Leadership Team

Dr. Yongchang Qiu is the Founder and CEO of Lysoway Therapeutics, where he leads the development of first-in-class lysosomal ion-channel therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), as well as rare lysosomal disorders. With more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, translational science, and venture-backed company creation, Dr. Qiu has a distinguished track record of advancing innovative therapies from discovery through clinical development.

Before founding Lysoway in 2020, Dr. Qiu served as Vice President of Preclinical Development at Cydan, a rare-disease venture accelerator, where he helped launch multiple biotechnology startups and advance several programs into the clinic. Prior to Cydan, he was Head of Drug Translational Sciences at Tesaro and Senior Director & Global Head of Bioanalysis and Biomarker Development at Shire, leading a global team of more than 40 scientists supporting over 70 development programs spanning small molecules, biologics, and gene therapies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Qiu held scientific leadership roles at Genzyme and Wyeth, contributing to numerous successful IND and BLA/NDA submissions.

Dr. Qiu earned his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from New York University, and his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor on over a dozen patents across multiple therapeutic areas.

Dr. Xiang Yang Yu has successful experience in drug discovery, pre-clinical & clinical studies and global regulatory filing strategies with a broad understanding of new drug development trends. Dr. Yu is an expert on MedChem Compound Design based on SAR, preclinical development & CMC.

Dr. Yu has been head of chemistry at Lysoway leading drug discovery programs since October 2020. Dr. Yu was a program manager at Accellient Partners with responsibilities for API and drug product CMC manufacture as well as for regulatory filings. She was also involved in multiple clinical trials from Phase I to Phase III in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to that, she was a principal investigator at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where she successfully led drug discovery and development programs in multiple therapeutic areas as well as efficiently and strategically managed external drug discovery and development collaborations in the US, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Ironwood, Dr. Yu was director of medicinal chemistry at Epix Pharmaceuticals leading successful drug discovery programs. She was the chemistry project leader for S1P program licensed to Amgen for highly potent, selective and orally active agents for autoimmune diseases leading to $20 million upfront payment and $307 million milestone payment in a record 9 months. Dr. Yu was also a chemistry project leader for a GSK collaborative discovery program which resulted in $5.5 million upfront payment in 7 months. Before joining Epix, she led multiple anti-infectious programs at Activbiotics and Cubist Pharmaceuticals.

She obtained her MS and PhD degree in Organic Chemistry from Florida State University and received her undergraduate degree from East China University of Science & Technology in Shanghai. Dr. Yu is a board director and president of the Chinese American BioMedical Association (CABA) since 2014 (a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit professional organization. She was the president of CABA – (2013-2014). She is a co-chair in MassBio Forum at MassBio and a BayHelix member.

Dr. Valerie Cullen is an executive scientific leader with broad experience across drug discovery, pre-clinical pharmacology, translational strategies and clinical development.

Dr. Cullen has been SVP and Head of Research and Translational Science at Lysoway Therapeutics since May, 2024 where she leads Lysoway’s innovative programs across multiple therapeutic indications.

In her prior role as SVP of Research at Expansion Therapeutics, Dr. Cullen contributed to the development of RNA-targeted small molecules for neurological and neuromuscular diseases and was responsible for growing and leading the research organization. She helped the company raise over $80M in venture capital funding and was deeply involved in developing the company’s clinical and business strategies.

Prior to that, she served as Vice President, Translation and Development at Generian Pharmaceuticals, Inc, leading its pharmacology, biomarker and clinical activities across multiple disease areas. Previously, at Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Cullen was Vice President, Program and Alliance Management and Senior Director, Translational Medicine. She acted as Program Lead for a novel GCase activator and oversaw its transition from preclinical to clinical testing for Parkinson’s Disease. While at LTI, Dr. Cullen also acted as Alliance Manager for the company’s pharma partnership (>$150M in upfront and research support) and was deeply involved in regulatory and clinical activities.

Dr. Cullen previously held roles of increasing responsibility in NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals, Aldeyra Therapeutics and Link Medicine, leading target validation efforts, preclinical efficacy studies, biomarker development and clinical translation across a number of indications including Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyloidosis and Sjogren-Larsson Syndrome, all of which reached clinical-stage testing.  Over the course of her career, Dr Cullen has managed multiple internal teams and external collaborations across the U.S., Europe, Israel, Asia and Australia.

Dr. Cullen is an expert in lysosomal biology as it pertains to neurodegeneration and neurodevelopment and has additional experience in multiple areas including pulmonary biology, cardiometabolic syndromes, lipid disorders and inflammatory disease, amongst others.

Her work has won various accolades including the Annals of Neurology Clinical Impact Award and she has been granted numerous patents worldwide for innovative therapies for neurological diseases.

Dr. Cullen earned a PhD and BSc (Hons) in pharmacology from the University of Dublin, Ireland and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and at the Center for Neurologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School.

Junsheng joins Lysoway with more than 15 years of research experience in autophagy, lysosome biology, Huntington disease and the molecular biology of aging. He has experience as an PI in Zhejiang University of Technology (China) where his research on HD was supported by NSFC and Zhejiang NSF grants. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on the molecular mechanisms of HD, the functions of lysosomal ion channels and the genetics of aging. Junsheng also has more than 5 years experience as a consultant for drug discovery research focusing on diseases manifesting lysosomal storage.

Junsheng holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California (USA) and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). Junsheng is especially interested in translational research, aiming to apply findings in fundamental cell biology and disease mechanisms to potential new drug discoveries.