Dr. Yang Liu is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer of OncoC4, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Rockville, Maryland, focused on developing cancer immunotherapies. A cancer immunologist by training, he held independent research positions at institutions including New York University Medical Center, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and Children's National Medical Center, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004 for his work in innate immunity and tumor immunology.
Dr. Liu has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and holds numerous patents over the course of his research career. In 2000 he co-founded OncoImmune, Inc., where he led development of the drug candidate CD24Fc from initial concept through clinical trials, a program that was ultimately acquired by Merck in 2020 for $425 million upfront plus additional milestone payments and royalties.
With backing from that transaction, he established OncoC4 in December 2020 to continue pursuing new immunotherapy approaches. The company's lead candidate, ONC-392, has shown encouraging early results in patients whose cancers had stopped responding to existing immunotherapies, including complete responses in some lung and ovarian cancer cases, work Dr. Liu attributes to a disciplined, data-driven approach to research.
