Chris is a world-renowned drug hunter with over 30 years of experience in drug design and development. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University, he served as Director of Medicinal Chemistry in small biotech (Sugen) and big pharma (Pharmacia/Pfizer), and Scripps Florida. As the chief scientific officer, he founded Xcovery in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2006, and pioneered the virtual drug discovery model. His major accomplishments include: the principal inventor of sunitinib which was approved worldwide in 2006 and had annual sales of >$1 billion; inventor of ensartinib which was approved in China and the USA; inventor of vorolanib which was approved in China; inventor of the first highly potent and selective, brain penetrant dual TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor, and other compounds in Highlightll pipeline.

Dr. Junmin “Jay” Huang is the Vice President of CMC-Quality.  He has more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and development with expertise in chemistry, manufacturing, CMC/quality controls and regulatory affairs.  Before joining Highlightll, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University and Mississippi State University, followed by drug research and development in pharmaceutical industries at Synta, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Xcovery, and Zenshine Pharmaceuticals with increasing responsibilities from scientist to VP. Over the years, he has successfully filed 2 NDAs, managed 10 products in US FDA and EU EMA post-approvals, and more than 30 IND projects. Dr. Huang received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Nankai University and an MBA in Pharmaceutical Management from Rutgers Business School.

Dr. Tang has nearly 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, expertise in biology, pharmacology, and biomarker studies. She has been a key member in the pre-clinical and clinical development of some programs in oncology or autoimmune diseases. Before joining Highlightll, she was the VP of research at ACEA Pharmaceutical. Before that, she was a research scientist at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Tang received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Yong Liu has over 20 years of experience in clinical research, has built a clinical operation team from scratch, and has successfully completed the registrational trials of 4 products. Before joining Highlightll, Mr. Liu was the medical director at SinoPharm. Before that, he served at Betta Pharma for 12 years as director of clinical operations and was a key clinical team member that brought icotinib and ensartinib to approval. Mr. Liu received his bachelor’s degree from Wuhan University.