People / Leadership

Dr Steven Fang is Founder and Executive Director of Invitrocue Limited, partner at Clearbridge Accelerator and was the Group CEO of CordLife Ltd. He has been awarded with the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for New Enterprise, Spirit of Enterprise and the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award’s Outstanding Entrepreneur Award.

Dr Fang has over two decades of experience in building biotechnology and life sciences companies. Dr Fang was the Group CEO of CordLife Ltd, which he founded in May 2001; the company has since grown with operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Indonesia, Kolkata, India, and Australia. CordLife was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004 and spun off a separate entity in 2012, which subsequently was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Prior to CordLife, Dr Fang held various management positions in Becton Dickinson, Baxter Healthcare and Sterling Pharmaceuticals (now part of GSK).

Dr Lindner is a senior executive with significant global experience across a range of industries including healthcare and technology. He was a founding partner of global healthcare company Medi-Globe, a supplier of equipment and services for minimally invasive surgery and urology, as well as hospital supplies. His experience also includes establishment of a private venture capital business, which invested across industries including technology, new media and internet. Most recently, Dr Lindner founded health complete GmbH, a material supply company specializing in highly efficient and biodegradable cleaning product. Dr Lindner has a PhD (Business) from Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.

Mr. Martin Bach has more than 20 years of experience directing employees in multinational companies. Mr. Bach has led these companies through start-up, survival, turnaround and growth modes. He has spent decades in the medical industries. His understanding of both domestic and international businesses and global distribution channels encompasses manufacturing, wholesale, direct sales and joint ventures. Among his significant previous roles, he served as Managing Director of a German based healthcare and medical device company. An entrepreneur by heart, he then founded his own Company with a dedicated presence in Abu Dhabi, where he gained valuable knowledge on doing business and building relationships in the UAE regions. Mr. Bach holds a Master of Business Administration, International Marketing from the Berufsakademie in Ravensburg (Germany).

Ms. Susan Chia brings close to 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, having held positions in sales and clinical research with Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK), Johnson and Johnson and Covance. Ms. Chia was one of the pioneers in the set up of Contract Research Organisation (CRO) in Singapore and Asia, before the company became a public listed company in NYSE as Covance. Over her 13 years with Covance, she served in various leadership positions, including Client Relationship Director, Administrative Head Singapore, and Director of Clinical Operations, Asia Pacific. In her last position as Director of Clinical Operations, she had responsibilities for Phase II to IV clinical trial management in 12 countries, including Australia, China, Korea and Southeast Asia. Ms. Chia holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Singapore, with major in Chemistry and Microbiology. She has also received a Gold Award for Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Marketing Institute of Singapore.

Ms. Katharina Bernlochner is a senior executive in the healthcare industry, with over 25 years of experience in German and international healthcare systems. As a provider of ideas with a focus on the implementation of new projects, she has established innovative interdisciplinary services in different sectors of medicine. She has also founded her own company for outpatient intensive care. Her career experience includes working for Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières ) in Africa and Southeast Asia. Ms. Bernlochner holds a Master’s degree in Nursing Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg.

Ms. Emily Cheung possesses more than 15 years of working experience at senior management level in the healthcare industry, with responsibility in strategic planning, directing and overseeing business operations. Prior to Invitrocue, Ms Cheung spent more than a decade at Cordlife, a public listed company in Singapore specialising in cord blood stem cells banking services and healthcare related services, where she was the CEO of the company’s Hong Kong division. With the growth of the business, she later served as Cordlife’s Director of Business Development, overseeing the development of new business opportunities in Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines.

Dr Fang has over two decades of experience in building biotechnology and life sciences companies. Dr Fang was the Group CEO of CordLife Ltd, which he founded in May 2001; the company has since grown with operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Indonesia, Kolkata, India, and Australia. CordLife was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004 and spun off a separate entity in 2012, which subsequently was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Prior to CordLife, Dr Fang held various management positions in Becton Dickinson, Baxter Healthcare and Sterling Pharmaceuticals (now part of GSK).

Dr Lindner is a senior executive with significant global experience across a range of industries including healthcare and technology. He was a founding partner of global healthcare company Medi-Globe, a supplier of equipment and services for minimally invasive surgery and urology, as well as hospital supplies. His experience also includes establishment of a private venture capital business, which invested across industries including technology, new media and internet. Most recently, Dr Lindner founded health complete GmbH, a material supply company specializing in highly efficient and biodegradable cleaning product. Dr Lindner has a PhD (Business) from Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.

Mr Eaton specialises in providing corporate and commercial legal advice on all aspects of public and private mergers and acquisitions (including private treaty sales and acquisitions of securities and assets, as well as regulated acquisitions), private equity transactions, reconstructions, initial public offerings and back-door listings, other fundraisings and projects and infrastructure (including supply agreements, joint ventures, farm-ins and split-commodity arrangements), with a particular focus on the technology, agribusiness, and energy and resources sectors. Mr Eaton has been recognised in a list of Australia’s top 109 lawyers in 2010 as voted by members of the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association and the Corporate Lawyers Association of New Zealand. Mr Eaton was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in July 2004.

