Team

Leadership

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD

Chairman of the Board, Executive Director and CEO

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine (insilico.com), a leader in generative artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery and biomarker development. Dr. Zhavoronkov has a combined background in biomedicine and computer technology. He has been recognized by Deep Knowledge Analytics in 2019 as one of the top 100 AI leaders in drug discovery and advanced healthcare globally and has been selected as one of Clarivate's Global Highly Cited Scientists for 2022.

Dr. Zhavoronkov founded Insilico in 2014 and applied AI technologies to analyze a wide range of data types, including anti-aging, disease mechanisms, target identification, and signaling pathway modeling. In 2016, he pioneered the application of key technologies in Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) to drug discovery, discovering novel targets and generating novel molecules with satisfied properties.

Prior to Insilico, Dr. Zhavoronkov worked in senior roles at ATI Technologies (GPU company acquired by AMD in 2006), NeuroGNeuroinformatics, Biogerontology Research Foundation. Since 2012 he published over 200 peer-reviewed research papers, and 3 books. He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, Aging, Frontiers in Genetics, npj Aging and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery and AI Forum, the world's largest event on aging in the pharmaceutical industry. He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Feng Ren, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Executive Director & Co-CEO

Dr. Feng Ren received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 2007. He then spent 11 years in the discovery and development of small molecule innovative drugs at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he served as the principal scientist, program leader, director and head of chemistry of Neurodegeneration DPU. In 2018, Dr. Ren joined Medicilon, a contract research organization (CRO) providing drug discovery services to biopharmaceutical companies globally, where he served as senior Vice President and head of the drug R&D service business of the Chemistry Department and Biology Department with over 600 chemists and biologists. In 2021, Dr. Ren joined Insilico Medicine as CSO, responsible for internal pipelines and external collaborations in drug discovery and development. In his career, Dr. Ren successfully developed multiple preclinical and clinical phase I compounds for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's disease, and neuropathic pain. Dr. Ren has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and over 100 patents.

Alex Aliper, PhD

President

Alex Aliper, PhD, is the President of Insilico Medicine. He pioneered the application of AI in multi-omics data for drug discovery and drug repurposing, generative chemistry and generative biology, and put an AI-designed drug into human clinical trials. He built a team of over 100 AI engineers that developed state-of-the-art software products for target discovery, small molecule generation and clinical trial outcome prediction, and he has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications. He was recognised as "Top 100 AI Leaders in Drug Discovery and Advanced Healthcare" by Deep Knowledge Analytics. In 2020, Endpoint News selected Alex Aliper as the top 20 under 40 biotechnology executives globally.

Leo Shi

Non-executive Director

Leo Shi is based in Shanghai and joined Warburg Pincus in 2019, focusing on investments in the healthcare sector in Asia. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, he worked as Senior Director at Temasek China focusing on healthcare investing since 2015. He received a B.A. of Finance from Fudan University.

Kan Chen, PhD

Non-executive Director

Mr. Kan Chen is a Principal of Qiming Venture Partners, focusing on healthcare investment. Kan earned his PhD in Cell Biology from Case Western Reserve University and finished his postdoctoral training in Immunology at Harvard Medical School. He got his bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Fudan University.

Charles Cantor, PhD

Former Chief Scientific Officer, Sequenom; Former principal scientist of Human Genome Project

After more than 40 years in academia holding positions in chemistry and human genetics & development at Columbia University, molecular biology at the University of California Berkeley, and biomedical engineering and pharmacology at Boston University, Dr. Cantor switched to the private sector where he co-founded Sequenom and Retrotope.

Michael Levitt, PhD

Professor, Stanford University; Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)

Michael Levitt is a Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist who has conducted pioneering work on the molecular structure of essential biological compounds and has made significant contributions to the study of protein folding and computer modelling in biology.

Kai-Fu Lee, PhD

Chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures; President, Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and has held significant executive positions in major technology companies. He is the author of the bestseller AI Superpowers and recognized for his influence in AI and technology sectors.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik, PhD

Professor and Director, Vector Institute, University of Toronto

Professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik leads a theoretical physical chemistry group and focuses on quantum computation and chemistry.

Donald Small, MD, PhD

Director of pediatric oncology and professor, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute (JHMI)

Dr. Donald Small is Director of the Division of Pediatric Oncology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, known for his research on the human FLT3 gene and molecularly targeted cancer therapies.

Klaus Witte, PhD

Member of the German Society of Pharmacology & Toxicology; Member of the Ethics Commission II, University of Heidelberg

Stevan Djuric, PhD

Adjunct Professor at The University of Kansas; Former head of the global AbbVie Medicinal Chemistry Leadership Team

Dr. Stevan Djuric has extensive experience in medicinal chemistry and has contributed to developing several clinical therapies.

Bud Mishra, PhD

Professor of Math and CS, Courant Institute, Mathematical Sciences, New York University

Bud Mishra is a professor involved in multiple fields and aims to innovate in various domains including computational biology.