Regor Founders

• 
  Xiayang Qiu, Ph.D.
  Chief Executive Officer

  Dr. Qiu demonstrated decades of scientific and leadership successes at GSK and Pfizer. Prior to founding Regor, he was an Executive Director at Pfizer-Connecticut and led ~60 scientists driving cutting-edge drug discovery efforts across therapeutic areas and modalities. His group contributed to 29 clinical candidates and built an industry-leading reputation in structure-based drug design and associated molecular and computational technologies. He authored >60 publications (6000 citations) and a dozen of patents, trained 15 postdocs and served on expert review panels for National Institute of Health. Dr. Qiu graduated from Peking University and earned his PhD from Michigan State. He was a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow and HHMI Research Associate at University of Washington.
• 
  Min Zhong, Ph.D., MBA
  Chief Operating Officer

  Dr. Zhong has a demonstrated track record of strong leadership in both scientific and business management within Pfizer’s R&D organization for over 19 years. Prior to Regor, he was the Director of Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics, and Metabolism (PDM) and Head of its External Research Solutions group, responsible for the business development of Pfizer’s Worldwide R&D external research portfolios and scientific/compliance oversight of PDM’s regulatory IND and NDA submissions via external collaborations.
  
  Dr. Zhong has an extensive scientific experience and business development in Pharmaceutics and PDM across multiple therapeutic areas. He is one of the pioneers in the establishment of an extensive network of R&D ecosystem in China and India. Dr. Zhong has earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas.
• 
  Xiaotian Zhu, Ph.D.
  President of US Operations

  Dr. Zhu brings a track record of drug discovery to Regor. Over his 20 years of industrial experience, Dr. Zhu worked in both small and large biotech companies, including Kinetix, Amgen, Ariad, Takeda and X-Chem. During his long tenure at Ariad as a Director and Senior Fellow, Dr. Zhu oversaw a research group of structural biology, computational chemistry, biochemistry and enzymology. Dr. Zhu also led a multi-disciplinary research team and discovered several preclinical and clinical candidates, such as AP788 which is an Ex20 EGFR inhibitor currently tested in phase II trial. In addition, Dr. Zhu was one of the major contributors to the discovery of two FDA approved drugs: ponatinib and brigatinib. Dr. Zhu received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology and Bachelor of Science from Beijing University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and an HHMI Research Associate at Columbia University.
• 
  Wenge Zhong, Ph.D.
  Chief Technology Officer

  Dr. Zhong is a veteran drug hunter with extensive scientific and leadership experiences. Prior to cofounding Regor, he was Senior Director of Discovery at Amgen where he worked for a total of 18 years. He led small molecule discovery programs across therapeutic areas such as cancer, CNS diseases and metabolic disorders and delivered numerous preclinical and clinical candidates. At the Amgen Asia R&D Center in Shanghai, China, he championed the establishment of a world-class center of excellence on GPCR research and discovery, built a discovery team of 30 scientists in structural biology, modeling and computational chemistry, single domain antibody discovery, protein expression and DEL technologies. Dr. Zhong had a successful track record of collaborations during his career with CROs and academic institutions and served as an industry mentor to graduate students at various universities in the US and in China. Dr. Zhong received his B.S. degree from Peking University and his Ph.D degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute.

Leadership Team

• 
  David J. Valacer, MD, MS
  Chief Medical Officer

  Dr. Valacer brought many years of clinical experience to his new position at Regor. Before joining Regor, Dr. Valacer was a Vice President of clinical development at Array Biopharma, Inc where he oversaw Phase I and II clinical trials in non-small cell lung colorectal, ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Prior to joining Array, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Molecular Templates where he oversaw transition into the clinic and development of MT-3724, a recombinant fusion CD20 binding variable fragment fused to a Shiga-like toxin-I A1 subunit. Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Valacer served as a Professor of Clinical Immunology at the New York Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College for 10 years. Following his first position in clinical drug development at Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc. he progressed through positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech and Boehringer Ingelheim, Inc. He moved into the small biotech space in 2009 where he has since managed development programs across oncology, diabetes and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Valacer graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Vermont. Following his internship and residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center he completed a Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco.
• 
  Jing Lin, Ph.D.
  Vice President, Preclinical Research and Clinical Pharmacology

  Dr. Lin has demonstrated a track record of strong leadership and scientific expertise in drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and clinical pharmacology in drug discovery and development. Her extensive experience includes PKPD and PBPK modelling to bridge drug metabolism and preclinical safety results into clinical study design. Dr. Lin also brings an experience and leadership in regulatory filing from IND to NDA. Prior to Regor, she has worked in AbbVie, Pfizer, and Sunovion/Sumitomo in the discipline of preclinical research and clinical pharmacology for over 20 years. Dr. Lin received her B.S. in chemistry from East China Normal University, and PhD in organic chemistry from Loyola University of Chicago. She was a postdoctoral fellow in University of Washington in the field of drug metabolism. Dr. Lin has authored >30 publications and meeting presentations.
• 
  Julie Xie, Ph.D.
  Vice President, Biology