Mr Chow Yee Koh is currently the Accountant and Company Secretary of Invitrocue Limited and was one of the founding directors of Invitrocue Limited when the company listed on the ASX in January 2016. Mr Koh has extensive experience in accounting, auditing and corporate finance, accumulated over 20 years from working in audit firms and listed companies. Mr Koh graduated from University of Strathclyde, UK, with a Bachelor of Arts (Accounting and Finance), and is a fellowship member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK). Mr Koh is also a director of ASX listed Stemcell United Limited.

Dr. Gopal lyer is a Head and Neck surgeon in National Cancer Centre and Singapore General Hospital and a Head and Senior Consultant at SingHealth Duke- NUS Head and Neck Centre. He has extensive experience in the surgical management of head and neck cancers, as well as surgery for benign diseases in the head and neck (including thyroid, salivary gland and skin lesions). He performs complex resections and reconstructions of cancers involving the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx, paranasal sinuses and neck. He is actively involved in research and leads a number of research programs that aim to determine prognostic factors in oral cancers, identifying the cause of head and neck cancers in young people and development of novel therapeutic strategies in treating these cancers. Dr. Gopal Iyer graduated from National University of Singapore (1998). He subsequently went on to complete a PhD in molecular carcinogenesis at the University of Cambridge. He trained as a General surgeon at Singapore General Hospital and then went on to two separate head and neck surgical fellowships at Sydney Head and Neck Cancer Institute at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Australia and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, USA. At Invitrocue, Dr Gopal lyer provides insights in clinical uses and perspectives in adoption of in vitro experimental patient-derived models for head and neck cancers.

Prof Chng obtained his medical degree from the University of Leeds, UK, and did his internal medicine residency in the United Kingdom. Fellowship training in haematology was completed in Singapore before he obtained an A*STAR international fellowship (2004) to go to the Mayo Clinic for a research fellowship in multiple myeloma genetics. His current research is very translational and involves the use of high-resolution global genomic technique to understand biology, identify drug targets, understand drug resistance and improve disease prognosis in haematological malignancies, with the aim of improving patient’s outcome and personalizing treatment. At Invitrocue, Prof Chng provides an updated and pragmatic view of the methodological processes and implementation considerations in the clinical adoption of in vitro experimental patient-derived models for multiple myeloma and lymphoma.

Professor Peschel (b. 1950) conducts research in the field of hematology and tumor biology. The goal of his research is to develop the basis for individualized, goal-oriented treatment plans for patients with leukemia and cancer through a better understanding of the cell biological and molecular basis of tumor disease. The disease models at the centre of this fundamental and translational research include acute and chronic leukemia and tumor disease of the lymphatic system (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma). Professor Peschel studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck where he acquired his postdoctoral teaching qualification (habilitation) in 1989. From 1985 -1987 he worked as a research fellow in the USA at William E. Paul, Laboratory of Immunology, at the National Institutes of Health. From 1990 – 1997 he was the senior physician (C3 Professor) at the University Clinic in Mainz. In 1997 he was appointed to the newly established chair within the TUM School of Medicine specializing in hematology and internal oncology.

Dr. Paepke is the current Head of Interdisciplinary Breast Center of Women’s Hospital Technical University Munich, Germany, since July 2018. He has also been serving as a member of the Advisory Board in the German Breast Group since 2009, and has been Chair of the International Society for Breast Endoscopy (Axilla) since 2004, as well as Chair of the Society of Minimal Invasive Intervention in Senology since 2002. He was the Senior Gynaecologic Oncology/Senology Physician at Women’s Hospital, Charité Campus Virchow in Berlin from 2001 to 2002, and was the Medical Resident for Gynaecology and Obstetrics at Charité Berlin, Germany, from 1991 to 1999. He is a member of the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM), the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics, the International Society for Chemoprevention of Cancer, and several other oncological societies.

Professor David Waugh is currently the Professor and Head of School, School of Biomedical Sciences at Queensland University of Technolog y. He was most recently the Director of the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB) at Queen’s University Belfast and Professor of Molecular Oncology and Therapeutics, with a primary research interest in understanding how inflammatory signals contribute to the initiation and progression of prostate cancers. Prof. Waugh has published more than 100 articles and has participated in various research projects including clinical trials in the treatment of solid tumours and prostate cancer progression. Aligned with his current research focus, Prof. Waugh will provide guidance on prostate cancer as a Senior Advisor to Invitrocue.

Professor Arial Zeng Yi is the Principal Investigator of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (IBCB) in the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, where she leads the study of mammary stem cell self-renewal and the interaction between stem cells and their niche, with the goal of controlling the players in these machineries for the purposes of regenerative and cancer medicine. Prof. Zeng holds a postdoctoral degree in developmental biology from Stanford University and has authored and co-authored various research papers on mammary development, multipotent mammary stem cells and breast cancer. At Invitrocue, Prof. Zeng will provide insights on breast cancer and oncology treatments, as the company seeks to continue to broaden the applicability of the Onco-PDO™ personalised screening test.

