Our Team

Dr. Xuehai Liang is a seasoned expert in RNA biology, antisense technology, and RNA-targeted therapeutics, with over 25 years of research and drug discovery experience. Before joining Arnatar Therapeutics, he served more than 12 years at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, where he led Core Antisense Research and advanced the field through discovery of novel antisense mechanisms and oligonucleotide chemistry innovations. His work contributed to multiple therapeutic programs across various disease areas. Dr. Liang previously held academic research roles at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied RNA maturation, nucleotide modification, and translation, and earned his Ph.D. at Bar-Ilan University, where he made foundational discoveries in nuclear RNA interference, pre-mRNA splicing, and small antisense RNAs. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and the inventor of more than 30 granted or pending patents. At Arnatar, Dr. Liang leads a mission-driven effort to develop next-generation antisense therapeutics for the treatment of both rare and common diseases.

Dr. Yanfeng Wang is the Chief Operating Officer of Arnatar Therapeutics, where he leads strategic execution across RNA-based drug development programs. With over 25 years of global experience in clinical pharmacology and translational medicine, Dr. Wang brings deep expertise in moving programs from discovery to NDA approval. Before joining Arnatar, Dr. Wang served as Vice President of Pharmacokinetics (PK) and Clinical Pharmacology, Toxicology/PK at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. There, he worked for 8 years and played a critical role in the development and approval of multiple first-in-class RNA-targeted therapies, including nusinersen, inotersen, and volanesorsen. Prior to Ionis, Dr. Wang spent over a decade at Novartis, where he helped drive the clinical pharmacology strategy behind several FDA-approved oncology drugs, including nilotinib, midostaurin, pasireotide, and sonidegib. He is widely recognized for his expertise in PK/PD modeling and model-based drug development. He is instrumental in advancing drug development and regulatory interactions, solidifying his reputation as a drug developer and scientific leader in novel therapy drug development. Earlier in his career, Dr. Wang conducted research on CNS drug distribution and PK/PD modeling of CNS targeted therapies. He earned his Ph.D. in PK/PD and Pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota and holds both a Master’s in Biopharmaceutics and a Pharmacy degree from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in China. A recognized innovator and thought leader, Dr. Wang holds 6 patents, has authored 90+ publications, and has delivered 20+ invited talks globally.

Dr. Que Liu is Chief Medical Officer of Arnatar Therapeutics. He has more than 20 years of clinical, regulatory, and medical affairs experience, working across all stages of product development in a wide range of disease areas. His primary focus in clinical research includes CVD, MASH, CKD, T2D/obesity, and orphan liver diseases. Most recently, Dr. Liu was Chief Medical Officer at Hepagene Pharmaceuticals, where he led clinical development for MASH, T2D/obesity, and HBV therapeutic areas. Before joining Hepagene, he served as Executive Medical Director at Allergan, where he led the global Phase 3 study for the treatment of liver fibrosis in MASH patients. Prior to Allergan, He was Senior Medical Director at NGM Pharmaceuticals and Arena Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw clinical development of the FGF21 program for MASH/T2D and Etrasimod program for IBD respectively.  Previously, Dr. Liu served as Medical Director and global early clinical development leader for the heart failure program at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, he led clinical development of ASO therapies for orphan diseases, dyslipidemia and thrombosis at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Liu began his industry career as cardiometabolic leader at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, At Amylin, he led his team through FDA approval of exenatide, the world’s first GLP-1 agonist.

Dr. Liu earned his medical degree and completed cardiology fellowship training at Tongji Medical University in China. He served as an attending physician at Tongji Hospital and later earned a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Alberta in Canada. He completed his fellowship training at the Division of Nephrology, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto.

