The MLAB team possesses extensive experience in disease biology, antibody discovery, antibody/protein engineering, NextGen display, entrepreneurship, and business development.

Our leaders are drug discovery veterans with proven track records at major pharmaceutical companies and biotech startups.

sean-cao

Sean Cao, PhD, MBA

Co-Founder, CEO

Sean is an Operating Partner of CBC Group (formerly C-Bridge Capital) and the CEO of ABio-X holdings, a company created by CBC to focus on company incubation. Sean is also the co-founder and first CEO of Ensem Therapeutics, the co-founder and board director of RVAC Medicines, Jadeite Medicines and Kudo Biotechnology. In 2017, Sean co-founded Everest Medicines, and served as its CEO until 2020. While building Everest Medicines, Sean also incubated NiKang Therapeutics with its scientific co-founders, served as the CEO from 2017 to 2020 and the Chairman until 2021. Sean also served as the CBO for I-Mab Biopharma from the company’s inception in 2016 until early 2018. Prior to CBC, Sean was VP of Global Business Development at Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, and the President and Board Director at Simcere of America. Before joining Simcere, Sean was the Senior Director of Alternative Partnership, Evaluation & Expertise at Sanofi, where he led the externalization effort in Global R&D and managed the evaluation of acquisition/in-licensing opportunities. Prior to Sanofi, Sean was an Associate at New Leaf Venture Partners. Sean had worked in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries for over eight years at Aventis and Johnson & Johnson, before joining New Leaf.

Sean holds a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Virginia, an MBA with honor from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Microbiology from Nankai University, China.

yunxiang-zhu

Yunxiang Zhu, PhD

Co-Founder, CSO

Yunxiang joined MLAB  as a co-founder and CSO, responsible for defining MLAB’s pipeline and R&D strategy. He has over two decades of drug discovery with broad expertise in enzyme replacement therapy, drug delivery, bispecific antibody or bi-/multi-functional antibody fusion protein design, and AAV gene therapy development in various diseases areas ranging from lysosomal storage diseases, genetic metabolic and muscular dystrophies, autoimmune diseases, and immune-oncology. His longest career was at Genzyme/Sanofi where he was the head of muscle diseases and invented FDA/EMA approved drug Nexviazyme for the treatment of Pompe disease.

Prior to joining MLAB, Yunxiang served as the global head of CANbridge, responsible for strategic oversight of its gene therapy pipelines and external collaboration/partnership. Before CANbridge, Yunxiang was a SVP at Shenogen for biologics discovery and development.

Yunxiang earned his B.S. from Zhejiang University, M.S. from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PhD at Miller School of Medicine at University of Miami, and completed his post-doc training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He has co-authored about 30 publications and is a key inventor of over 15 issued patents and 5 pending patent applications.

yangde-chen

Yangde Chen, PhD

Co-Founder, CTO/COO

Yangde was MLAB’s first employee. As the CTO/COO, he oversees MLAB’s technology platforms and daily business operations. Additionally, he contributes to pipeline initiation/progression and strategy implementation by closely collaborating with the management team and other stakeholders.

Before joining MLAB, Yangde served as the VP of Antibody Engineering at KLUS Pharma, concentrating on developing novel immunotherapies for cancer treatment. Prior to that, he held the position of VP of Antibody Discovery at Abpro, a company specializing in the development of T cell redirecting bispecific antibodies for cancer treatment. Yangde spent the majority of his career at Sanofi for nearly 20 years, with increasing responsibilities. As a Director at Sanofi’s US Biologics Research, he and his team were responsible for discovering novel therapeutic antibodies across various therapeutic areas. They have delivered multiple candidates to the company’s pipeline.

Yangde received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, an M.S. from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a B.S. from Huazhong Agricultural University.

Joanna Wu

X. Joanna Wu, PhD, JD

General Counsel

Joanna Wu joined MLAB as General Counsel. She has practiced law for more than twenty years, with an initial focus on patent and FDA regulatory matters and later in other areas including corporate and technology transactions. She began her career with Ropes & Gray in Boston, followed by in-house experience in medical device and biotechnology companies. Joanna also worked in Beijing for a Fortune 100 multinational equipment manufacturer, developing patent policy initiatives.

Joanna received her JD from University of California, Berkeley with Certificate in Law and Technology, while serving as an editor of the California Law Review and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. Before law school, She was awarded the Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship and conducted molecular biology research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She holds a Ph.D. in physiology from University of Virginia and studied biology at University of Science and Technology of China.

Joanna has also served as volunteer in her community and co-chairs the Board of Advisors for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Glenn Hassan, MS

CBO

Glenn joined MLAB as Chief Business Officer, leading capital raising and business development strategies. With over 20 years of experience in company leadership, institutional investing, investment banking, and strategic consulting, he brings a well-rounded perspective to the team. Before MLAB, Glenn was CFO at CANbridge Pharmaceuticals, where he successfully led multiple financing rounds—from venture debt through Series D and crossover financings, culminating in a landmark HKEX IPO. Prior to CANbridge, he was Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at China Renaissance, advising life sciences companies on cross-border M&A and capital raising.

Earlier in his career, Glenn spent over a decade as a global public market healthcare investor, serving as Senior Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Leerink Capital, Senior Analyst at Citadel’s Surveyor Capital, and Senior Healthcare Specialist at Fidelity Investments.

Glenn holds a Bachelor of Science in Business with a finance concentration from Indiana University and a Master of Science in Global Finance Analysis from Bentley University’s McCallum Graduate School of Business, where he graduated with High Distinction.