSO for ten years.
Prior to founding OcellO, Leo was a Faculty Member and Group Leader at Leiden University for five years and completed three postdoctoral studies with UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands Cancer Institute and Scripps Research Institute. He received his PhD in Cell Physiology from University College London and is currently a guest Associate Professor at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University.
- Cancer biologist with 15+ years drug discovery experience in oncology focused on oncogenes and immune targets
- Lead drug discovery projects from target ID/validation to IND-filing
- Proven ability to lead innovative and dynamic research teams and coordinate multi-disciplinary collaborations with academic and industry partners
- Creative, team player and driven by a passion to work together towards delivering cancer patients with breakthrough targeted therapies
- Extensive publication record in high impact peer reviewed journals
- Excellent communication skills
Specialties: Cancer genetic, cancer signaling, kinases, epigenetics, immuno-oncology, small molecules, CART
Sukhvinder obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester, Manchester, the UK in 1997, and then completed his studies with postdoctoral experiences at the ICGM at Hospital Cochin in Paris, France and University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, USA.
He joined Sanofi Oncology in Vitry, France in 2011 and in 2016, he became the Global Head of Pharmacology, managing teams in the US and France.
Sukhvinder is responsible for setting the in vivo strategies for Sanofi Oncology and Immuno-Oncology projects and has a wealth of experience in life science research, deep expertise in drug discovery and development in “classical” Oncology as well as Immuno-Oncology.
Thomas Hartung, MD, PhD, is director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) and the inaugural holder of the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Endowed Chair in Evidence-based Toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he has been on the faculty since 2009.
In 1991 Dr. Hartung received a doctorate in biochemical pharmacology from the University of Konstanz, Germany, and a medical degree in toxicology in 1992 from the University of Tubingen. He completed his medical internship in surgery at the University of Freiburg at the hospital of Singen, Germany.
Dr. Hartung joined the faculty at University of Konstanz in 1994, where he served as an assistant professor of biochemical pharmacology until 1999, and then as an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology until 2002. He has been an honorary full professor of pharmacology at Konstanz since 2003. From 1996 to 2002, Dr. Hartung also served as the chief executive officer of the Steinbeis Technology Transfer Center for In Vitro Pharmacology and Toxicology (InPuT).
From 2002-2008, Dr. Hartung was head of the European Centre for Alternative Methods (ECVAM) at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy. As head of ECVAM, he was integral in accelerating the alternative methods validation process, and in establishing a network of more than 400 experts from all stakeholder groups to facilitate global regulatory harmonization in toxicity testing. In 2009, he was named the 2nd most cited German pharmacologist by Laborjournal. He received the Agilent Thought Leader award in 2009 for his research into the use of toxicity pathways to predict developmental neurotoxicity.
20+ years in drug development in oncology-immunology, creation and financing of biotech start-ups Biotech C-level, Strategy Advisor, Board Member
- Built multiple Biotech start-up and Drug Development Programs from scratch
- Drug Development Strategy and Operations - Immuno-oncology, Oncology, Inflammation
- Solid and diversified Deal record (from start up side)
- Large international network of CROs, Experts and KoLs
Executive Chairman of Orca Therapeutics, Kekkan Biologics and Elikya Therapeutics.
Nicola Zamboni graduated in the group of Jay Bailey at the Institute of Biotechnology of ETH Zurich, where he also received his Ph.D. degree in 2003 in the field of metabolic engineering and 13C metabolic flux analysis.
In 2004, he moved as a PostDoc to the Stanford Genome Technology Center to deepen his knowledge on mass spectrometry and to apply metabolomics-based approaches for unraveling causes of metabolic changes in eukaryotic cells.
This activity continues currently at ETH Zurich, where he returned in 2005 as a Principal Investigator in the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology of ETH Zurich since 2005.
The lab focuses on the development of experimental methods of to characterize the in vivo response of complex metabolic networks to perturbations and environmental cues and reverse engineer cellular regulation.
