He reads a genome and a term sheet with equal fluency. The cell and the cap table, studied side by side.
Co-CEO, Vibrant Therapeutics / Ph.D. Genetics, Yale
In January 2026, Vibrant Therapeutics closed $61 million in fresh financing and did something most biotechs never do at that stage - it handed an outsider the keys. Han Lee, Ph.D., became co-CEO, sharing the top job with founder and scientist Larry Wang. Not a hired-gun finance chief parked beside the founder, but a partner with his name on the same door.
The choice tells you what Vibrant thinks it needs. The company is building logic-gated antibody prodrugs - molecules engineered to stay inert until they reach diseased tissue, then switch on. Brilliant biology is the easy part. Turning it into a global, clinical-stage company with capital, partners, and a pipeline that survives contact with regulators is the hard part. That is the part Han Lee has spent fifteen years doing for other people. Now he gets to do it for himself.
His public statement on joining was characteristically plain: a platform that combines "intelligent molecular design with disease-selective biology," and a plan to scale the organization globally and push its lead program toward "meaningful impact for patients." No fireworks. Just the work.
"Vibrant has built a differentiated platform that combines intelligent molecular design with disease-selective biology."
- Han Lee, on joining Vibrant Therapeutics as Co-CEO
Worked on M&A, corporate strategy, and portfolio management across public and private investments - leading multiple billion-dollar business development deals across more than 75 transactions.
Led the company's transition to clinical stage, raised over $200 million in financings, and helped lay the foundation for a successful IPO.
Ran financial operations and investor relations, and was instrumental in the company's acquisition by AstraZeneca.
Appointed October 2023. An integral member of the deal team that supported ImmPACT Bio's acquisition by Lyell Immunopharma.
Joined founder Larry Wang to scale Vibrant globally and advance its pipeline of conditionally activated antibody prodrugs beyond China.
Vibrant designs multispecific antibody prodrugs that activate only inside the disease microenvironment - aiming for the safety of a sniper rather than the spray of chemotherapy. The platforms wear a playful bee theme.
Pairs advanced computing with multi-specific antibody engineering to speed discovery and design safer, more effective biotherapeutics.
Uses proteomics to identify the proteins that differ between healthy and diseased tissue - the basis for disease-selective targeting.
Engineers efficient delivery across the blood-brain barrier, opening the door to central nervous system disease.
"I'm excited to partner with Larry and the team to help scale the organization globally and advance programs like VIB305 toward meaningful impact for patients."
- Han Lee, Co-CEO, Vibrant Therapeutics
He stacked a Ph.D. in genetics and an MBA, both from Yale, on top of a Berkeley molecular biology degree. The lab coat came first; the spreadsheet came second.
Two cell-therapy startups, two CFO seats, two acquisitions. Han Lee has a documented habit of building companies that get bought.
At Vibrant he is not the money guy beside the founder. He is co-CEO - equal billing with scientist Larry Wang, a co-founder of GenScript.
For fifteen years, Han Lee's job was to find the capital, structure the deal, and shepherd other people's science to the exit. Financings, IPO preparations, mergers, partnerships - more than 75 transactions, billions in aggregate value, and a reputation built one closed round at a time.
The co-CEO seat at Vibrant is a different kind of bet. The goal now is not to sell a company but to build one - to take a pipeline of intelligent, conditionally activated therapies past the proof-of-concept stage in China and into broader global development. The first real test is VIB305, a masked T-cell engager prodrug aimed at EGFR-positive solid tumors, designed to stay dark until a tumor lights it up.
If the platform works, the molecules will do the clever part. Getting them to patients at scale is the human part - and that is the job Han Lee signed up for.