A Gene Therapy Company Leading Neural Regeneration and Repair

About Us

NeuExcell is an early stage gene therapy company focusing on neurodegenerative diseases.  We have developed a disruptive neural repair technology that utilizes in vivo astrocyte-to-neuron conversion.

Our vision is to improve the quality of life of millions of patients worldwide who are suffering from neurodegenerative conditions by using the power of gene therapy to restore damaged neural tissue.

In Vivo Regeneration - A Breakthrough in Brain Repair

Despite significant investment in research in the past decades, therapies that can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's disease, effectively treat stroke, or manage the devastating neurodegenerative impacts of rare diseases such as Huntington's disease and ALS remain elusive.  The fundamental problem that has not been adequately addressed is how to recover the millions of lost neurons needed to restore function.

In neurodegenerative or acutely injured brains, neurons die while glial cells, a group of supporting cells surrounding neurons, become reactive and proliferate. Our in vivo transdifferentiation technology takes the advantage of those reactive and proliferative  glial cells and converts them into neurons with high efficiency.

We use AAV gene therapy to deliver specific factors to a targeted site in the brain or spinal cord that can reprogram the reactive glial cells already present in the damaged region to produce functional neurons.  The newly generated neurons integrate into existing brain circuits, leading to functional recovery.

This technology has a broad scope of applications to treat neurodegenerative diseases and neural injuries.

Management Team

Dr. Lorijn has advised the boards and executive management of several small and mid-sized biotech companies on strategy and financing, and served as Non-Executive Director on the board of several European companies. Previously, Dr. Lorijn was CEO of AMT NV (currently uniQure), which he guided through it’s A-financing round and an IPO on the NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam. The Company became the first to bring a gene therapy to the market in the Western world.

Prior to AMT, Ronald served as Vice President of Amgen Europe for 11 years, responsible for its Clinical Operations, Business Development & Governmental Affairs. Before joining Amgen, Ronald was Chief Medical Officer and Sr. Director of Clinical Operations & Medical Affairs, Europe, for Centocor, after having been employed by the pharmaceutical division of AKZO (Organon), as its head of worldwide Medical Services and Product Surveillance.

Dr. Lorijn graduated from the Radboud University Nijmegen, completed a PhD and MBA and was a certified obstetrician/gynecologist before joining the biotech industry.

Ronald HW Lorijn, MD, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Qin brings over 20 years of leadership experience in finance, M&A, international business, operations improvement, people processes and HR, corporate development and general management.

Prior to joining NeuExcell, Xi was Chief Operating Officer at GENEWIZ, a global leader in genomics services. During his 10-year tenure at GENEWIZ, Xi’s role expanded from Corporate Controller to Chief Financial Officer to General Manager, while he led the business growth from $9M to $120M, expanded the operations from U.S. to China/Europe/Japan with >1,000 team members, and managed its strategic sale to Brooks Automation for $450M in 2018. Before GENEWIZ, Xi had 10 years of progressive experiences in corporate finance and operations at Northwest Airlines and Eli Lilly.

Mr. Qin has an MBA in Healthcare Management from Duke University, an MA in Immunology from Harvard University, and a BS in Biochemistry from Peking University.

Xi Qin

Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Chen is a Professor at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China where he is leading the effort of building a world class brain repair research center. Prior to Jinan University, Gong was a Willaman Chair Professor and the Head of Charles "Skip" Smith Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Chen pioneered the in situ cell conversion technology for brain and spinal cord repair. This groundbreaking technology can be applied to a wide range of neurological disorders, including stroke, Alzheimer’s , Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and ALS. Gong has published many high-impact papers in the neuroscience field. Gong was honored with the Zenith Fellow Award by the Alzheimer’s Foundation for his breakthrough work. Dr. Chen and his team have filed more than 70 patent applications, 12 of which have been issued.

Dr. Chen received his BS at Fudan University and PhD at Shanghai Institute of Physiology and held Postdoctoral Fellowship positions and Yale University and Stanford University.

