Ascenta has assembled an experienced and accomplished team of professionals with decades of collective experience in academia, biotech and big pharma, predominantly in cancer research and oncology clinical development and commercialization.
- Mel Sorensen, MD
- Lance Leopold, MD
- Joel F. Sussman, CPA
- Ming Guo, PhD
- Dajun Yang, MD, PhD
- Shaomeng Wang, PhD
Mel Sorensen, MD, is a medical oncologist who has dedicated his career to clinical cancer research since completing his oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in 1988. He joined Ascenta in August 2004 as President and Chief Executive Officer and is Chairman of Ascenta’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai. Under his leadership, Ascenta secured $82M in two rounds of financing and advanced its lead program from preclinical development into multiple randomized trials.
Dr. Sorensen spent eight years in big pharma, in leadership roles in oncology clinical development, at Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline. He has experience with a broad spectrum of anti-cancer agents (cytotoxics, biologics, supportives, kinase inhibitors and other targeted agents) and all phases of clinical development (phase I-IV), regulatory approval and medical affairs. In 1996, he joined Bayer to build its first clinical oncology department, in West Haven, CT. In early 2001, he moved to GSK in the Greater Philadelphia area, where he was Vice-President, Global Leader and North American Head of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs for Oncology.
Prior to Bayer, Dr Sorensen spent seven years at the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), where he managed a portfolio of over 40 compounds with diverse tumor targets and mechanisms of action, collaborating with companies who were frequently the source of the compounds and with academic sites and clinics who performed the cancer clinical trials. Dr. Sorensen attended at a clinic for gastrointestinal tumors while at the NCI, organized and chaired the bi-annual Phase I meetings, and in later years led the NCI's Phase II grant program.
For several years, Dr. Sorensen has been active in fostering public-private collaborations for clinical cancer research, with the NCI, with C-Change, with Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR) and other organizations. He is a frequent speaker on cancer clinical research, including presentations on "Confronting Cancer Now" at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2003; on "Ethical Issues in Large Clinical Trials" at the 2004 Symposium on Bioethical Considerations in Human Subject Research; at the 2005 Tokyo Pharma Partnering Conference; at Shanghai's 2005 Municipality Bio-Forum conference; and on "Biopharmaceuticals: The Innovation Pipeline Race" at the 2005 Milken Institute's Global Conference.
Dr. Lance H. Leopold is Ascenta's Chief Medical Officer and Vice-President of Clinical Development. A board certified oncologist and hematologist, he came to Ascenta in February 2006 after several years in oncology clinical development at GlaxoSmithKline, where he had responsibilities for solid tumor clinical development programs involving chemotherapeutics and targeted agents. Prior to GSK, Dr. Leopold was at Wyeth for 3 years, where he was part of the core team that supported the Mylotarg NDA and post approval studies. Dr. Leopold began his research career at Temple Cancer Center and the Fels Institute for Cancer Research developing antisense and ribozyme-based therapies for chronic myelogenous leukemia. He was the recipient of an ASCO Young Investigator Award and Career Development Award. Dr. Leopold received his medical school training at University of Virginia and Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies. He completed his internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology training at Temple University and Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)Joel Sussman assumed the responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer for Ascenta in December 2007. Mr. Sussman is a financial management consultant who serves in the capacity of CFO for early-stage companies. His present and former clients include numerous venture capital-backed life sciences companies as well as companies in the fields of information technologies and services. Before beginning his consulting practice in 1995, he had fifteen years experience as Chief Financial Officer and/or Treasurer of public and private technology and healthcare companies. In 1997, he joined a client, CDNow, Inc., as CFO and took it public, resuming his consulting practice in 2001 after its sale to Bertelsmann AG. Mr. Sussman began his career as a banker and has an undergraduate degree from Yale University, an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylvania.
Vice President, Manufacturing and General Manager, Ascenta Shanghai R&D CenterDr. Guo joined Ascenta in 2005. Dr. Guo is also the general manager of the Ascenta Shanghai R&D Center, a subsidiary with chemistry and biology capabilities.
Previously he was at Pfizer for 8 years, where he led all aspects of drug manufacturing activities for multiple clinical drug development candidates in oncology, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases. In addition to his technical leadership in process development and manufacturing, Dr. Guo was also responsible for project management of exploratory drug candidates. One of the oncology project teams he led was the recipient of a team recognition award just prior to his departure.
Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Guo spent 7 years at Monsanto and ABC Laboratories, where he was responsible for process chemistry research and the development of pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals. He built the organic chemistry program at ABC Laboratories as its new business line.
Before his industrial career started in 1991, Dr. Guo was an organic chemistry research associate at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the Institute of Materia Medica (IMM) in China. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from UCSD and a master's degree in medicinal chemistry from IMM.
Head of ResearchDajun Yang, MD, PhD, heads up Research at Ascenta. Dr. Yang co-founded of Ascenta Therapeutics in 2003. In 2005, he established Ascenta Shanghai, the company’s wholly-owned R&D Facility in the Pudong High-Tech Park in Shanghai, China. Dr. Yang is also a Managing Director for biotechnology and healthcare in the Morningside Ventures Group. Prior to Ascenta, Dr. Yang was an associate professor of internal medicine and member of Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Michigan; an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and associate professor in the Department of Oncology and a senior investigator of the Lombardi Cancer Center at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
Dr. Yang has more than 20 years of experience in cancer research and drug development. He is author and co-author of more than 60 papers, book chapters, patents and abstracts. Dr. Yang is the inventor of over ten national and international patents (issued/pending). He built the biology and pharmacology team for S*BIO Ltd Pte, a Singapore-Chiron Joint venture biopharmaceutical company where he served as the first VP of Biology. Dr. Yang also holds an appointment currently as an Adjunct Professor in Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan, and a visiting professor at the Cancer Center of the Sun Yat-sen University in China. Dr. Yang obtained his M.D. in 1983 from Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences (SUMS), and his Master of Medicine degree in Oncology in 1986 from the SUMS Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from Michigan State University. Dr. Yang served as president of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA) from 2003-2004.
Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and professor of internal medicine, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan
Dr Wang is a co-founder of Ascenta and is currently the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and professor of medicinal chemistry, internal medicine and pharmacology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Wang received his B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University in 1986 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 1992. Dr. Wang did his postdoctoral training in drug design at the National Cancer Institute, NIH between 1992 1996. Dr. Wang was Assistant Professor at Georgetown University from 1996-2000 and Associate Professor from 2000-2001. Dr. Wang joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School as a tenured Associate Professor in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2006. Dr. Wang was named the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in 2007.
Dr. Wang serves as the director of the Cancer Drug Discovery program and co-director of the Molecular Therapeutics Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Wang is the Principal Investigator of a National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group grant from the National Cancer Institute, NIH. Dr. Wang has published more than 170 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 100 meeting abstracts, and is an inventor on 30 international and US patents and patent applications. Dr. Wang is an innovative leader in structure-based design of target-specific small-molecule therapeutics.