Dr. Liu has broad experience and a deep understanding of pharmaceutical R&D process based on more than 20 years of nonclinical research and development responsibilities in large pharma and biotech organizations. Hanlan’s career has been driven by her passion to lead and support the development of rare disease therapies that can help save patient lives.
Prior to joining Be Bio, Hanlan was Chief Scientific Officer/Chief Development Officer at Sperogenix Therapeutics, a leading rare disease company dedicated to developing and commercializing rare disease therapeutics in China. Hanlan also served as vice president of nonclinical development at KSQ Therapeutics, where she co-led the development of two leading assets including a novel USP1 inhibitor, for the treatment of BRCA-deficient cancers and an anti-NKG2A monoclonal antibody as immune-oncology combination therapy. Before KSQ, Hanlan was Executive Director and Head of DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals where she led the clinical pharmacology efforts for edasalonexent that advanced into a Phase 3 clinical trial for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, as well as execution of DMPK strategy and the work plan for IND filing for a novel therapy for the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis. Prior to Catabasis, Hanlan spent 14 years at Genzyme and then Sanofi, where she built and led multiple collaborative and science-driven function groups associated with more than 30 drug discovery projects in multiple disease areas, contributed to 6 INDs and several product submissions and/or post market drug life cycle dossiers including those for Clofarabin®, Hectorol®, Mozobil®, Mipomerson® and Cerdelga®.
In 2022, Hanlan joined Be Bio as Senior Vice President, Rare Disease and Early Pipeline Research, where she is responsible for building Be Bio’s portfolio in rare disease and oncology in the science organization and leads the nonclinical development team to advance the first program to clinic.
Hanlan earned her PhD of Analytical Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and conducted postdoctoral work at Purdue University prior to completing her MBA in Corporate Finance with distinction New York University’s Stern School of Business. She received a BS in Biochemistry with honor from Wuhan University. Hanlan is the co-inventor on 7 patents including C.O.M. for Cerdelga® and venglustat and is the co-author of 34 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
