|
Xiaokui Zhang PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Aspen Neuroscience, Inc.
USA
|
Dr. Xiaokui Zhang has 20 years of progressive biopharmaceutical industry experience in research, discovery and development to advance programs into early clinical development. She joined Aspen Neuroscience, Inc. as Chief Scientific Officer and as a member of the company’s executive team in 2021 to lead the development of the first autologous neuron replacement therapies to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD), as well as future platform and pipeline development for the autologous iPSC platform company.
Before joining Aspen, Dr. Zhang served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Celularity Inc., overseeing discovery, candidate development, preclinical, translational, process development and CMC activities to develop placenta-derived allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapy product candidates for immuno-oncology and functional regeneration applications. Dr. Zhang has also held various positions of increasing scope and responsibility at Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, including Director of Discovery Research and Senior Director of Research & Development. Before Celgene, Dr. Zhang led a gene discovery team at Helicon Therapeutics and conducted target identification studies in cognitive disorders.
Dr. Zhang’s research in functional characterizations of JAK-STAT signaling pathways and placental progenitor cell differentiation resulted in numerous patents and publications in highly ranked journals including Science. She has also served as a mentor to early-stage professionals in the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT), and is the honoree of New Jersey Liberty Science Center Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Award.
Dr. Zhang received her undergraduate degree in Physiology from Nanjing University, Jingasu, China and her doctorate in Molecular Cell Biology from the Rockefeller University, New York, New York, with further post-doctoral training in the Functional Genomics at Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
Before joining Aspen, Dr. Zhang served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Celularity Inc., overseeing discovery, candidate development, preclinical, translational, process development and CMC activities to develop placenta-derived allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapy product candidates for immuno-oncology and functional regeneration applications. Dr. Zhang has also held various positions of increasing scope and responsibility at Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, including Director of Discovery Research and Senior Director of Research & Development. Before Celgene, Dr. Zhang led a gene discovery team at Helicon Therapeutics and conducted target identification studies in cognitive disorders.
Dr. Zhang’s research in functional characterizations of JAK-STAT signaling pathways and placental progenitor cell differentiation resulted in numerous patents and publications in highly ranked journals including Science. She has also served as a mentor to early-stage professionals in the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT), and is the honoree of New Jersey Liberty Science Center Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Award.
Dr. Zhang received her undergraduate degree in Physiology from Nanjing University, Jingasu, China and her doctorate in Molecular Cell Biology from the Rockefeller University, New York, New York, with further post-doctoral training in the Functional Genomics at Novartis Pharmaceuticals.