METiS Appoints Dr. Hongming Chen as President and Head of R&D for U.S. Operations

On February 16, METiS TechBio announced the appointment of Academician Hongmin Chen as President and R&D Head of its U.S. company.

Dr. Cai-Da Lai, CEO and founder of METiS TechBio, stated: "Academician Chen is a successful entrepreneur with exceptional drug R&D capabilities and extensive experience in advancing projects from early development to the clinical stage. Her leadership and expertise in drug development will be invaluable in driving the progress of our pipeline and AI-driven drug discovery and delivery platform."

"I am very pleased to join the company at an early stage of its development and lead our business expansion in the United States," said Academician Chen Hongmin. "METiS TechBio's AiTEM platform leverages machine learning, artificial intelligence, and quantum simulations to discover new drug candidates, design and deliver programmable nucleic acid drugs. I look forward to continuing to advance the construction of this platform with such an outstanding team."

Before joining METiS TechBio, Dr. Chen Hongmin served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Kala Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company she co-founded in 2010. During her tenure, she successfully advanced a novel nanoparticle technology from the experimental discovery stage to Phase III clinical trials and obtained FDA approval. Dr. Chen Hongmin helped the company attract significant investment and assisted Kala Pharmaceuticals in going public on NASDAQ in 2017. Prior to joining Kala Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Chen Hongmin co-founded TransForm Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2005. In addition, she has held various R&D positions at AstraZeneca and Merck.

Academician Chen Hongmin is also a fellow of the American Academy of Engineering, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Controlled Release Society. She is also a distinguished graduate of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Engineering and a member of the Distinguished Chemical Engineers Institute. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About AiTEM Platform

METiS TechBio's technical platform AiTEM combines state-of-the-art AI data-driven algorithms, mechanism-driven quantum mechanics, and molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients, elucidate the interactions between active ingredients and targets as well as active ingredients and excipients, and predict the physicochemical and biological properties of small molecule and nucleic acid therapies in specific microenvironments. This facilitates more efficient lead optimization, candidate drug selection, formulation design, "programmable nucleic acid drug" development, and nucleic acid delivery design. METiS TechBio’s founding team consists of MIT researchers, serial entrepreneurs, and biotech industry veterans who leverage the AI data-driven platform to develop new drugs with high therapeutic potential.

About METiS TechBio

METiS TechBio is a biotechnology company that aims to drive the best therapies across a wide range of disease areas by combining drug discovery and drug delivery with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum simulation.

For more information, please visit metispharmaceuticals.cn/