Hangjun Zhan, PhD

Co-founder, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Board Member

Hangjun is Chief Scientific Officer at Alamar Bioscience. Hangjun is a highly regarded protein biochemist/ biophysicist and executive with 28 years of drug discovery experience. Most recently, Hangjun was CSO at KindredBio and continued to be following its acquisition by Elanco. In this role, he spent seven years building the R&D team from the ground up and producing a biotherapeutic pipeline, culminating in the acquisition by Elanco in 2021.

Prior to KindredBio, Hangjun served as an executive member at Aragen Biosciences, where he led protein chemistry efforts and helped establish multiple biotherapeutic and biosimilar programs. Prior to Aragen, he established and headed up the Protein Biochemistry team at Exelixis, including protein expression, fermentation/bioproduction, protein purification/biophysics, protein engineering and proteomics. His team directly participated in the discovery of four approved drugs on the market and more than 20 oncology drug candidates. He has also previously led fermentation and protein biochemistry groups in Protein Chemistry at Celera.

Hangjun has contributed over 70 published patents in therapeutic antibody discovery and Fc engineering including long half-life extension. He is the inventor of anivovetmab and tirnovetmab. Hangjun earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.