About

About

WE ARE
THE
CUTTING
EDGE

World-leading researchers. Expert entrepreneurs. State-of-the-art facilities.

HebeCell was founded in 2016 by a group of scientists who wanted to push research in regenerative medicine and immuno-oncology farther than ever before. Our team of researchers includes multiple world-leading experts in stem cell biology, as well as experienced entrepreneurs and business developers. We operate a fully-equipped state-of-the-art laboratory in Natick, MA, one of the world’s largest biotech hubs.

Since 2016, we have grown HebeCell into a leading innovator in our field. Most importantly, we have developed and patented a method of producing allogeneic natural killer (NK) cells indefinitely from  pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) by suspending them in a liquid solution within specially engineered bioreactors. No other company or lab has this technology or these capabilities.

The Team

John Lu, Ph.D, MPH

President and CEO
Shi-Jiang (John) Lu is the President and CEO of HebeCell. Before establishing HebeCell, John was the Senior Director of Research at Advanced Cell Technology/Ocata Therapeutics, which in 2016 was acquired by Astellas, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. John is an expert in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, with 20 years of experience in the field. John has been conducting translational research and developing novel therapeutic strategies utilizing human embryonic stem cells (hESC), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and their derivatives. His goal is to generate hESC/iPSC-derived products to treat disease in humans. John also has extensive experience in the development and large-scale production of iPSC derivatives for clinical applications. John received his Ph.D. in Oncology and Cancer Biology from University of Toronto/Ontario Cancer Institute. He also holds an M.P.H. from Columbia University, an M.S. in Oncology from Peking Union Medical College, and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Wuhan University.

Allen Feng, Ph.D

Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Allen Feng is the Chief Scientific Officer of the HebeCell Corp. Prior to joining HebeCell, he was the Director of Cell Biology of Semma Therapeutics, where Dr. Feng played a key role in the successful establishment of the process development operation. Prior to Semma, Dr. Feng worked as R&D Head of Stem Cell Bioprocessing Group at EMD Millipore (a US subsidiary of Merck, KGaA). Before joining Millipore, Dr. Feng was Director and Senior Scientist at Advanced Cell Technology (later became Ocata Therapeutics and Astellas). At Advanced Cell Technology, Dr. Feng was the major contributor and inventor of several key discoveries such as the patented Hemangioblast technology (published in Nature Methods); generation of donorless red blood cells (published in Blood); and generation of HLA-negative functional platelets from human pluripotent stem cells (published in Stem Cell Reports).

Lily Tang, CPA, CGMA

VP of Finance and Administration
Lily is the VP of Finance and Administration of HebeCell Corp. Prior to joining HebeCell, she was the VP of Accounting and Operations of Vcanbio USA where she played a critical role of building up the corporate operating infrastructure from scratch and oversaw the corporate accounting and day-to-day operations related to Vcanbio’s corporate and affiliated entities in the US. Before joining Vcanbio USA, she was the Manager of Corporate Finance at Hancock Natural Resource Group, a wholly owned investment subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation. Previously she worked as Compliance Manager for the group, overseeing risks and controls related to regulatory compliance and global investment management and property management operations. Prior to these positions, Ms. Tang was a manager at Arthur Andersen’s Shanghai office, in Audit and Assurance Services Group. Lily holds a Master of Science degree in Finance from Northeastern University.

The Name

Hebe

Hebe is a Greek goddess with the power to restore youth in any mortal, no matter their age. In Greek mythology, she uses these powers to fight for justice alongside her beloved husband, Heracles.

We have come a long way since believing that a goddess could use her divine powers to turn back the clock. But in the two millennia since ancient Greek times, humanity has not given up trying to uncover Hebe’s closely guarded secret. And thanks to advances in medical science, we are closer than ever before.

Years of research in our advanced biology labs have produced technology that can create allogeneic natural killer (NK) cells indefinitely. While these cells cannot fully restore a person’s youth quite yet, they have been proven in clinical trials to be extremely effective at treating certain cancers and other diseases. With our technology, patients may soon be able to replace their older, weaker cells with younger, stronger stem cells, giving them a fighting chance not only against cancer, but against a wide variety of age related diseases and conditions. Our latest research shows promise for treating conditions like macular degeneration and Parkinson’s disease.