Vitalgen Leadership
After receiving her Ph.D. from the department of Pharmacology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Dr. Xiaoping Zhao had worked for some of the leading drug discovery research companies in China in various roles with increasing responsibilities in pre-clinical translation research to hone her all around drug discovery and management skills. She served as the General Manager of Innostar (Haimen) Biotechnology Co., Ltd., building her team up to 300+ employees to provide pre-clinical drug discovery services to local and international BioPharma and BioTech companies for 7 years before co-founded Vitalgen with Professor Wei Li in 2020.
Professor Wei Li has dedicated his research to genetic engineering to discover innovated genetic tools and stem cell research for therapeutic applications in neurodegenerative diseases. His lab first discovered and applied genetic engineering to develop Cas12b into a versatile and highly effective mammalian genome editing tool. Through Professor Li’s endeavours in gene therapy discovery research since 2017, it has led to the development of a gene replacement therapy currently in an Investigator-initiated Trial (IIT) for treating Glutaric aciduria type I (GA-1), an autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by the deficiency of glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH). His extensive body of research has resulted in 90+ scientific publications and 70+ patent applications.
