OUR TEAM
LEADERSHIP
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.
Scientific Partners
Dr. Hurvitz is Professor of Medicine and Division Head of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Senior Vice President of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She is recognized as a pioneer in the clinical development of ADCs and other targeted therapies for breast cancer. Dr. Hurvitz is an author of multiple practice changing NEJM manuscripts, including being the senior author on the defining Phase III study comparing Enhertu® and Kadcyla®.
Dr. Hurvitz holds an undergraduate degree from UCI, an M.D. from the University of Southern California. Dr. Hurvitz then trained in internal medicine at UCLA, where she was Chief Resident, after which she completed a hematology/oncology fellowship at UCLA.
Dr. Lim is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF and Director of the UCSF Cell Design Institute. His lab designed and built the first Logic Gated Cell Therapy, and he was the scientific founder of Cell Design Labs (acquired by Gilead). His research focuses on engineering and programming cell signaling circuits to control their individual cellular behaviors and their interactions within multi-cellular networks. His work is frequently published in Science, Nature and Cell.
Dr. Lim holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Harvard University, a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.
Dr. Lonberg is a pioneer in the field of immuno-oncology and targeted biologics with 15 approved therapies and over 30 years of experience in leading drug discovery and platform development teams in biotech and pharma. He was most recently SVP Oncology Discovery at Bristol Myers Squibb and is currently Founder and CEO of Tripeaks Therapeutics. His storied achievements include the discovery of Yervoy® (ipilimumab), the first approved checkpoint inhibitor, and Opdivo® (nivolumab), the first approved anti-PD-1 antibody.
Dr. Lonberg holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2015.
Dr. Flaherty is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and 2026 President of the American Association for Cancer Research. He co-founded and served on the board of directors of Loxo Oncology and Scorpion Therapeutics until their acquisition by Lilly Oncology. His expertise, research and publications span melanoma, targeted therapies, biomarkers, cancer immunotherapy and a deep appreciation of the intersection between patient care, disease, clinical studies, and innovative scientific approaches.
Dr. Flaherty holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Flaherty trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Thurber is Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at The University of Michigan. He is renowned for his pioneering work on modeling and quantifying fundamental biotransport principles and properties and their impact to the design of ADCs, novel therapeutics and molecular imaging agents.
He has authored over 80 papers and book chapters and delivered over 130 invited talks. He has also collaborated with multiple pharmaceutical companies on ADCs that are now FDA approved. His work is instrumental to the understanding of ADCs in humans, and he is a leader in Quantitative Systems Pharmacology.
Dr. Thurber holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University, a Ph.D. focused on Protein Therapeutics from MIT and a postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
SYNTHETIC DESIGN LAB
Synthetic Design Lab is a group of dedicated individuals who solve big problems through science, engineering, collaboration and ingenuity.
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