Announcing 2018 CABS K. Fong Award in Life Sciences
Chinese American Biopharmaceutical Society (CABS) K. Fong Award Committee is very pleased to announce that Dr. Guoliang Yu and Dr. Yuling Luo are the winners of CABS K. Fong Award in Life Sciences for their extraordinary achievements in research, entrepreneurship, and innovation. We will honor Dr. Yu and Dr. Luo in the award ceremony at 2018 BioPacific Conference (20th Annual Meeting of CABS) on June 23, 2017 at the San Mateo Marriott San Francisco Airport located at 1770 South Amplett Blvd., San Mateo, CA 94402.
Dr. Guoliang Yu
Dr. Yu is currently the Executive Chairman of Crown Bioscience and a venture partner at OrbiMed Venture. He has also co-founded several biotech startups, including Epitomics, where he was the Chairman, President, and CEO for 10 years prior to its acquisition by Abcam.
Dr. Yu is an innovator, successful serial entrepreneur, and mentor to biotech founders. In 2009, he was nominated as one of the most influential returned talents by the American Business Weekly. In 2010, he was further selected for the Chinese National Thousand Talent Plan and featured by the Scientist Magazine. In 2011, Dr. Yu was invited to attend the 4th session of the Fourteenth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Dr. Yu completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with Dr. Greider, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for their discovery in 2009. He later finished his post-doctoral study at Harvard University. In 1993, Dr. Yu joined Human Genome Sciences and led the discovery of the lupus drug Benlysta that was approved by FDA in 2010. In 1998, Dr. Yu was invited to serve as the Senior Vice President of R&D at Mendel Biotechnology. His scientific contribution was translated into 43 peer-reviewed articles, referenced over 6000 times, and was awarded more than 429 patents.
Dr. Yu is also a life science community leader. He is the founding president of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA) and sits on the boards of several professional organizations in the United States and China, including BayHelix, Chinese-American Bio/Pharmaceutical Society (CABS), National Foundation of Cancer Research, and Ray Wu Memorial Foundation.
Dr. Yuling Luo
Dr. Luo is currently the Founder, Chairman and CEO at Alamar Biosciences, Inc., a new start-up. He is a seasoned executive and successful serial entrepreneur in the life science business. Dr. Luo is the inventor of RNAscope, a breakthrough molecular detection technology that has since become a widely adopted platform for life science research and molecular diagnostics. As Founder, President and CEO of Advanced Cell Diagnostics(ACD), he led the company from concept to successful product launch and commercialization. Under his leadership, ACD has become one of the fastest growing life science business and the company was eventually acquired by BioTechne for $325M in 2016. The acquisition was at 13 times sales revenue, which is probably the highest multiple in the life-sciences industry. Dr. Luo and his team have created a total of $300M value for ACD shareholders. Before ACD, Dr. Luo was a co-founder of Panomics (previously named Genospectra before its acquisition of Panomics), a life science company that was acquired by Affymetrix in 2008. At Panomics, he served various roles including Vice President, Functional Genomics and Chief Scientific Officer and he led the development and launch of all of its flagship products. Prior to Panomics, Dr. Luo was one of the earliest senior scientists at Exelixis, now a $6 billion NASDQ company, where he led a team to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets.
Dr. Luo is a member of NCI’s Ad Hoc Working Group on SBIR charged with providing guidance to increase small business and private sector participation in developing and commercializing novel technologies and products. He is also a member of the peer-review panel for NCI’s IMAT (Innovative Molecular Analysis Tool) program. Dr. Luo has published numerous research papers in top peer-reviewed journals. His inventions are the subject of over 30 issued patents. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University followed by post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his B.S. from the University of Science & Technology, China.
About CABS K. Fong Award in Life Sciences
CABS K. Fong Award in Life Sciences is presented annually to recognize those individuals who make significant contributions in life sciences and biopharmaceutical industry including outstanding scientific findings, recognized efforts in promoting life science education and initiatives in improving life science community, and those who bring therapeutic breakthroughs to the market and improve healthcare and quality of life.
Candidates must be nominated by an active member of CABS. Selection criteria will be based on candidate’s accomplishments in life sciences and contribution to the life science community, including one or all of the following:
- Proven achievements in therapeutic breakthroughs (including discovery, process or clinical development), diagnostics or the research reagent/equipment markets.
- Significant contribution to the promotion of academic and industrial R&D in biomedical sciences and applications.
- Significant contribution to the CABS community and to promoting international collaboration in life sciences.
About Dr. Kenneth Fong
Dr. Kenneth Fong has spent the last 32 years in the biotech industry after completing his academic pursuit in biomedical research.
He is best known for founding the biotech company, Clontech in 1984 where he had cultivated it to be one of the largest biomedical tool companies founded by an Asian American in the US (400 people with 65 PhD scientists). Clontech was sold to Becton Dickinson in 1999 and Ken has continued his career as a Venture capitalist with Kenson Ventures that he founded. He has since cultivated more than 10 highly successful entrepreneurs, advising them and working with them on the growth of their companies.
Currently, he sits on the board of 4 biotech companies and he was intimately involved with the M/A and IPO of more than 10 companies that are worth north of $3 billion. These companies range from research tools, medical diagnostics and drug development. In almost all cases, Dr. Fong has been instrumental in providing strategies for sustainable growth, value creation and liquidity. Those successful entrepreneurs have moved on to assume leadership in other start-up and mid-sized companies, which in turn leads to a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Ken has held a number of leadership positions over the years. He served as the President of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in North America (2006-07) and President of the Bay Area Asian American Manufacturers' Association (AAMA, 1987). He was also the member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University System (2006-13). His philanthropic interests include scholarships to San Francisco State University, the Kenneth Fong-Hearst endowed scholarships to the CSU system and 40 student scholarships to Peking University. In 2006, he was involved with establishing the Fong Optometry and Medical library at UC Berkeley, and more recently an endowed professorship at Stanford University and a technology translation endowed fund at San Francisco State University.
Ken obtained his PhD from Indiana University and his BS from San Francisco State University.
Past recipients of CABS K. Fong Awards
2017: Dr. Yinxiang Wang, Co-founder and CSO of Beta Pharma, for his role in leading development and commercialization of Conmana®, the first small molecule oncology drug specifically targeting cancer cells that is completely developed in China, and Dr. Edgar Engleman, for his pioneering research that was the basis of the Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) prostate cancer vaccine, the first active immunotherapy for cancer to be approved by the FDA.
2016: Dr. Gerald Chan, co-founder of Morningside, for his extraordinary vision and leadership in cultivating a generation of successful entrepreneurs and life sciences companies.
2015: Dr. Irving Weissman, of Stanford University, for his pioneering research in stem cell research.
2014: Dr. Ge Li, Founder and CEO of Wuxi Apptec, for creating and shaping the CRO business model in China and Dr. Hing L. Sham, formerly of Abbott for his leading role in the discovery of life- saving HIV protease inhibitors, ritonavir and Iopinavir.
2013: Dr. Peter Hirth, Plexxikon & Sugen for his pivotal role in advancing 4 successful drugs to the market and Dr. Jean Cui, formerly of Pfizer for her role as the lead designer and investigator of crizotinib, a successful kinase inhibiting drug used in personalized medicine.