A pioneer in the field of cancer immunotherapy and protein engineering and co-author of the Cancer Immunity Cycle, Dr. Chen is an experienced physician-scientist, key opinion leader, drug developer, and entrepreneur.Prior to founding Synthetic Design Lab, Dr. Chen spent over a decade at Genentech, as Vice President and Global Head of Cancer Immunotherapy Development, where he focused on development of immune modulatory, anti-angiogenic, and ADCs as targeted therapies and their accompanying diagnostic tools. This included leading clinical development for atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ), the first approved PD-L1 inhibitor, from pre-IND to clinical trials and commercialization. Dr. Chen then joined IGM Biosciences as Chief Medical Officer, developing novel engineered multivalent and multispecific therapeutics and overseeing the company’s growth from a small 25-person team to one of the most successful IPOs of 2019. He is also a founding partner of Genesis BioCapital and founder of Bionic Medicines.

Dr. Chen received a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his M.D. and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Southern California, and conducted his residency, oncology fellowship, and postdoctoral work at Stanford University. He also serves the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) as Immuno-Engineering Co-Chair, previously completed his term on the Board of Directors, and is on the Board of the Protein & Antibody Engineering Summit (PEGS BOSTON 2025).

Dr. Baliga brings over 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry leading the development of novel engineered therapeutic platforms, AI-driven antibody design, and ADC technologies.

Before co-founding Synthetic Design Lab, Dr. Baliga served as Vice President of Biotherapeutics at Exelixis, where he built a team to discover mAbs, bispecifics, and ADCs, including XB064, XB628, XB033 currently in the development pipeline. Prior to Exelixis, Dr. Baliga was Chief Scientific Officer at RubrYc Therapeutics, where he developed a novel platform for mammalian display-based discovery of epitope-steered antibodies targeted to AI-generated epitope mimetics. Before RubrYc, Dr. Baliga was Vice President of Discovery Biology at IGM Biosciences, where he developed the platform technology for making novel glyco-engineered mono- and multispecific IgM antibodies. Prior to IGM, Dr. Baliga built a platform for site-specific conjugation of ADCs with single or multiple warheads at Sutro Biopharma. Dr. Baliga holds more than 30 patents, encompassing platform technologies, monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics and antibody drug conjugates.

Dr. Baliga received his M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. in Bio Organic Chemistry from Caltech, and conducted his postdoctoral work at Yale University.

Dr. Leabman has over 20 years of drug development experience and leadership, specializing in preclinical and clinical pharmacology of biologics. Dr. Leabman spent over a decade as a scientist at Genentech, where she led the Pharmacology Sub Team and IND filing for atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ), along with multiple other programs spanning inflammation, neurology, and metabolic disease. She has also served as Executive Director and Head of Clinical Pharmacology at IGM Biosciences, driving the translational and clinical pharmacology strategy for multiple therapeutics utilizing a novel engineered platform. Her specific expertise ranges from modeling complex systems to studying the relationship between pharmacology and pharmacokinetics (PK) for engineered biologics. Dr. Leabman has numerous peer-reviewed publications demonstrating her contributions to the field of translational and quantitative pharmacology as well as the impact of antibody engineering on PK.

Dr. Leabman received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco.

Ben Kim is a Partner at Playground Global, where he identifies the founders and companies revolutionizing engineered biology, building the future of emerging modality therapeutics, and leveraging cutting-edge AI to refactor drug discovery. At Playground, Ben has sourced and led investments in companies including Atomic AI, Infinimmune, Insamo, Outpace Bio, and Manifold Bio. Ben currently sits on the boards of eight biotech companies and has a penchant for helping craft pipelines and lead indication decisions.

Prior to Playground, Ben completed his Ph.D. as an NSF Fellow at the Laboratory of Dynamic Molecular Design at Stanford University in the Department of Bioengineering with Dr. Michael Lin developing novel biosensors. Ben holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.