About Us

Dr. Chen is board-certified in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology. He has more than 20 years of experience in oncology and clinical trials, from first-in-humans through global Phase 3 studies designed to support regulatory registration. He also has experience interacting with regulatory agencies in the US and Europe. Prior to MBrace Therapeutics, Dr. Chen served as the EVP, Chief Medical & Development Officer of Mirati Therapeutics from September 2013 to May 2020, CMO of Aragon Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $1Billion in 2013. At Aragon, Dr. Chen was responsible for the clinical development path of Apalutamide based on the novel endpoint of metastasis-free survival for castration-resistant prostate cancer, Vice President of Tumor Strategy, Pfizer Oncology in La Jolla and was responsible for the clinical development path that led to the successful approval of Sutent and Axitinib in renal cell carcinoma, Crizotinib in EML-ALK NSCLC and Palbociclib in combination with anti-estrogens in ER-positive, HER2 negative breast cancer. Dr. Chen completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at University of California, San Diego and was an Assistant Professor at University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, GU Medical Oncology from 2001 to 2004.

Dr. Steve Alley joined MBrace in February 2024 as the Chief Scientific Officer. Steve has over 20 years of experience at Seagen Inc, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2023.

Before joining MBrace, Steve was Executive Director, Scientific Integration and Strategy at Seagen Inc., where he led a cross-functional team in Translational Sciences. Steve was an integral part of Seagen, assuming various leadership roles in both research and development. Notably, Steve contributed to the development of the Seagen ADC technology platform and led the cross-functional team that discovered the Seagen Sugar Engineered Antibody technology platform.

Steve has contributed to 6 global oncology product registrations, published about 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and been granted 8 US patents covering innovative accomplishments in small molecule compositions of matter and uses as well as methods of making ADCs and enhanced antibodies. Prior to Seagen, Steve held a position in the Research Biology Department at Pathogenesis Inc., which was later purchased by Chiron Corp.

Steve received his B.A. in Chemistry from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Washington and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University.

Yongjian Wu, Ph.D., joined MBrace in April, 2022 as the Chief Development Officer and Head of CMC. Dr. Wu has over 21 years of experience in CMC development of biologics.

Before joining MBrace, he was Vice President of CMC at Ansun Biopharma, leading the CMC development of immune-oncology programs comprising oncolytic virus and NK cell therapy. Prior to Ansun, he was COO of MabPlex USA, a biologics CDMO specialized in ADC development and manufacturing. Before that, Dr. Wu held increasing responsibilities at Tanvex Biopharma as director, VP of R&D and CSO, leading biosimilar programs from preclinical to BLA filing.

Dr. Wu started his career in cell line development at Bayer and protein engineering at BioMarin. He spent six years in Analytical Development/QC at Genentech, first in bioassay development and then in protein analytical chemistry, contributing to a dozen INDs for MAbs and ADCs.

Dr. Wu obtained his B.Sc. in biochemistry, Ph.D. in Immunology, both from University of Toronto, and did postdoctoral research in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University.

Reena Desai joined MBrace in June 2024 as the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. In this role, Reena is responsible for the company’s overall legal strategy, including all corporate, compliance, business and intellectual property matters.

She joins MBrace, after serving as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Mirati Therapeutics, where she was responsible for the legal, corporate, intellectual property and compliance functions as a member of the executive management team and board secretary.

Reena has had an extensive career spanning almost 25 years, during which she has represented an array of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, both public and private, including SUGEN (a Pharmacia Company), Pfizer, IONIS Pharmaceuticals, BP Biofuels, Synthetic Genomic, and ACADIA Pharmaceuticals. Within these roles, she has not only provided legal counsel but has also assumed operational and leadership responsibilities. Reena brings a broad range of experience in corporate governance and navigating complex negotiations involving strategic partnerships, equity and debt financings, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing transactions.

Reena received her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology/Genetics from the University of California, Davis, completed her graduate coursework in Molecular and Cellular Biology at San Francisco State University and earned her law degree from California Western School of Law. Since 2022, she has served on the Board for Designing Dreams, USA, a non-profit children’s cancer charity.

Allen Albright joined MBrace in March 2023 as Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs. Allen has over 25 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs, including large pharma and biotech industry positions, as well as FDA. Before joining MBrace, Allen was the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Mirati Therapeutics for almost 9 years where he established and built the department from n=1 to 50 and was instrumental in the clinical development, NDA submission and approval, and commercial launch of KRAZATI for KRAS G12C NSCLC patients, under FDA Fast Track, Breakthrough Therapy, Orphan Drug, and Accelerated Approval designations. Allen has held prior positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen, Baxter, Agensys, Anadys, and Halozyme, having started his regulatory career at the FDA. Allen obtained his BS in Biology from Virginia Tech, and PhD in Microbiology/Immunology from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and completed post-doctoral research in molecular biology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Sara has 28 years of experience in Clinical Research in various therapeutic areas, with a strong commitment to serving Oncology patients. She is a proven leader who builds highly respected and very loyal Clinical Operation groups, and in particular at smaller start-up companies. Prior to joining the MBrace team, Sara was the Global Head of Clinical Operations for Clovis Oncology. During her long tenure at Clovis (2010-2023), Sara helped build a team of 3 employees into, at its peak, a group of 65 employees across multiple functions which comprised ClinOps, Translational Medicine Ops, and ClinOps Standards and Innovations to support all phases of the global clinical development programs. Their efforts led to a PARPi (Rucaparib) obtaining approval in the US and Europe with indications in Ovarian and Prostate cancer, in addition to bringing in several new early development compounds. Prior to Clovis, Sara joined Intermune early on and held positions of increasing responsibility across multiple therapeutic areas during her 9 years there. During her career, Sara has been a part of several successful FDA and EMA inspections under global filings with both Agencies. Obtaining her BA in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder allowed Sara to ski in very different conditions than her upbringing at a ski resort in Maine and racing in some fairly brutal conditions. Sara had a short stint as a Social Worker and is incredibly satisfied having landed in Clinical Research by happenstance all those years ago.

Dr. Parsons is a physician-scientist with more than 20 years of experience in designing, executing, and leading clinical trials in the private and public sectors. He has expertise in all phases of bench-to-beside biomedical research and is an author on over 190 scientific publications appearing in JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and others. He has served on national committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (Committee Co-chair), and American Urological Association (Committee Chair); in national leadership positions within the National Cancer Institute clinical trials network; and on the editorial boards of three medical journals. Prior to joining MBrace, he was Senior Medical Director at Janssen R&D. In this role, he supervised an international Phase 3 registrational oncology trial of 2,400 patients, co-led the development of a novel Phase 3 registrational study and corresponding Type C FDA interaction, and advised on Phase 1 through 3 clinical trial designs across the oncology solid tumor portfolio. Prior to Janssen, Dr. Parsons was an endowed Professor and Head of Urologic Oncology at the Moores UC San Diego Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Parsons completed his residency in urologic surgery and fellowship in urologic oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He received his M.H.S. in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and A.B. in History from Stanford University.