Dr. Chris LU is the founder, Chairman, Executive Director and CEO of Laekna, Inc. (“Laekna”).

Prior to Laekna, Dr. LU was Executive Director at Novartis AG, where he was responsible for leading the drug discovery platform and multiple disease research programs. He was previously a venture partner at Frontline BioVentures (currently 6 Dimensions Capital), a venture capital firm focusing on investment in healthcare industry.

Dr. LU was one of the first scientists to join the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (“NIBR”). After working at NIBR headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA for 4 years, he returned to Shanghai in 2007 to help establish China Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (“CNIBR”). He was bestowed Novartis VIVA Award with “Novartis Leading Scientist” honorary title in 2012.

Before joining Novartis, Dr. LU worked at Wyeth Research, a U.S. based pharmaceutical company (currently Pfizer) as the principal scientist and had led multiple drug discovery projects. He had worked in Ontogeny, Inc.(currently Curis), a biotechnology company, in 1998.

Dr. LU received his Bachelor of science degree and Master of science degree in biology department from Nankai University in China. He obtained the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the School of Medicine of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States. Dr. LU was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the United States.