WEIWEN YING, Ph.D.

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Ying is the inventor of Ranok’s innovative targeted protein degradation technology. He was most recently Co-founder and President of the immuno-oncology startup Capten Therapeutics and brings to Ranok over 19 years’ industry experience in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development. Previously, he was Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Synta Pharmaceuticals and was responsible for creating a program in protein homeostasis that resulted in advancing the HSP90 inhibitor ganetespib from discovery to Phase 3. He also conceived Synta’s novel tumor-targeted drug conjugate technology, which was out-licensed to Tarveda Therapeutics for up to $249M USD. Dr. Ying was a post-doctoral fellow in Biophysics at Yale University and State University of New York at Stony Brook and received his Ph.D. and MS degrees in Organic Chemistry at Clemson University and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Kevin P. Foley, Ph.D.

Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Foley brings to Ranok over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development, with an emphasis on cancer, immuno-oncology and inflammatory diseases. He also has a long-standing research interest in protein homeostasis and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. In prior roles at FORMA Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, Synta Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ZymoGenetics, he had a successful track record of advancing innovative therapies into the clinic, with more than 10 clinical-stage programs to his credit. Dr. Foley conducted his post-doctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Northwestern University.