Specialists in Nucleic Acids

David Butler, Chief Technology Officer, has nearly two decades of experience in the oligonucleotide field. Prior to joining Hongene in 2023, he led organizations driving drug discovery and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics, most recently as Head of Chemistry at Korro Bio, Head of Therapeutics Development at Alltrna, and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Wave Life Sciences. He began his career in oligonucleotides as a Principal Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in 2007 developing early LNP technologies for siRNA delivery that were the progenitors of those used for mRNA related products today. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews, and is passionate about working with individuals and companies to help them succeed.

KS Chin, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, studied microbiology at London University and later obtained a master’s degree in applied immunology at Brunel University. He began his research career at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in London, followed by a position at the Institute of Cancer Research located at the world-renowned Royal Marsden Hospital in Belmont, Surrey. In these two positions,  he co-authored articles in various scientific journals, including Nature, The Lancet, and the American Journal of Human Genetics.

David Yu, Vice President of US Scientific Operations and Business Development, has been with Hongene since 2017. He has 30 years of industrial experience, including working at Johnson & Johnson in medical device development and at Thermo Fisher Scientific in genetic analysis consumable R&D and manufacturing. David currently leads the Hongene California Scientific Operations, including R&D, Small Molecule Custom Synthesis, Oligonucleotide Synthesis, Specialty Chemical Manufacturing, Quality, and Sales. He also oversees the Business Development organization for the US and Canada markets. David is passionate about nucleic acid chemistry and is excited to leverage science to identify business opportunities and expand our customer base to drive growth and profitability. David earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a Master’s degree in Biophysical Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Michael Leuck, Vice President of the European Market, joined Hongene Biotech in 2020 and established its European site in Hamburg, Germany. He now leads Hongene Biotech’s business in Europe. With over 25 years of experience in nucleic acid chemistry, he previously held senior research and development positions in the life sciences industry in the US and Germany. Michael played a key role in developing new technologies and products and supporting global sales and business development while working for Proligo, Sigma-Aldrich, and Merck KGaA. He received his diploma in organic chemistry and his PhD in carbohydrate and glycopeptide chemistry from the University of Mainz in Germany. Michael is passionate about working efficiently, customer orientation, networking, and identifying market trends.

Yansheng Wu, Vice President and Global Head of CMC & Regulatory, has over 20 years of experience in the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. At Hongene. Yansheng oversees CMC activities and leads the transformation of Hongene’s quality system to support GMP manufacture. Prior to joining Hongene, Yansheng was VP of CMC and then head of R&D at Sperogenix Therapeutics. Earlier in her career Yansheng worked in oligonucleotide PD/AD and QC at Bayer, Archemix and Baxter. She was Head of AD/QC at Baxter Cambridge before switching to quality and exploring a wider variety of modalities from small molecule drugs, biosimilars, biologics to gene therapies. Yansheng has extensive experience in external quality oversight, product quality lifecycle management and CMC regulatory submission at Baxter, Shire and Alexion. Yansheng holds a BS in Chemistry & a MS in Analytical Chemistry from Peking University and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Northwestern University.