Li Chen

Dr. Li Chen founded Beijing Likang Life Science and Tech Limited in 2017, which is a company focusing on developing neoantigen targeted and T cell immunotherapies.

Chen led a team to adopt the vaccine route of a DC vaccine encoding mRNA transfection of tumor neoantigen. They are the first in the international arena to use this vaccine form for clinical practice. The introduction of mRNA into DC cells in vitro not only improves the bioavailability of mRNA, but also solves the problem of mRNA delivery.

In just 4 years, Chen led his first product LK101 to obtain IND approval and conduct clinical trials. Prior to this, the product passed the ethical review of 301 Hospital. Also, a clinical study was carried out. At present, a total of 24 patients with liver cancer are enrolled in this study. To date, good safety and efficacy have been observed. Moreover, the first two patients with liver cancer have achieved disease-free survival of more than 40 months.

The research and development of personalized mRNA tumor vaccines is still in its early stages and still faces many challenges, such as the accuracy of tumor neoantigen prediction, the rationality of tumor neoantigen selection, and the stability and timeliness of the vaccine production and preparation process. To address these challenges, Chen’s company has developed various personalized immuno-oncology therapy products by leveraging the proprietary analytic LNEA™ platform, High-throughput antigen/TCR screening platform (HATSP™), in vitro-transcribed (“IVT”) mRNA technology and the large-scale, automatic and totally closed Cell Culture Core.

Currently, Chen’s company is focusing on developing precise tumor immune therapies and possessing a presence in tumor neoantigen analysis and diagnosis, tumor neoantigen vaccines, and tumor neoantigen T-cell products.