  Dr. Xie brings in proven scientific leadership and extensive experience in drug discovery and development. Prior to Regor, Dr. Xie worked at Pfizer R&D for more than 17 years. She demonstrated strong leadership in delivering oncology projects of novel targets with broad range of mechanisms from kinase signaling, epigenetics, metabolism and immuno-oncology. She led multi-disciplinary teams in advancing projects from exploratory target validation to IND-readiness and was instrumental in developing early clinical development strategy. Dr. Xie has extensive experience in alliance collaboration. She led collaborations with academic institutes and CROs to build early target portfolio and advance pipeline projects. She conducted due diligence of preclinical and clinical oncology assets. Dr. Xie earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Wuhan University and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Iowa. She completed her postdoctoral training in HHMI at Vanderbilt University. She is now the head of the Oncology and Immunology Biology group at Regor.
• 
  Xi Chen, MBA
  Chief Business Operation

  Ms. Xi Chen joined Regor with extensive experience in drug discovery and development. Prior to Regor, Ms Chen worked at Pfizer global R&D for 13 years, as DMPK scientist and project manager for preclinical development programs overseeing GLP TK studies at CROs. She successfully delivered entire TK package of Tofacitinib. She was portfolio director of J&J China R&D managing clinical development portfolio review and optimization. Ms. Chen received B.S. in Chemistry from Lanzhou University, M.S. in Agriculture Chemistry from McGill University, and M.B.A from University of New Haven.
• 
  Andie (Jincao) Zheng, MD
  Head of China Development (Clinical)

  Andie Zheng joined Regor with a track record of clinical development in China. She has over 20 years’ experience in both international pharmaceutical companies and domestic companies, including Eli Lilly, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer (China) R&D Center and Everest. With increasing role and responsibility, she has demonstrated her leadership to advance clinical programs from IND to NDA in multiple therapeutic areas. Before Regor, Andie Zheng was the head of China Development Division II, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd.
  
  Andie Zheng was a trained physician with specialty in gastroenterology. She received her master’s degree of gastroenterology from the Second Military Medical School and bachelor’s degree of clinical medicine from medical college, Fu Dan University
• 
  Mark Pirner, MD PhD
  Head of Endocrinology

  Dr Pirner joined Regor in April 2021 to lead endocrinology clinical development. He brings over 20 years of leadership experience in scientific and clinical development strategy and execution. Prior to joining Regor, Dr Pirner held a variety of leadership roles in early through late-stage clinical development in diabetes, obesity and metabolism. He has additional clinical development and medical affairs experience in other therapeutic areas including chronic hepatitis B, Parkinson’s Disease and substance use disorder. Dr Pirner graduated summa cum laude from Saint Olaf College and received his MD/PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Minnesota Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Duke University Medical Center and his endocrinology fellowship at the US National Institutes of Health Inter-Institute Endocrinology Fellowship Program (NIDDK division). Mark worked as a private practice physician and Clinical Associate Professor for the University of Wisconsin Medical School briefly after he completed his fellowship.
• 
  Jinyang Hong, PhD
  Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences

  Dr. Hong is an established scientific leader and business executive in drug development. He has over 23 years of extensive experience for the continuum of drug development from pre-clinical to commercialization at Pfizer and developed a wide variety of dosage forms and drug delivery systems. Prior to joining Regor, Dr. Hong was a Senior Director, Strategic Sourcing in Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical. He was responsible and accountable in planning and executing a drug product outsourcing portfolio of $20 million per annum; along with establishing and managing an insourcing operation of over 130 scientists across 5 global Pfizer R&D sites. Dr. Hong is also an active educator. For over a decade he has been teaching graduate and undergraduate level courses for drug product development in China, US and Russia.
  
  Dr. Hong received his Bachelor of Science from Nanjing University and his Ph.D. from University of Kansas. He has authored more than 30 peer reviewed articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings.

Scientific Advisory Board

• 
  Rikard Holmdahl, MD/PhD
  Professor of Medical Inflammation Research, Karolinska Institute

  Over 500 publications, 31250 citations
  Benzelius, Goran Gustafsson, Descartes and SalusAnsvar Nordic Medical Prizes
  Member of The Nobel Assembly and Nobel Committee
• 
  Janet Hammond, MD
  Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head at AbbVie

  General medicine and Infectious Diseases Development
  Previously Senior Vice President and Head of pRED China at Roche
  Previously Attending Physician and Faulty at Duke, Yale and UCLA