Salar brings an impressive breadth of experience across business development and finance within the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as a substantial background in drug development, value creation, investor relations, portfolio strategy, commercial execution, and scaling high-growth organizations. Since February 2025, Salar has served as the Senior Vice President of Business Development and Finance at Arnatar Therapeutics. Since March of 2023, Salar has served as an Operating Partner at 3E Bioventures Capital, which co-led Arnatar’s Series A. During this time, he has advised multiple portfolio companies on development, and business development and financing transactions exceeding $2 Billion in total value. Before joining 3E Bioventures Capital, Salar was the Vice President of Corporate Development at Rain Therapeutics, building out the BD function and spearheading collaborations with Roche and Merck. Prior to Rain Therapeutics, he was Senior Director of Business Development at Morphosys, and was a key member of the team that led Morphosys’ acquisition of Constellation Pharmaceuticals. Salar has also held Business Development, Finance, and R&D roles of increasing responsibility at Baxalta, Shire, Takeda, Curis, Ironwood, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi-Genzyme. Salar earned a BSc in Biotechnology from Northeastern University, and an MBA and MSc from Indiana University.

Dr. Xing-Xian (Scott) Yu joined Arnatar as Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery in April 2024. Dr. Yu has over 25 years of experience in R&D of biotech/pharmaceutical industry including over 14 years of ASO and 8 years of siRNA drug discovery/translational biology experience in different therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Arnatar, Dr. Yu was Senior Director of Pharmacology and a member of the senior leadership team at Nitto BioPharma, leading and overseeing siRNA drug discovery and translational research in liver diseases, kidney diseases, rare diseases and oncology. Prior to that, Dr. Yu spent 13 years at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis Pharmaceuticals) in different roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Senior Research Fellow, leading a group in antisense drug discovery in metabolic diseases, liver diseases and neuro-degenerative & muscular diseases. Earlier, he worked at Relypsa leading the efforts on drug discovery in liver-related diseases.  Dr. Yu began his drug discovery career at Genentech, where he focused on metabolic diseases including obesity and type 2 diabetes. In his career, Dr. Yu led or supported in the progression of over 10 novel therapeutics from early research/discovery stages to development stages and in the development of different oligonucleotide drug delivery platforms. He has authored over 60 scientific publications and is an inventor of 16 patents. Dr. Yu received his Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and performed post-doctoral research at Emory University.

Dr. Zhang currently serves as Senior Director of Exploratory Research at Arnatar Therapeutics, where she leads the establishment and optimization of the company’s antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) platform and lead identification. Her work focuses on advancing RNA-targeted drug discovery, with emphasis on ASO chemistry, enzymatic mechanism, drug efficacy, and safety evaluation in vitro and in vivo. She holds over eight patents and has authored 47 peer-reviewed publications in top journals. Prior to joining Arnatar, Dr. Zhang contributed to RNA-based drug development at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, helping drive the next generation of RNA medicines. She played a critical role in platform innovations and mechanistic studies that improved ASO performance and therapeutic potential. Before her industry tenure, Dr. Zhang held leadership positions in research at the University of Colorado Denver, where she conducted structural and functional studies of pre-mRNA splicing machinery and developed mechanism-based approaches for breast cancer therapy. Dr. Zhang holds numerous awards, including American Heart Association Fellowships, Cancer League of Colorado, and multiple academic distinctions.

Dr. Teresa Liang is the Head of Intellectual Property (IP) of Arnatar. At Arnatar, Dr. Liang leads the company’s patent strategy, ensuring strong, defensible IP that supports the development and commercialization of cutting-edge nucleic acid based therapeutics. She brings over 20 years of expertise in intellectual property experience, specializing in bridging the legal and scientific worlds. As a seasoned Patent Agent, Dr. Liang has successfully guided numerous companies through complex national and international patent landscapes, protecting innovations from bench to clinic. Her ability to align legal strategy with clinical and scientific insight has earned her recognition as a leader in the field. Prior to Arnatar, Dr. Liang was a Patent Agent at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. She holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from UCLA and a dual A.B. in Genetics and Physiology from the University of California, Berkeley.