#ADCBio2025 brings East Asia’s top experts together to advance ADC innovation and collaboration across biopharma, CMOs/CROs, regulators, and academia.

Sia Pheng Tan is an agile, strategic, and accomplished Quality Leader with a wealth of experience in global GMP regulated environments such as Amgen, GSK Biologics, Lonza, Alcon (Novartis), Baxter Healthcare, Becton Dickinson & Edwards Lifesciences. A successful track record across quality operations, audits, suppliers’ management, quality management system, validation & storage & distribution.  A natural leader able to mentor, develop and manage high performing teams.

Dr. Saluja is the Head of Clinical Development at International Vaccine Institute (IVI), whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for Global Health. He has 20 years of experience working in industry, academia and resource-limited settings in both patient care and clinical research. He joined IVI in 2017 and his main areas of research includes epidemiology studies, pre-clinical research, and vaccine clinical trials (phase I-IV). In his current role, he is responsible for capacity building in terms of trainings and infrastructure in low- & middle-income countries, designing clinical trials, grant writing, regulatory interactions, overseeing departmental activities like medical writing, study startup, study execution, regulatory submissions, pharmacovigilance and impact evaluation. He has many publications in national and international Journals to his credit. Dr. Saluja has received many awards & recognitions from academia and industry alike.

He has extensive experience for over 18+ years in the biopharmaceutical industry as he previously worked at Global and Korea biopharma companies such as Green Cross, Samsung Biologics, GSK and Sanofi as a key Quality member, and profound knowledge in building and management of Quality Systems including Deviation investigations and CAPA programs.

Dr Cheng-Yi Kuo is the Vice General Manager of UWELL Biophama, Taiwan, and is involved with new product development/R&D, clinical development of cell & gene therapy and business development and corporate strategy. Dr Kuo has extensive experience in biological product development, quality requirements and regulatory approval and clinical trial research. Dr Kuo also worked in research and development as a drug and gene delivery scientist and managed a group of scientists in that area. He has 20 years of experience in biologics development, biological product life cycle, quality and regulatory affairs. He is also an assistant professor at National Defense Medical Center and Chung Yuan Christian University. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology from Monash University.

Heon-Ju Lee, Ph.D. is the CEO of CarBio Therapeutics in South Korea, with over 30 years of experience in biotechnology, toxicology, and gene and cell therapy development. He holds a Ph.D. in Toxicogenetics, along with a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Seoul National University.

Dr. Lee has held key leadership roles across both industry and research institutions, including serving as Vice President of R&D at Biocure Pharm, where he led the development and preclinical testing of anti-CD19 CAR-T therapies. His past roles also include senior technical consultant at Optipharm, director positions at the Korea Institute of Biohealth and the Korea Institute of Toxicology, and R&D positions at Samsung Medical Center and CJ CheilJedang. He is a long-standing member of the Institutional Review Board at Gyeongsang National University and has been recognized with multiple ministerial awards for his contributions to science and technology in Korea.

Dr. Lee is now earnestly seeking partners to conduct global clinical trials of innovative in vivo CAR-T therapies for the treatment of hard-to-treat tumors and autoimmune diseases, based on the results of the next-generation multifunctional CAR-T cells he has developed since 2017.

Dr. Seokjoong Kim is the Chief Strategy Officer at GenEdit, a biotech company focused on innovating genome medicine. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and began his career in genome editing in 2007 as a postdoctoral researcher at Seoul National University. He later joined ToolGen Inc., where he served as Research Director and Executive Director for R&D Strategy and Alliances, securing substantial funding, establishing R&D and business development teams, and leading programs that resulted in multiple high-value licensing agreements. At GenEdit, Dr. Kim now leads early-stage R&D programs focused on advancing innovative mRNA delivery technologies and their therapeutic applications.

He graduated from the Department of Molecular Biology at Seoul National University, where he earned his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Korea. His Ph.D. research focused on the regulation of gene transcription. During his post-doctoral career, he studied chemical biology at the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston and worked on target validation for drug screening at LG Biomedical Institute in San Diego. He is currently a professor at Inha University College of Medicine. His research primarily focuses on cell therapies for treating various conditions, including spinal cord injury, diabetes, cartilage defects, and osteoarthritis. He is also one of the co-founders of ATEMs Inc., a biotech company in Korea developing tissue-engineering products to treat articular cartilage defects. He has served as Vice-Director of the Strategic Center for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM) from November 2001 to April 2021, where he collaborated with government agencies, companies, and international partners to advance the regenerative medicine industry from both domestic and global perspectives. He also served as the Asia Regional Vice-President of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) for two years until May 2023 and as Secretary General of the Council for Advanced Regenerative Medicine (CARM), a company association in Korea, for four years until January 2024.

Chaemin Lim is a faculty member at the College of Pharmacy, CHA University, focusing on therapeutic research using extracellular vesicles (EVs). His work aims to maximize the therapeutic efficacy of EV-based treatments through approaches such as nanostability enhancement, formulation with additional drugs, cell priming techniques, and establishing quality control (QC) standards for EVs.

Dr. Phil Huang is a distinguished scientist and innovator in the field of cell therapy technologies, with over a decade of industry experience. He has held pivotal roles, including as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and Research Scientist at CytoLumina Technologies Corp., where he developed advanced non-invasive systems on a chip for rare cells capture. As Vice President of R&D at Precision Biotech Taiwan, Dr. Huang led groundbreaking projects, acquiring government fundings and completing Taiwan's first Phase I/IIa clinical trial for allogeneic immune cell therapy. Now serving as Technical Director at StemCyte Inc., he drives advancements in allogeneic cell therapies, cell material services, and innovative biotechnologies.

