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Craig Gibbs Has Spent a Career Turning Lab Logic Into Biotech Momentum
From a protein-engineering bench to the CEO seat at Vivace Therapeutics, Craig Gibbs has built a career around one stubborn question: how does promising biology become a drug program that can actually move?
Sofie Qiao
Sofie Qiao, Ph.D. is a chemist-turned-biotech-founder who has built a career at the intersection of hard science and dealmaking. Trained in organic chemistry at Harvard and MIT, she founded LEAD Therapeutics (acquired by BioMarin in 2010, source of the PARP inhibitor Talazoparib now sold by Pfizer), ran WuXi Ventures, and then founded and led Vivace Therapeutics from 2015 to 2026, raising more than $100 million to advance first-in-class small molecules targeting the Hippo/YAP-TEAD pathway in cancer. She now leads Virtuoso Therapeutics, another company she founded.
Vivace Therapeutics, Inc.
Vivace Therapeutics is a San Mateo, California oncology company turning novel Hippo-YAP pathway biology into first-in-class cancer drugs. Its lead small molecule, VT3989, is a first-in-class YAP/TEAD inhibitor that blocks TEAD auto-palmitoylation and has shown durable responses in treatment-resistant mesothelioma and NF2-mutant tumors. Built on a capital-efficient US-China 'virtual biotech' model, the company has raised roughly $105 million across four rounds and is preparing a registrational Phase 3 trial.