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Jun Zeng, PhD
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO
Dr. Jun Zeng spent eight years at Cytopia developing anti-cancer drugs, culminating in a $265M commercial agreement with Novartis Pharma in 2006. In 2012, one of his inventions was sold by YM Biosciences to Gilead Inc. for $510M. He is an expert in drug discovery and development, with over 20 years of experience in academic science and the biotechnology industry. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and holds six drug discovery patents.
Dr. Zeng received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1995. He worked at CNRS (France), and subsequently at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Australia) as a C.J. Martin Research Fellow supported by Australian National Health and the Medical Research Council, before being hired as Principal Scientist at Cytopia. After Cytopia, he founded several biotech contract research organizations (CROs) and drug discovery companies in Australia and Hong Kong. Jun holds a guest Professorship at Sichuan University, China.
Mehrdad Nikfarjam, Ph.D. M.D. FRACS
CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Dr Mehrdad Nikfarjam is a liver and pancreas surgeon at Austin Health and Associate Professor in the University Department of Surgery (Austin Health). He completed his medical degree MBBS (Hons) at Monash University in 1997. During his surgical training that followed he was awarded a PhD from University of Melbourne, supported by a Surgeon Scientist Scholarship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (R.A.C.S). He completed his surgical Fellowship in Australia in 2007 (F.R.A.C.S), before continuing on with specialist’s surgical training in several institutes and hospitals in USA for 3 years before returning back to Australia as an Academic surgeon in 2009.
Dr Nikfarjam is a distinguished academic and clinical hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeon and has over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has written one book and has contributed to several book chapters in leading surgical texts. He is a leader in the field of pancreatic surgery and pancreatic cancer research. In addition, Dr Nikfarjam is the founder of the national non-for-profit organisation, Pancare Foundation (www.pancare.org.au) , which aims to save and improve the lives of patients affected by pancreatic, liver, biliary and foregut cancer, through research, education, awareness and support.
Rod Cairnduff
Financial Director
Rod is a CPA with more than 25 years’ experience working across the finance sector. He has run his own firm while serving on the board of a number of non-for-profits, giving valuable advice and direction in regard to financial sustainability and longevity.
Dr. Jun Zeng
CEO (BIO)
Dr. Hong He
Research Director
Dr. Hong He was awarded MD from Beijing Medical University in 1989, and PhD from University of Melbourne in 1994. She had worked in Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne branch) from 1994 to 2002, then as senior research fellow at the Department of Surgery of University of Melbourne since 2003. Her major expertise is in the targeted therapy in cancers and tumour immune response
