Yong Jun Liu — Head of Research, Global R&D at Sanofi

Dr. Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D. has been Head of Research, Global R&D at Sanofi since April 01, 2016. Dr. Liu had been Head of Research at MedImmune, LLC since January 2014 and also serves as its Senior Vice President of Research & Development. He had been the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President at Baylor Research Institute (BRI) since 2011. He joined Baylor from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology, Director of the Center for Cancer Immunology Research and Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology. He has 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and at leading medical research centers. At MD Anderson, he also served as the Chair of the Department of Immunology, building the leading immunology program in the U.S. Dr. Liu served as Deputy General Manager of Jiangsu Jinhai Investment Co., Ltd. Dr. Liu served as a Staff, Senior Staff Member, Head of the Lianyungang Audit Bureau and Head of the Lianyungang Economic Auditing Bureau. Dr. Liu has been at M.D. Anderson since 2002, where he created a world-class research center with physicians and basic immunologists working together for the development of novel therapies for human diseases, including autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and cancer. From 1991 to 1997, he was a Senior and then Principal Scientist at Schering-Plough's Laboratory for Immunological Research. Dr. Liu held a Principal Staff Scientist position at the DNAX Research Institute in California until 2002, when he became the founding director of the Cancer Immunology Research Institute at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Before that, he was Senior Staff Scientist at the biotech company Cellular Biology Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif. and Maitre De Recherche at Laboratory for Immunology Research at Schering-Plough in Dardilly, France. He serves as the Vice Chairman of Lianyungang Ideal Group Co., Ltd. He served as Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Tanox Inc. He serves as a Director of the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research. During his 25 years of research, Dr. Liu has made many seminal contributions to the field of immunology. He is one of the world's most prolific researchers in immunology, with over 94,000 citations (Google Scholar) and more than 250 published articles in top journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Immunity, Nature Immunology and Journal of Experimental Medicine. In 2009 he received the Dallas-Fort Worth Living Legend Faculty Achievement Award in Basic Research from M.D. Anderson. He received the Dana Foundation Award for Human Immunology Research in 2006 and the Sandler Award for Asthma Research in 2005. He was honored as the George and Barbara Bush Fellow for Innovative Cancer Research in 2004. He was a Research Fellow in the Department of Immunology at the University of Birmingham, School of Medicine, in Birmingham, England. Dr. Liu received his doctor of medicine degree in 1984 from Norman Bethune University School of Medicine in China (Jilin University), and earned his Doctorate in immunology in 1989 at the University of Birmingham in the U.K.