Dr. Jaesuk Lee is the Chief Scientific Officer at nSAGE, where he leads the development of next-generation genome editing platforms. He received his Ph.D. from Seoul National University, conducting research across a broad spectrum of gene editing technologies including CRISPR/Cas9, base editors, and prime editors. At nSAGE, he discovered and engineered a novel Cas12a ortholog, which is now protected by a registered patent in South Korea. Building upon this nuclease, his team developed a novel Cas12a-based base editor capable of multiplex genome editing.

Kenji Nakamaru is an accomplished scientist and R&D leader with expertise spanning Translational Science, Biomarker and Companion Diagnostic Development, Clinical Development, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, and Drug Development. He currently serves as Head of Research and Development at Optieum Biotechnologies, Inc., where he leads scientific strategy, oversees therapeutic pipeline development, and advances novel approaches in CAR-T cell therapy.

Dr. Nakamaru directs both platform innovation and therapeutic programs, including OPTF01, an anti-FAPα CAR-T therapy, and the Eumbody System, a proprietary platform designed to generate optimized single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) for next-generation CAR-T constructs. His current focus includes preparing the Investigational New Drug (IND) filing for OPTF01, positioning the company for entry into early-phase clinical trials.

With a PhD in Biology from the University of Tsukuba, Dr. Nakamaru has significantly contributed to the launch of impactful oncology therapeutics such as ENHERTU and VANFLYTA, leading translational and biomarker research and the development of companion diagnostics.

Through a career grounded in scientific excellence and strategic vision, Dr. Nakamaru continues to shape the future of precision oncology and cell therapy innovation from Tokyo, Japan.

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Dr Kazuchika Furuishi has over 20 years of experience with major global life science companies, serving in senior leadership roles across general management, sales and marketing, technical service and support, regulatory affairs, and supply chain. He has also worked extensively in multinational and multicultural environments, developing strong business acumen.

He is currently a board member at METATECH (AP) Inc., CellFiber Co., Ltd., and LOCUS CELL CO., LTD., and operates his own consultancy supporting the life science, biotech, and pharma industries.

Dr Furuishi also has nearly 10 years of experience in research and education at the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, focusing on biochemistry, virology, and oncology. In addition, he spent around 5 years as a service provider for pharma R&D and manufacturing under GMP/GLP conditions, and was involved in business development for genotyping and IVD testing for FDA and CE submissions.

Dr. Bryan K.S. Yeung is a leading pharmaceutical researcher and drug discovery expert with over two decades of industry experience. Specializing in medicinal chemistry, he has made significant contributions to discovery stage programs, introducing new drugs for malaria and dengue to the clinic. Currently, Dr. Yeung serves as VP of Bioconjugation and Chemistry at Axcynsis Therapeutics in Singapore, an ADC platform company focused on developing proprietary ADC payload and first-in-class targets.

An experienced and versatile Ph.D. pharmaceutical R&D/Scientific Affairs professional with about 15 years of experience including 8 years as Founder and CEO of Pinotbio, Inc. Experience in drug discovery programs in the areas of oncology – 2 INDs and many on-going pre-clinical programs. Formerly patent examiner in Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and possesses extensive knowledge about patents and related matters. Has led many scientific evaluations and due diligence of licensing/partnership opportunities in the academic institute and industry in the field of oncology. Extensive knowledge and understanding of drug discovery and preclinical development, especially related to Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) platforms and ADC candidates. Deep understanding of medicinal and process chemistry, especially related with camptothecin payloads and ADC linkers.

Currently, CEO of Pinotbio, Inc. – a South-Korea based biotech company focusing on the discovery and development of novel ADC platforms.

A highly experienced pharmaceutical professional with a proven track record in site-specific conjugation technology and CMC process development. For the past 8 years, I has been instrumental in advancing clinical ADC projects, from early development to IND submissions, by leading robust CMC process development efforts. Excels at managing complex CMC changes, including site transfers, process scale-up, and formulation development, ensuring seamless and compliant transitions.

Dr. Peng Guo is a Principal Investigator at the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine (HIM), Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Florida and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Prior to joining HIM in 2021, he served as an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Guo’s research focuses on understanding how healthy and diseased vascular systems interact with drug delivery complexes such as ADCs and extracellular vesicles. His work aims to uncover mechanisms governing vascular responses to these therapies and to explore how they can be therapeutically manipulated to treat diseases.

I am currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biologics, Development Center for Biotechnology, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan. Before this post, I was a post-doctoral researcher at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (2018-2021) after receiving my PhD degree (Immunology) from The University of Manchester (UK) in 2018.

My role at the institute involves ADC development, primarily in the R&D stage; therefore, I have relevant experience in antigen validation, antigen preparation, antibody screening strategies, linker/payload selection, and efficacy studies. At the R&D stage, I focus more on antibody screening, which is empowered by our institute’s fully human antibody library and screening strategies, to accelerate progress. 

Besides ADC development, I also participate in an antibody-based CNS delivery platform project, where we have already identified a novel antibody with BBB penetration ability that can use as a drug carrier.

Dr. Paul Song has nearly 30 years of expertise in biotherapeutics drug discovery and development, specializing in immunology and oncology. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at GeneQuantum Healthcare in Suzhou, China, where he leads R&D, including new ADC target discovery and the advancement of an innovative bioconjugate pipelines. Dr. Song has been instrumental in establishing GeneQuantum as a global leader in ADCs through cutting-edge technologies.

Previously, he co-founded Curon Bio in Shanghai, China, a biotech venture focused on next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics, and served as its CSO, laying a strong foundation for the company's rapid growth. He also served as Vice President at Samsung Bioepis in Seoul, Korea, playing a pivotal role in establishing the company as a global leader in biosimilars. Earlier, he was a Principal Research Scientist at Lilly Research Laboratories in Indianapolis, USA. Dr. Song holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Purdue University, USA.