Fang Zhang, PhD

Ex-China global out-license

 Closed a in-license deal with tens of millions on upfront and milestone payments, plus royalty  Closed a million-dollar-scale co-development deal  Assessed in-license opportunities from scientific, technical, patent, market, financial, and human factor aspects, to assemble integrative reports for presenting to senior management team  Coordinated due diligence and alliance management, ensured the adequate dedication of internal stakeholders to keep projects in good progress  Led or participated in the negotiation of various agreements including confidential disclosure, term sheet, co-development, investment and licensing contract  Attended multiple international or national conferences in oncology, ophthalmology, and neurology, etc., to look for in-license and out-license opportunities, as well as keep up with the frontier of the field  Developing professional skills by taking several business development or financial courses, including CFA Institute Investment Foundation Program, Discounted Cash Flow Model, Business Development in Pharmaceutical Industry, and Practical Skills in Merge & Acquisition

 Established new techniques such as CRISPR, electron microscopy and confocal for the lab through initiating collaborations with external laboratories and core facilities  Actively engaged in lab organization and Standard Operation Protocol (SOP) formulation  Investigated the role of extracellular matrix protein, fibulin-3, in causing retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and Malattia Leventinese  Revealed the fiber-like structure of multiple extracellular matrix proteins and the colocalization between them in retinal pigment epithelial cells  Engineered the fibulin-3 knockout retinal pigment epithelial cell line through CRISPR

 Estimated the market size of a novel diagnostic technology in immune oncology clinical trials  Investigated the competitive landscape and licensing opportunities for this technology  Synthesized and presented the market research report together with other teammates

 Revealed membrane potential dynamics during antibiotic caused cell death in Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis  Compared the effect of different antibiotics on growth and death  Studied the periodic growth of Bacillus subtilis under low nitrogen condition  Taught an undergraduate class on the application of noise in HIV drug screening, which encouraged several students to apply for the volunteer position in the lab

 Engineered the first synthetic quorum sensing gene circuit in Gram-positive bacteria  Revealed positive correlation between quorum sensing response and extracellular matrix production in biofilms, and the potential private benefit of this correlation to individual cells  Showed sporulation threshold of KinA remains the same regardless of change in growth rate  Proved that sda deletion has little effect on Pspo0A pulse  Published three papers in well-respected journals including Molecular Systems Biology and Plos One

Project: policy innovation for altering the market failure of antibiotics  Studied the size, funding sources, and drug pipelines of current antibiotic developing companies  Comparatively investigated the cost and revenue in antibiotics and vaccines development  Formulated market-stimulating policies based on the case study of the orphan drug policy  Drafted a white paper together with co-workers to deliver the solution to the CEO and other stakeholders