Professor Toi is a renowned cancer researcher with over 30 years’ of experience in international cancer research. He brings strong clinical oncology knowledge and experience especially in breast cancer, as well as a wide network of relationships with leading cancer institutes and hospitals in Japan. Professor Toi is currently Professor of the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University, specialising in clinical oncology and breast cancer treatment. Prior to his role at Kyoto University, Professor Toi has held various executive appointments in hospitals and academia in Japan, the United States, United Kingdom and Italy. Professor Toi holds a postdoctoral degree from the Hiroshima University School of Medicine and has co-authored more than 450 published articles. He also sits on the editorial board of renowned peer-reviewed medical journals.

Dato’ Dr Wahab is a Veterinary doctor by training who has extensive experience in the commercial sector. He is a Chairman Board of Commissioners of KSK Insurance Indonesia, one of the region’s largest insurance companies. Prior to this, he held a number of roles at Schmidt Scientific including CEO of Schmidt BioMedTech Asia. Dato’ Dr. Sharifuddin holds a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan and a Masters of Science in Animal Reproduction from University Pertanian Malaysia.

Grace is the Director of Scientific Affairs and Laboratory Operations at Invitrocue Singapore. She provides leadership to a team of Scientists and Laboratory Technologists for both preclinical in-vitro testing as well as Onco-PDO services. In delivering quality service to all of our clients from biopharmaceutical industries for preclinical in-vitro projects, Grace leverages on her strong technical and scientific knowledge to provide consultation on study design as well as perform in project management role. Her experience includes preclinical testing for compounds in dermatology, immunology, oncology, orthopaedic disease, respiratory disease, stem cell biology, etc. Grace was also the pioneer in the set-up of Onco-PDO services, and currently oversees the conduct of clinical validation studies and cancer organoids biobank in Singapore.

Grace holds a PhD in Cancer Biology and Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from National University of Singapore (NUS). During her doctoral studies, she worked on the potential breast cancer treatment targeting tumor hypoxia and studied the effect of 3D architecture on tumor-associated angiogenesis. With over nine years in cancer research, Grace has extensive experience working with multiple cancer types. She was also a Speaker at the ASCOMOS Congress held in Ipoh Malaysia in 2019.

Dr. Zahra Dantes, based in Munich, is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Invitrocue globally.

  Dr. Dantes is a highly regarded expert in PDO technology (plus 10 years of experience) and cancer research (plus 15 years of experience) and has played a pivotal role in establishing our Invitrocue lab in Munich. With a wealth of experience designing and managing clinical and validation studies in line with regulatory requirements, Dr. Dantes collaborates with national and international hospitals to run validation studies for solid cancer patients, generating PDOs and drug screening (Onco-PDO test). She is the leading contact person for clinical advisors and KOLs to design study protocols and patient consent forms and leads scientific and clinical discussions with clinical advisors, PIs, and KOLs.

  Dr. Dantes leads our multinational scientific team in her leadership and manager role as the CSO and oversees all scientific projects, clinical studies, and pharmacology projects. Dr. Dantes has successfully designed, managed, and overseen all the analytical and clinical validity experiments required for the CE certificate of the Onco-PDO test based on IVDD regulation. She is also designing and conducting clinical validation studies for the CE certificate of the test based on IVDR regulation.

  Dr. Dantes leadership and expertise have led to the generation of a living organoid biobank from all solid cancers in the lab in Munich. This biobank represents a significant advancement in cancer research and drug development, and it serves as a valuable resource for our ongoing efforts to improve patient outcomes.

  Dr. Dantes holds a Ph.D. from the Medical Faculty of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). She also holds doctoral degrees in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and Veterinary Science in Pathology (DVSc).

  Before joining Invitrocue and during her research work at Klinikum rechts der Isar in 2014, Dr. Dantes visited Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York to learn the PDO technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. David Tuveson (MD, Ph.D.), an internationally acclaimed Professor and pioneer in PDO technology. Dr. Dantes established the entire PDO technology for pancreatic cancer patients under the supervision of Prof. Dr. med. Maximilian Reichert at Klinikum rechts der Isar, TUM, Germany.

  Dr. Dantes presents the scientific results of Invitrocue at conferences, external meetings, and shareholder events. She is an author and co-author of several publications in prestigious journals, including JCI Insight, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, and Cancer Discovery. Dr. Dantes is a member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Dr Linda Huang joined Invitrocue Hong Kong Ltd in Aug 2019 as Clinical Science Manager and has been a core team member to establish the Onco-PDO clinical service in Hong Kong.

Dr Huang holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and PhD in Pathology from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, China. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on the cellular physiology of human osteoclasts using giant cell tumor of bone as a model, and bisphosphonates induced healing and consolidation of osteolytic bone tumors. She was a postdoc in Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology in Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and a visiting research fellow in University of Western Australia. Dr Huang was appointed as a Research Assistant Professor in Department of Surgery, CUHK in 2005 and Scientific Officer in Skin Bank, Prince of Wales Hospital in 2013. She has conducted numerous research projects as PI or Co-I and published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers.