Founded in 2012, AskGene operates at the intersection of science, technology and medicine. Our scientific team has developed several novel technologies, including our SmartKine® platform technology. These innovations enable us to overcome the limitations of current cytokine therapeutics, bringing next-generation therapies to patients with unmet medical needs.
AskGene Pharma is led by a team of world-class scientists with extensive experience in the discovery and development of novel biologic therapeutics.
President and CEO
Chief Scientific Officer
Vice President of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology
Vice President of Cell Line Development
Vice President of Quality and Regulatory
President and CEO
Dr. Jian-Feng Lu has been President and Chief Executive Officer of AskGene Pharma since its inception. He has more than 25 years’ experience in clinical pharmacology, including more than 12 years in PK/PD and drug development across various therapeutic areas at Genentech and Amgen. Dr. Lu’s previous posts included Pharmacometrician at Genentech and progressed to a Scientific Director at Amgen. During his tenure, he participated in the first BLA filing of Avastin and the first NDA filing of Tarceva. Additionally, Dr. Lu was responsible for PK/PD assessment, dose selection, and study design for many projects from pre-clinical stage to phase I, II and III, including biologics, small molecule, and antibody-drug conjugate programs.
Dr. Lu received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from China Pharmaceutical University and completed his post-doctoral training at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Lu is a guest professor at Jiangnan University and was invited to draft the biosimilar guidance for China’s State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Yuefeng Lu joined AskGene Pharma in June 2013. From 2002 to 2013, Dr. Lu was Principal Scientist of Process Development at Amgen, where he led process development, pivotal and commercial tech transfer, and manufacturing support for several recombinant antibody and fusion protein projects. Dr. Lu has more than 20 years of biotech industrial experience. Prior to Amgen, he worked in process development and drug discovery at Protein Design Labs, GeneTrol, and Pan Pacific Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Lu received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and completed his post-doctoral training at Stanford University. Dr. Lu is the inventor or co-inventor of more than a dozen of issued and pending patents.
Vice President of Cell Line Development
Dr. Chuang joined AskGene Pharma in September 2018. He has more than 16 years’ industrial experience in research discovery and cell line development in both the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries. Previously, he was R&D Manager of Cell Biology at Thermo Fisher Scientific’s TDX division. He also worked at Shire Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Takeda in 2019) and Genesun Biopharmaceuticals as Associate Director of Cell Line Development, and prior to that was an R&D scientist at Multispan. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Chuang received his PhD in Cell & Development Biology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and his postdoctoral training at Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Vice President of Purification/Analytical/Formulation
Dr. Stone Shi joined AskGene Pharma in January 2021, bringing 22 years of combined industry experience. Previously, Dr. Shi served as Principal Scientist at Amgen, where he held a number of leadership roles, including leader of mass spec group, founding leader of discovery molecule assessment (DiscMA) group, discovery project co-lead (BioRep), process development attribute science team lead (ASTL) for a number of projects successfully achieving IND, and global molecule assessment co-coordinator. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Shi served at Pfizer and GSK
Dr. Shi received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Chemistry from Tsinghua University, and a Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. He has published more than 20 research papers, and is the co-inventor of two issued patents.
Vice President of Quality and Regulatory
Dr. Li joined AskGene Pharma in September of 2016. She has more than 20 years’ experience in product development and manufacturing support for recombinant and plasma therapeutic at various biotech companies. Prior to AskGene, she was a senior manager at Baxter and later at Shire, where she was responsible for analytical development to support product and process development, manufacturing investigations, and quality control. Previously, she worked on analytical development for protein and antibody therapeutics at Amgen.
Dr. Li received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Minnesota and completed her post-doctoral training at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Dr. Li is the author of more than 20 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She was also a speaker on analytical development at various national conferences.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Barbara Hickingbottom joined AskGene Pharma in May 2022 bringing over 20 years of experience in biologics clinical development. From 2016 until she joined AskGene, she worked in clinical development at Xencor in positions of increasing responsibility. In her last position as Head of Clinical Development at Xencor, she was responsible for all of the company’s clinical stage products. Prior to Xencor, Dr. Hickingbottom worked as both a consultant and an employee in many biopharmaceutical companies, including BioMarin, Mannkind, Novartis, Xoma, Novacea, and CTL Immunotherapies.
Dr. Hickingbottom received her M.D. from the Tufts University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency in pathology at Stanford. She also received a J. D. from the Harvard Law School and, prior to medical school, practiced law in Boston.
Vice President of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology
Dr. Matt Hsu joined AskGene Pharma in April 2022. He has more than 20 years of experiences in drug development for both small molecules and biologics. Previously, Dr. Hsu worked in Clinical Pharmacology Modeling & Simulation group at Amgen, where he led the Technical and Professional Unit for clinical study data and report preparation, conducted clinical pharmacology studies in translational sciences, applied PK/PD knowledge for dose selection at IND and End-of-Phase 2 stages, and prepared NDA/BLA submission for drug approval. He participated in Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting and supported global approval of Imlygic, a genetically modified oncolytic virus. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Hsu worked in Preclinical Development at Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey, where he led the in vivo PK group for running PK/TK studies, conducted in vitro ADME studies and IND enabling studies, and developed animal models for formulation screening and compound optimization.
Dr. Hsu received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from Taipei Medical University in Taiwan. He received his M.S. from University of Minnesota and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Michigan. He has published more than 35 peer-reviewed papers and has been an invited speaker at several training workshops, universities, and conference symposiums since 2001.
Executive Director of Clinical Operations
Jennifer joined AskGene Pharma, Inc. in August 2022. She brings over 20 years of clinical research experience in Clinical Operations to the AskGene team. Prior to joining AskGene, she held a Director position in Clinical Trial Management at Xencor, where she led teams in two oncology programs with multiple protocols. Before her role at the San Diego Biotechnology company, she worked in Clinical Operations for various Clinical Research Organizations (CROs). She draws on her broad clinical research experience starting from ground level in the industry, working her way up to management roles. She has been involved in a wide range of Phase I-IV clinical trials in various indications, from eye disorders to oncology trials.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from California State University, San Marcos.