Hong Kong-based startup Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI) driven drug discovery company, has appointed Dr Man Zhang as Vice President (VP) of Biology and Translational Medicine to lead the biology research team in leveraging its proprietary AI platform to develop target and mechanism research and accelerate novel drug discovery programs. Dr Zhang will report directly to Dr Feng Ren, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine.

Dr Zhang has more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and translational medicine research. She has worked for domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies including Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis. Her research covers multiple disease areas including oncology, liver fibrosis, and hepatitis B. She contributed greatly to novel target discovery and mechanism research, as well as promoting novel drug discovery programs.

Prior to joining Insilico, Dr Zhang served as CSO, Head of Discovery Biology and Translational Medicine at Shanghai De Novo Pharmatech, where she led a comprehensive preclinical team covering discovery biology, translational medicine, and IND-enabling research to advance multiple programs into clinical and IND-enabling studies. During her tenure at Novartis, Dr Zhang played a critical role in delivering the first-in-class asset MAK683 currently at clinical phase 2.