Dr. Zhaojoined Pulmongene since inception with more than 10 years of experience in lung diseases and novel target discovery. She oversees all early clinical development including target identification & validation, pharmacology, PK/PD, toxicology, biomarker, and clinical pharmacology. Prior to joining Pulmongene, Dr. Zhao served as Principal Investigator III at Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), Novartis, where she lead the respiratory drug portfolio to uncover first-in-class respiratory medicines and oversaw multiple project teams working across different disease areas. Dr. Zhao received her B.S. from China Agricultural University in 2003 and Ph.D. from National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing in 2008. She completed herpost-doc training in the laboratory of Dr. Jayaraj Rajagopal at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Stem Cell Institute.