About Us

Jamie Jae Eun Kim has founded 1ST Biotherapeutics, Inc. in 2016 and has been served as CEO since then, bringing a wealth of scientific leadership and business expertise. She has been engaged in all aspects of drug discovery and development as well as business development, with a particular focus on cancers, metabolic diseases and orphan diseases. Jamie has deep experience brokering R&D strategies and portfolio management in pharma R&D, with a track record of over 50 successful R&D alliances among biotech, academia, clinical research units and industry throughout her career.

Previously, Jamie was Director of the Biotherapeutics Research Center at Handok, where she was responsible for several development programs in oncology and rare diseases and for research alliance and investment. She was an Associate Director at Green Cross Corp. (Now GC Pharma), where she has newly established a discovery team in oncology and rare diseases, and, prior to that, she was a Collaboration Project Leader at Sanofi, leading collaborative research effort in oncology. Jamie spent her early career doing metabolic and oncology research leading discovery projects as a Senior Scientist at Wyeth in Pearl River, NY. She is a current member of the Global Pharma Key Opinion Leader (GPKOL) consultants and a former member of the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) investment committee.

Jamie has a bachelor’s in bioengineering and master’s degree in biological science from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). she graduated with a Ph.D. in cell and structural biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA.

Jinhwa Lee has an accomplished career in drug discovery spanning academia and industry. He has helped identify and advance novel anti-bacterials, anti-virals, anti-coagulants, and therapies for metabolic syndrome, CNS disorders, and cancer. To date, he has authored 57 scientific papers and has been awarded 37 international and domestic patents.

Prior to joining 1ST Biotherapeutics, Jinhwa served as Director of the New Drug Research Center and acting Director of the Biotherapeutics Research Center at Handok. He was served as Director of the Late Discovery Program at Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K) and prior to that, as Head of Medicinal Chemistry group at Green Cross Corporation (now, GCPharma), leading many of drug discovery/development programs and their advancement into preclinical/clinicals stages in oncology, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases. Jinhwa was Senior Investigator at GlaxoSmithKline in Collegeville, PA, where he also earned a five -year service appreciation award.

Jinhwa has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Seoul National University. He achieved a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Alabama and completed his postdoctoral research at Harvard University.

Yongmin brings more than 30 years of corporate finance, business strategy, and IR experience in a diverse career and has recently led corporate operation and finance in the pharmaceutical industry.

Most recently, Yongmin served as Chief Financial Officer of Genexine heading an organization responsible for accounting, IR, and financial management. Under Yongmin’s leadership, Genexine was able to raise over $200 million in financing, which to date, is one of the largest fund-raising activities for listed companies in KOSDAQ. Prior to Genexine, Yongmin served as Chief Financial Officer at Handok which used to be a Sanofi’s Korean affiliate. Before entering the pharma industry, Yongmin previously worked for local and global financial brokerage firms including Hana Financial Investment as well as UBS, covering various markets like equity, equity derivatives, and hedge fund.

Yongmin holds an M.B.A. from Cornell University and B.A. in Business Administration from Korea University.

Young-Joo has experienced more than 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, dedicating 25 years, particularly to the clinical trial field. She was responsible for advancing small molecules and biological medicines in all phases of clinical trials for both domestic and global studies. Young-Joo held roles with responsibilities not only for clinical operations but also for developing key strategies and designs across multiple early- and late-stage clinical programs.

Prior to joining 1ST Biotherapeutics, Young-Joo served as a Director of the Medical Division at JW Pharmaceutical. She was a Director of Clinical Research Division at Handok and prior to that, Head of Clinical Team at Green Cross Corp. (Now GC Pharma), responsible for leading various clinical trial programs for drugs in the therapeutic areas of anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, vaccines, cardiovascular, and CNS disorders.

Young-Joo has a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Ewha Women’s University and a masters’ degree in Clinical Pharmacy from Sookmyung Women’s University and holds an M.B.A. from Ewha Women’s University.

Yong-Jun joined 1ST Biotherapeutics as a Senior Director in October 2021, bringing considerable experience in managing a drug discovery laboratory with emphasis on the early phase of drug discovery specifically, target ID/validation, in vitro/cell-based assay development, HTS/HCS, and hit-to-lead processes, and extensive knowledge in developing cell-based assay and disease model validation with cell line, IPSC derived cell line as well as biopsies from the patient. To date, he has published 28 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has been awarded several international and domestic research grants.

Most recently, Yong-Jun was responsible for early drug discovery using patient-based IPSC-derived disease models and developing personalized medicine at the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg. Prior to that, he was responsible for early drug discovery using patient-based IPSC-derived disease models at Ksilink in Strasbourg, France. Yong-Jun has also worked in the development of personalized medicine for cancer patients, at Samsung Medical Center and has 11 years of experience in high-content screening using a Genome-wide siRNA library and chemical library in translational research at Pasteur Institutes Korea.

Yong-Jun holds a Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from the University of Yonsei in South Korea.