En Li, Ph.D. is Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Salubritas Therapeutics, Inc. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of K36 Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Prior to founding Salubritas, Dr. Li spent approximately 18 years at Novartis, where he held senior leadership roles including Vice President at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and General Manager of the Novartis R&D Center in Shanghai, China. In Shanghai, he built and led an interdisciplinary organization of more than 300 researchers and physician-scientists, overseeing drug discovery programs across multiple therapeutic areas, including cancer epigenetics, liver and metabolic diseases, and regenerative medicine. Under his leadership, the team delivered more than 20 novel targets and drug candidates into the global pipeline and advanced several programs to clinical proof-of-concept.
Before joining Novartis, Dr. Li was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. His academic research focused on epigenetics and mammalian development. His laboratory discovered the human de novo DNA methyltransferases DNMT3A and DNMT3B and made seminal contributions to understanding the role of DNA methylation in mammalian development and human disease. His group also elucidated key functions of the TGF-β, BMP, and activin/nodal signaling pathways in mesoderm induction, organogenesis, and cardiovascular development in mouse models.
Dr. Li has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific publications and review articles. He earned his Ph.D. at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Chen is a Scientific Founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Salubritas Therapeutics, Inc. Zheng-Yi Chen, D.Phil. is Associate Professor of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. His research interests include understanding the causes and underlying mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and age-related hearing loss (ARHL), and developing technologies and therapeutics using regeneration, gene editing, and gene therapy. His laboratory uncovered that overexpression of ISL1 in hair cells results in protection from both NIHL and ARHL in mice by conferring resistance to apoptotic cell death.
One of the most common causes of hearing loss is the loss of sensory hair cells in the inner ear that receive and transmit sound and sense balance. Regeneration of these hair cells in the adult mammalian inner ear has been the most challenging obstacle to overcome in the treatment of hearing loss. Dr. Chen’s laboratory has taken a functional genomics approach to systematically study gene expression patterns during mouse inner ear development and noise-induced hearing loss in adult mice. His research has led to the discovery that Myc and Notch can reprogram the inner ear supporting cells for regeneration, and demonstrated for the first time, that drug-like molecules induce hair cell regeneration in adult mammals (PNAS 2023).
Dr. Chen’s laboratory also has a long-standing interest in genetic disorders. His laboratory has been involved in identifying and characterizing several deafness-related genes. Although more than 150 deafness-related genes have been identified, no FDA- approved therapy is currently available. Dr. Chen’s lab has pioneered applying the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing technology to treat genetic hearing loss in mouse models and contributed to the development of AAV-mediated gene therapy for hearing loss in mice. Dr. Chen’s lab also developed technology to deliver RNPs (ribonucleoproteins) into the mammalian inner ear in vivo and demonstrated that RNP-mediated delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 and gRNA can rescue hearing defects in a mouse model of human genetic hearing loss. Recently, his lab contributed to the first successful clinical study of gene therapy of children with OTOF gene mutations and severe hearing loss (Lancet 2024)
Dr. Chen is a recipient of numerous awards including Research Leaders of Scientific American 50 and Pfizer/AFAR Innovations in Aging Research Program. He obtained his DPhil. from Oxford University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Xue Zhong Liu, MD, PhD, FACS, an internationally renowned surgeon and human geneticist, is the Hotchkiss Endowed Chair and Vice Chair of Department of Otolaryngology and Professor of Otolaryngology, Human Genetics, Biochemistry, and Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Liu is the Director of the Center for Communication Sciences & Disorders. Dr. Liu is an active member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, fellow of American College of Surgeons, Active Fellowship in the Triological Society, Florida Society of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery, Greater Miami ENT Society, American Society of Human Genetics, the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Liu graduated from the West China University of Medical Sciences in Chengdu, China. He completed a general surgery internship and otolaryngology residency at the University of Miami. He obtained his Ph.D. in Audiology/Human Genetics in the University of Manchester and Postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics at MRC Mammalian Unit, Oxford, in England. He is fully licensed in Otolaryngology. He specializes in the treatment of hearing loss and ear diseases. He was selected by his peers as one of the “Best Doctors in America” and as 2015-16 Provost Award for Scholar Activity in University of Miami.
D. Bradley Welling, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S. is the Walter Augustus Lecompte Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Welling’s clinical and research interests include understanding of pathogenic pathways in vestibular schwannomas and neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and in development of translational therapies for hearing restoration and regeneration. He is the principal investigator on related clinical trials.
Dr. Welling has held a variety of national and international leadership roles in Otolaryngology. He chaired the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School, served as President of the American Otological Society, President of the American Neurotological Society, Vice President of the Triological Society, Director for the American Board of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, and member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. He is currently a Senior Advisor to American Board of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.