Li Zonghai

Li Zonghai was appointed as a Director in February 2018, and the CEO and the Chief Scientific Officer in February 2021.

He was re-designated as an executive Director in February 2021. Dr. Li has also held positions at CARsgen Therapeutics. He has been a director and the chief executive officer since October 2014, and the chief scientific officer since December 2017.

Dr. Li has approximately 20 years of work experience in the biopharmaceutical field. Prior to joining the Group, Dr. Li was a project manager at Guilin Pavay Gene Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. from July 2000 to April 2002. Dr. Li worked at Shanghai Cancer Institute from July 2005 to June 2018 and served as the leader of the biotherapy research team at the State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes of Shanghai Cancer Institute during such period.

Dr. Li has dedicated himself to developing innovative treatment for the patients with cancer. One of his early career achievements is the identification of GE11, a peptide ligand of EGFR which has become a widely used unnatural peptide in antitumor study now. He is also the inventor of new technologies such as Hpd3cell, a new phage display technology; FR806, a new safety switch for T cell therapy; CycloCAR technology to increase the antitumor activities of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. He has a leading role in the research on CAR T cell therapy against solid tumors by publishing the first paper of CAR T cell therapy against GPC3, Claudin18.2 and EGFR/EGFRvIII worldwide. Dr. Li was a professor Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and a doctoral supervisor at Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Dr. Li obtained his bachelor’s degree in preventive medicine and master’s degree in pathology and pathophysiology from the Central South University, formerly known as the Hunan Medical University, the PRC, in June 1997 and July 2000 respectively. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in pathogen biology from Fudan University, the PRC, in June 2005.

Dr. Li was awarded the Leading Talents of Shanghai City in 2018 and the Shanghai Youth Science and Technology Award in 2019.