Gong Chen, PhD

Founder,
Chief Scientific Advisor

Dr. Gavrin joins NeuExcell with over 20 years of industry experience, holding a variety of leadership roles at several major pharma and biotech companies, including Wyeth, Pfizer, and GSK. Most recently, Lori served as VP of Corporate Development at Tmunity Therapeutics where she helped develop and execute the business development strategy, successfully managed complex strategic partnerships, and became an integral part of the Philadelphia cell and gene therapy community.
Dr. Gavrin graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in chemistry from the Colgate University and obtained her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her business development acumen, Lori is a recognized leader in the medicinal chemistry community, having worked in the field for a dozen years. Lori previously chaired the Medicinal Chemistry Gordon Research Conference and has 18 patents to her name.
Lori serves on the Executive Committee of the Medicinal Chemistry Section of the American Chemical Society, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chemistry Department at the University of Pennsylvania, the Oversight Committee of the Coulter Translational Drug Discovery Program at Drexel University and the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

Lori Gavrin, PhD

Chief Business and Strategy Officer

Dr. Yin brings with him over twenty years of leadership experience as a top executive and strategist in the pharmaceutical world. From April 2017 to December 2020, he was Head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, APMA Region (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa), and President of Novartis Group (China). He was a member of the Novartis Pharma Executive Committee. He joined Novartis in 2011 as Chairman of Novartis Group (China) and has been instrumental to the success of Novartis Group and all its divisions (including Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz and Alcon) in China.

Prior to Novartis, Dr. Yin served as President of AstraZeneca China (including Mainland and Hong Kong), and successfully led AstraZeneca China to be the first big pharma to grow into a USD 1 billion business. Before AstraZeneca, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group, focusing on pharmaceutical industry clients in Asia.

Dr. Yin received his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Peking University, MBA from Harvard Business School, and PhD in Biological Science from Stanford University.

Xudong Yin, PhD

Board Chair

Russ Addis has over 13 years of experience in drug discovery across a range of modalities including large and small molecules, gene therapy, and regenerative medicine. He has held leadership positions at multiple small biotech companies, most recently leading Discovery Biology efforts at Aro Biotherapeutics to develop targeted genetic medicines for cancer and rare diseases. Previously, he led regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy efforts at Virscio, with a focus on developing animal models of neurodegenerative disease. His academic research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine led to multiple high visibility articles on regenerative medicine for cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease applications, including one of the first reports of direct reprogramming of astrocytes to neurons. Russ received his PhD in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, following a BA in biology and biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

Russ Addis, PhD

Vice President,
Research

Mr. Tombros’ professional career includes 8 years as President and CEO of Enzon Pharma, where he built Enzon's market capitalization from $44 million to more than $3 billion, making it one of the top 20 biotech firms in the United States at the time. Prior to that, Peter spent over 25 years with Pfizer Inc., where he helped the company to focus on and build the pharmaceutical business in a variety of positions including Vice President of Marketing; Senior Vice President, General Manager; Executive Vice President of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals; and Corporate Vice President for Strategic Planning. Mr. Tombros is currently serving an emeritus role as Professor and Distinguished Executive in Residence in the Eberly College of Sciences BS/MBA Program at the Pennsylvania State University.

Peter has also served on eight different public company boards, including NPS Pharmaceuticals, where he was Non-Executive Chairman of the Board, Cambrex, Inc., where he was Chairman of the Audit Committee, and Dendrite International, Inc. He was also a Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board for Alphapharma, Inc. and Pharmanet Development Group Inc. During his tenure on these boards, Peter chaired many standing board committees and has been involved in a wide variety of board matters including CEO succession, corporate restructuring, financing, regulatory (FDA, SEC) dealings, and corporate governance issues. In 2015, Mr. Tombros was selected as Director of the Year by the Financial Times. Peter was also Chairman of the 7.5-year Pennsylvania State University $2.2B Capital Campaign.

Mr. Tombros received his BS and MS at Penn State and MBA from University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Peter Tombros

Board Director

Before NeuExcell, Ms. Xu was a researcher and lab manager at Penn State University. Prior to Penn State, Jie worked at a startup biotech company, Xenoport Inc., where she was part of the team building the research laboratory as one of the first employees. Jie’s research experience covers molecular biology, immunology, virology, and neurodevelopment.

Ms. Xu received her BS in Biochemistry from Peking University and MS in Cell Biology from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

Jie Xu

Co-Founder,
Head of Discovery