Sabrina Yusang Yang

Flagship Principal, Cofounder and Chief Innovation Officer of Empress Tx
Flagship Pioneering & Empress Therapeutics
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Sabrina is a Principal at Flagship Pioneering, where over the past 7 years she originated and built multiple therapeutic platform companies. ​ She leads a team of entrepreneurial scientists to conceive, create, resource, and develop first-in-category therapeutic and diagnostic platform companies.  She currently serves as co-founder and chief innovation officer of Empress Therapeutics.  Additionally, Sabrina is part of Flagship’s International team and works to advance biotech company creation and partnership globally, with an initial focus on APAC.  
Prior to joining Flagship, Sabrina was a postdoctoral researcher and an NSF-funded translational fellow at MIT, where she worked with MIT’s venture mentoring service team to bring her academic research from the bench to commercialization.​ During her Ph.D., Sabrina developed a T-cell targeting, cell membrane-penetrating nanoparticle technology to overcome tumor-mediated immunosuppression and improve cancer vaccine outcomes. Her research work resulted in publication in multiple peer-reviewed journals including Nature Communications and several issued and pending patents. 
Sabrina holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in materials science and engineering from MIT and a B.S. in materials science and engineering from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, where she graduated summa cum laude and was valedictorian.

Speech title & Synopsis

Pioneering company creation model and opportunities in APAC

Flagship Pioneering, the US-based biotechnology company, recently expanded its presence into the Asia-Pacific region with the aim of broadening its impact on human health and the health of our planet. This session will focus on Flagship’s unique company creation process, which has resulted in more than 100 first-in-category bioplatform companies designed to generate multiple products. One of these companies – Empress Therapeutics – is revolutionizing small molecule drug discovery, and will be a highlight of the session. The discussion will also address opportunities for collaboration with Flagship and its ecosystem of companies, with the aim of building strategic partnerships with industry, academia, investors, and healthcare systems across Asia.