# Lina Yao

> Lina Yao is a pharmaceutical scientist and the founder of Teon Therapeutics, a Redwood City, California biotech developing first-in-class, orally administered small-molecule cancer drugs that target G-protein coupled receptors to reverse tumor-driven immune suppression. A molecular pharmacologist by training with an MD and PhD and more than two decades in drug discovery, she built her career at CV Therapeutics and Gilead Sciences before launching Teon in 2018. She led the company through an oversubscribed $30 million Series A in 2021 and into the clinic with two novel programs: TT-702, an adenosine A2B receptor antagonist, and TT-816, a cannabinoid CB2 receptor antagonist being studied in combination with Merck's KEYTRUDA.

- **Role:** Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer at Teon Therapeutics
- **Organizations:** Teon Therapeutics, Gilead Sciences, CV Therapeutics, University of California, San Francisco
- **Education:** MD and PhD in Molecular Pharmacology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Postdoctoral research, University of California, San Francisco
- **Known for:** Founded Teon Therapeutics (2018), advancing two first-in-class oral oncology programs into the clinic, Led an oversubscribed $30 million Series A financing in February 2021, Inventor on more than 10 issued US patents

## Career timeline

- **—** — Postdoctoral research at UCSF studying G-protein coupled receptors
- **—** — Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, UCSF, studying GPCRs in drug addiction and CNS diseases
- **—** — Director of Biology at CV Therapeutics, leading ALDH2 biology behind ANS-6637
- **—** — Senior Director of Biology at Gilead Sciences, leading a team of about 30 scientists; contributed to Selonsertib (ASK1 inhibitor)
- **2018** — Co-founded Teon Therapeutics
- **2021** — Led Teon's oversubscribed $30M Series A financing
- **2021** — Advanced TT-702, an A2B receptor antagonist, toward the clinic in collaboration with Cancer Research UK
- **2022** — FDA accepted the IND for TT-816; first patient treated in the TT-816 Phase 1/2 trial
- **2023** — Announced clinical trial collaboration with Merck to evaluate TT-816 with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab)

## Achievements

- Founded Teon Therapeutics (2018), advancing two first-in-class oral oncology programs into the clinic
- Led an oversubscribed $30 million Series A financing in February 2021
- Inventor on more than 10 issued US patents
- Authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters
- Contributed to the development of Selonsertib, an ASK1 inhibitor advanced to Phase 3 for fibrotic disease, while at Gilead
- Led ALDH2 biology behind ANS-6637 at CV Therapeutics, which progressed to Phase 2
- Secured a clinical collaboration with Merck to combine TT-816 with KEYTRUDA

## Latest updates

- **2023-01** — Teon announced a clinical trial collaboration with Merck to evaluate TT-816 in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab).
- **2022-11** — First patient treated in the Phase 1/2 trial of TT-816, a novel oral immune checkpoint inhibitor.

## Links

- Website: https://teontherapeutics.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lina-yao-65a54423

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lina-yao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-15