BIO

Ying Kai Chan, PhD is Co-Founder and CEO of Cirrus Therapeutics, whose mission is to tame the ocular immune system to treat chronic blinding diseases. He is passionate about translating cutting edge scientific discoveries to transformative therapies for patients. Previously, he served as CSO of Ally Therapeutics, a VC-backed startup.

Dr. Chan is a translational scientist and immunologist by training. He performed his postdoctoral research under the tutelage of Dr. George Church at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, where he became Principal Investigator and led projects on various genetic medicine technologies. Kai earned a BA summa cum laude in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, an MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, a PhD in Microbiology and Immunobiology and a Certificate in Human Biology and Translational Medicine from HMS.

Kai holds multiple patents on platform technologies and therapeutic approaches. He serves as an appointed member of the Immune Responses to Gene & Cell Therapy Committee of ASGCT. He was a recipient of the inaugural STAT Wunderkind award in 2017 and was named a Blavatnik Fellow in Life Science Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School in 2021.