Our Team
Throughout Dr. Yen’s career, he has dedicated himself to discovering the molecular foundations of cancer and in harnessing such knowledge for the development of more effective treatments. His scientific achievements have accorded him various prestigious grant awards, including those from the National Institutes of Health, a distinguished pre-doctoral fellowship training grant while at Thomas Jefferson University and a K12 training grant while at City of Hope Medical Center. In addition, he has been awarded U. S. Army Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer grants, and the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program has designated his laboratory as the rib nucleotide reductase Real-Time PCR Reference Laboratory.
Dr. Yen received his medical degree from Taipei Medical College in Taiwan and his Ph.D. in Pathology and Cell Biology from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following residency training at St. Luke’s Hospital, Temple University, Dr. Yen completed a fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation and Oncology Section at Yale University School of Medicine. Thereafter, he joined City of Hope Medical Center in 1993 as a staff physician. He is currently a professor in Medical Oncology and the Graduate School of Biological Sciences, as well as Director of Clinical and Molecular Pharmacology in the Division of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research, and is the Associate Cancer Center Director for Translational Research. With a solid education in medicine, paired with his extensive scientific background, Dr. Yen is uniquely qualified in serving as co-Director of the Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program.
Dr. Yen holds membership in numerous professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Sigma-Xi Scientific Association, and Academy of Science New York. He has published more than 140 abstracts and peer-reviewed journal articles, and he serves as an ad hoc reviewer/referee for several journals and on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Colorectal Cancer. In addition, he serves on the Research Grant Review Committee for the Hong Kong Research Administration. Dr. Yen participates in a variety of consultant capacities including Advisory Board member to the National Health Research Institute of Taiwan and as Consultant to the Gene Therapy and Human Clinical Trial Committee for the Taiwan Ministry of Health. As a dedicated faculty leader beyond the City of Hope campus, he holds adjunct professor posts at several major universities in China as well as at neighboring University of Southern California.
Dr. Wang brings extensive experiences in stem cell research. He was the Senior Scientist/Director of MorphoGen Pharmaceuticals, which is a pioneer stem cell company focusing on muscle-derived stem cells. Prior to MorphoGen, Dr. Wang was at VitaGen, a cell-therapy company dedicated to treating fulminant hepatic failure using bioartificial liver devices. At VitaGen, Dr. Wang was involved in Phase II clinical trials for an artificial liver system.
Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Vanderbilt University where he made significant contributions in Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome research and was awarded an IGP graduate fellowship. He completed his postdoctoral work at The Salk and Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California studying neurodegenerative diseases. During this period at The Salk and Burnham Institute, Dr. Wang was awarded a National Institutes of Health training grant and an NRSA fellowship. Before joining StemBios, Dr. Wang was an assistant research professor at UCLA and City of Hope Medical Center and was awarded a UCLA Academic Senate grant for “stem cell in autoimmune diseases”. He is the inventor of more than 80 patents and has numerous scientific publications.
Dr. Chu has served as Director of Business Development of Stembios Technologies, Inc. since October 2013. Dr. Chu has an extensive and diversified background in the field of life sciences including research, technical support, sales, marketing, and project management. His previous experience includes serving as the local sales representative in the Southern California territory for BioTek Instruments, an industry leader in microplate instrumentation. With him joining the team, he turned his territory into one of the fastest growing territories of the nation for Biotek. He also previously held the position of Field Application Scientist, a technical sales position, for Affymetrix serving all major biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the Western US region. Dr. Chu earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Bioengineering.
Mr. Chen is the principal of TriMax & Companies, LLC of Los Angeles, which invests in and incubates emerging technologies. Prior to forming TriMax & Companies, Mr. Chen was an attorney with the firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Shearman & Sterling in New York, Tokyo and China. Mr. Chen received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Columbia College.
Mr. Lai has a varied background in finance, strategic planning, operations and entrepreneurial ventures. Mr. Lai is the Managing Partner of TriMax Management Solutions LLC, a business process outsourcing firm focusing on the operations management of start-ups and small companies. He is also a partner with TriMax Investment LLC, a boutique Los Angeles based venture capital firm with a technology investment focus. Mr. Lai has invested in start-up and early-stage companies, engaged in a variety of strategic and business development matters and provided financial advisory services including capital raising and financial restructuring. Prior to TriMax, Mr. Lai was with KPMG Consulting and their Health Care Strategy Practice. Mr. Lai received his Master of Public Health from UCLA and his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego.