Yen-Ming Hsu

CEO
AB Biosciences
 

​

Dr. Yen-Ming Hsu is the Chief Executive Officer and President of AB Biosciences, a Boston-based biotechnology company specializing in protein therapeutic innovation. A biotech veteran, Dr. Hsu brings deep expertise in immunobiology, cell biology, and protein biochemistry, coupled with proven track record in managing R&D teams for developing high impact protein therapeutics.
Before co-founding AB Biosciences, Dr. Yen-Ming Hsu led the Protein Engineering Group in the Research Department at Biogen. During his tenure, Yen-Ming was instrumental in advancing Biogen’s biologics pipeline, with a particular focus on the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and TNF receptor superfamily—critical mediators in inflammation, immune regulation, and cancer biology. His leadership was critical for the development of half a dozen of antibodies for treatment of immunological and oncological indications. Prior to joining Biogen, Dr. Hsu was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Guido Guidotti. Yen-Ming uncovered a previously unidentified isoform of the sodium pump that is uniquely expressed in the central nerve system. In addition, he also showed that under the low systemic potassium conditions (hypokalemia) this neural isoform of sodium pump is remarkably resilient to downregulation as compared with its peripheral counterparts. This finding revealed a striking insight in body’s adaptive functional hierarchy of central over peripheral.  More recently, at AB Biosciences, Dr. Hsu spearheaded the development of an IgG derivative as a recombinant alternative to the plasma-derived intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. This groundbreaking program, supported by strong preclinical efficacy data, was successfully out licensed to Shire (now acquired by Takeda). Currently, using AI-assisted protein modelling, AB Biosciences is advancing a proprietary platform for enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of a panel of regulatory approved protein biologics.
A prolific scientist and innovator, Dr. Hsu has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and two invited review articles. Yen-Ming is known for his strategic acumen in intellectual property protection and competitive landscape analysis for ensuring robust IP portfolios and FTO (freedom to operate) of the pipeline candidate biologics. He authored more than 50 granted patents in the field of immuno-oncology.
​
​
​

Speech title & Synopsis

Oligomeric Fc as a replacement of plasma-derived IVIG for treatment of autoimmune disorders

Human IVIG, a plasma-derived immunoglobulin preparation from thousands of donors, is widely used for immune replacement therapy in immunodeficient patients. Beyond its established role in passive protection against infections, IVIG has long demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory effects in autoimmune diseases—though its mechanism remained elusive. Recent studies have attributed this activity not to the antibody variable regions but to oligomerized Fc fragments that mimic immune complexes.

Despite its clinical success, recombinant IVIG has remained an unmet challenge, particularly in replicating the anti-inflammatory effects. This difficulty lies in engineering an oligomeric Fc with the necessary stability, manufacturability, and receptor-binding characteristics.

AB Biosciences has addressed this challenge by creating a novel trimeric Fc fusion protein. By fusing a fully human IgG1 Fc domain to a trimerization scaffold derived from the NC1 domain of human collagen XXI, the resulting construct—termed PRIM (Pan Receptor Interacting Molecule)—forms a covalently linked trimer with strong avidity binding to all classical Fcγ receptors as well as the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). PRIM has demonstrated robust anti-inflammatory activity in preclinical studies, including excellent efficacy in the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model.

This innovation marks a key advancement toward a recombinant alternative to plasma-derived IVIG for autoimmune therapy. Building on the success of PRIM, AB Biosciences is now expanding its platform to develop multivalent protein biologics with enhanced therapeutic potency over traditional bivalent antibodies. The integration of cutting-edge AI tools such as AlphaFold3 and Rosetta enables high-throughput structural modeling and in silico triage of therapeutic candidates, accelerating the path from design to clinic.