Nikhil Mutyal, Ph.D. is Executive Director, Business Development and Licensing in Pacific Hub for Merck and Co (known as MSD outside of United States) based in San Francisco. Dr. Mutyal leads BD&L efforts for Oncology, Neuroscience and Cardiometabolic diseases for therapeutic opportunities from companies and research initutes based in Western US/CAN, SE Asia, ANZ. Dr. Mutyal’s professional career spans across management consulting for pharma/biotech and BD roles across various companies. Dr. Mutyal received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (Cancer Research) from Northwestern University and has B.S.+M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Dr. Yang Qiu has over 20 years of MNC drug discovery and development experience with demonstrated success of leading drug discovery, translational medicine and early clinical development programs. She contributed to the discovery and progression into clinic of over 15 drug candidates and drug approvals including the most recent FDA BTD Patritumab Deruxtecan (HER3-DXd)

Previously as Co-chair of cross-ADC program, Senior Director of Translational Medicine at Daiichi Sankyo; Director, Head of Translational and Biomarker Research at Janssen; Director, Head of Molecular Discovery Research at GSK China
Postdoc in Human Genomics at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Texas at Austin, and college from University of Science and Technology in China

Dr. Liang Xiao is the COO and Co-founder of MediLink Therapeutics. Dr. Liang Xiao is primarily responsible for ADC drug preclinical development and external cooperation in business development at MediLink. With 16 years of experience in both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Xiao previously served as the VP of Biologics R&D at Kelun-Biotech, where he was responsible for the development of multiple innovative biologics from 2013 to 2020. These projects resulted in global licensing agreements with multinational companies, totaling over $12 billion in value.

Dr. Xiao has successfully led 15 monoclonal antibody, bispecific antibody, and ADC projects into clinical stages. Among them, two monoclonal antibody projects and one ADC project have been submitted for BLA. Additionally, one ADC project is currently in Phase III clinical stage, and four ADC projects are in Phase I clinical stage.

Dr. Xiao holds a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences from the University of Science and Technology of China, as well as a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Shunfei is currently a medical evaluation manager at AZ China where he is responsible for searching & evaluating potential external partnership opportunities. Before joining AZ, Shunfei spent multiple years in venture capital domain where he served as an investment manager at Fosun Health Capital and Lingang Wonder-of-Land Capital with a focus on innovative medicines. Shunfei received his PhD degree in oncology from the University of Melbourne where he conducted his study in synthetic lethality. Before that, he obtained his Master and Bachelor degree in Biological Sciences from Fudan University.