Zheng Wei, Ph.D.

Dr. Zheng has served as CEO and a member of our board of directors since he co-founded the company in 2012. He has over 25 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience in the autoimmune disease and inflammation therapeutic areas. Prior to co-founding Connect, Dr. Zheng was Director of Immunology at Arena Pharmaceuticals where he oversaw its immunology discovery programs. Prior to serving at Arena, Dr. Zheng was a scientist and program leader at ChemoCentryx, where he led the implementation of the company’s proprietary technology platform, and the discovery of drug candidates that entered Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials for autoimmune disease indications, including Crohn’s disease. Dr. Zheng was a scientist at Glycomed (acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals) and also conducted immunology research at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Zheng is an inventor of 16 issued patents and several pending patent applications on immunology related therapeutic agents and technologies. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis.