Dr. Yong-zu Kim founded LegoChem Biosciences Inc. in May 2006 and currently serves as the CEO.
After receiving B.S. in Chemistry from Seoul National University and M.S. & Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, KAIST, he served 23 years at the LG Chem research institute, where he led the discovery of new drug candidates as head of the new drug research center. During his tenure, he discovered 15 new drug candidates for various diseases, including “FACTIVE”(quinolone antibiotics), the first US FDA approved new drug developed in Korea..
Dr. Chang-Sun (Sam) Lee is responsible for integrating LegoChem’s drug discovery efforts across various therapeutic area. His experiences have led to the advancement of many development candidates in the fields of cancer, asthma, muscular dystrophy and other genetic disorders, of which SMA drug, Evrysdi got approved by FDA. Prior to joining LegoChemBio in 2018, Chang-Sun was the head of New Drug Discovery Center at Handok Pharmaceuticals, and worked for RaND Biosciences as CTO to build up company’s portfolio. Before coming back to South Korea in 2016, he worked as a research fellow at PTC Therapeutics, where he invented two clinical candidates in oncology and genetic disorders. He started his industrial career at Celera Genomics at South San Francisco in 2003.
Chang-Sun received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University, and worked as a postdoc/staff scientist at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from Seoul National University.
Dr. Young-rak Cho joined LegoChem Biosciences, Inc. as co-founder in 2006 and currently serves as the CDO(chief development officer). Prior to this appointment, he joined the LG Life Science Research Institute in 2001 and researched Alzheimer disease for five years. He primarily attended Yonsei University, earning his B.S. in 1990 before receiving M.S. in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1999 from the same institution. Dr. Cho began his postdoctoral work at The Scripps Research Institute in 1999, and then continued his work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies from 2000 to 2001.
With an impressive knowledge in his field, Dr. Cho attributes his success to development of the new anti-TB drug, Delpazolid. In recognition of his research achievements in the field of antibiotics, he was awarded the Presidential Citation in 2017 National R&D Performance Evaluation Merit Award.
Dr. Chul-woong Chung serves as the Head of ADC Research at LigaChem.
After receiving Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, he has conducted research in academic as well as industry setting, including the experiences in Mayo Clinic in the U.S. as Research Fellow and in LG Life Sciences for 9 years as Principal Scientist. During his 9 years at LG Life Sciences, Dr. Chung has built experiences from research work including liver disease, obesity, and dementia as well as biosimilar project as Project Leader. He was also heavily involved in the strategy planning for biologics and business development in the Open Innovation Center. Prior to joining LegoChem, he led research programs of Bispecific antibody in Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceuticals as a Senior director of Research Center.
Se-jin Park received B.A. in Economics from Korea University and M.B.A. from Yonsei University. He served over 20 years in R&D Management, including HR Team Leader, Strategy Planning Team Leader, US Research Corporation Management Officer, and OLED Business Team Leader at LG Chem Research Institute. He is a co-founder of LegoChem and responsible for business management & development, and financing and serves as the COO & CFO.
Since earning his Ph.D. from University of Virginia, Dr. Jeiwook (Jei) Chae has conducted research both in academic and industry settings. He has extensive experience and expertise in animal models for human diseases and preclinical therapeutic testing, especially tumor and fibrosis models for the target discovery/validation and drug efficacy evaluation.
His postdoctoral research at Harvard University was primarily focused on RNAi, especially related to cancer biology. His collaborative preclinical research with a leading RNAi therapeutics company, Alnylam, provided important insights for the clinical development of RNAi therapeutics. Subsequently, he joined Bioneer, where he served as Head of Research, building up RNAi pipeline programs for multiple diseases.
As Chief Business Development Officer at LegoChem Biosciences Dr. Chae has guided external collaborations, advancing pipeline programs including antibiotics, anti-fibrosis, and Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC)-based cancer drug. He has successfully executed transactions with multiple companies including Takeda/Millennium, Iksuda Therapeutics, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Pyxis Oncology, and Fosun Pharma. The primary mission of Dr. Jei Chae and his colleagues in LegoChem Biosciences is to develop a clinically applicable ADC drug using a novel site-specific ADC technology developed by the company.
Dr, Bob Lutz was previously VP of translational research and development at ImmunoGen Inc., where he was responsible for all early-stage ADC development programs and gained further experience in directing the clinical pharmacology, biomarkers, pharmacology and toxicology departments. While at ImmunoGen, he was responsible for bringing eight of ImmunoGen'a candidate ADC products into development and was the research lead for Kadcyla.
Dr. Rakesh Dixit is an accomplished executive, inventor, and scientist with over 30 years of success with top biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Medimmune – AstraZeneca. Rakesh was selected by his biopharmaceutical peers as the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Pharmaceutical Industry by PharmaVOICE in 2015. From 2006 to 2019, Rakesh was a Global Vice President of the Biologics R&D at Medimmune – AstraZeneca, where he was a pivotal contributor to the approval of Imfinzi, Fasenra, Brodalumab and Moxetumomab pseudotox. Rakesh has unique expertise in the development of biologics (e.g., monoclonal antibodies, bispecific biologics, antibody-drug conjugates, fusion proteins, peptides, gene and cell therapies, etc.) and small-molecule biopharmaceuticals. His areas of expertise include discovery, early and late preclinical development, safety assessment, DMPK and translational sciences.
Dr. Morris Z. Rosenberg participated in the development and launch of Trodelvy, Adcetris, Avonex, Angiomax, Xigris, and Forteo. He has considerable experience in building highly successful product development teams & supervising process sciences, manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance, preclinical research, bioanalytical, and project management.
Dr. Lawrence Geiter was previously VP of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC), where he recently served, Global Clinical Development during his 12-year career at Otsuka. In his role at OPDC, Dr. Geiter was responsible for the oversight of the company’s clinical development of Delamanid(Deltyba), approved by the EMA in Europe, PMDA in Japan and MFDS in Korea. Previously, Dr. Geiter served in leadership roles at Aeras Global Tuberculosis Vaccine Foundation, responsible for oversight of capacity building activities at field sites for tuberculosis trials and planning for Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of TB vaccine candidates. Dr. Geiter is currently the executive consultant of Drug Development group of LigaChem Biosciences.
