Board of Directors
Leadership Team
Allyson Berent
Chief Development Officer
Yong-hui Jiang
Chief Medical Advisor
Conrad Leung
Chief Scientific Officer
Amy Liao
Chief Executive Officer
Jennifer Panagoulias
Chief Operating Officer
Jiangbing Zhou
Chief Technology Advisor
Allyson Berent
Chief Development Officer
Allyson Berent, DVM, DACVIM, is a veterinary internal medicine specialist who serves as the Director of Interventional Endoscopy Services at the largest animal teaching hospital in the world, The Animal Medical Center, in New York City. After graduating from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine she completed a residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing a fellowship in interventional radiology at University of Pennsylvania, and a fellowship in Endourology at Thomas Jefferson University, she served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and Interventional Radiology/ Interventional Endoscopy at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2014 Dr. Berent’s daughter was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome. In October of 2015 she joined to Board of Directors for the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST), becoming the Chief Science Officer for the Foundation. Dr. Berent helped to spearhead the development of a pre-competitive biomarker and outcome measure consortium in order to bring patient focused outcome measures forward for human clinical trials (Angelman Syndrome Biomarker and Outcome Measure Consortium-ABOM) and now serves as the Co-Director of this consortium. Dr. Berent Co-Founded the International Angelman Syndrome Research Council (INSYNC-AS). Through FAST, Dr. Berent collaborated with a consortium of scientists to encourage translational research opportunities, in order to help bring novel gene-targeted therapies forward toward human clinical trials. Through this work Dr. Berent co-founded GeneTx Biotherapeutics, a company singularly focused to advance an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy through IND enabling studies and a phase 1/2 clinical trial. Dr. Berent served as the Chief Operating Officer of GeneTx Biotherapeutics, which was acquired in 2022 by Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals. Currently Dr. Berent is working to advance numerous cell and gene therapy products through IND-enabling studies into first in human clinical trials for Angelman syndrome through her efforts at FAST and their venture philanthropy model.
Julien De Bournet
Board Director
Julien is the CEO of AS2 Bio. He started his career as an engineer at Bouygues Telecom, joined the SME Strategy Consulting division at IBM, and held investments positions in UK and Swiss based Hedge Funds. He earned a MS from Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (CH), and an MBA from INSEAD (France/Singapore). His mother tongue is French, and he is fluent in English and Spanish. He has worked extensively in France, UK and Switzerland.
As a specialist in private deal structuring, investing across the balance sheet in multiple investments as an advisor and sponsor, he has a successful track record at working with private investors, C-level management teams and boards through-out the investment cycle including preparation and execution of value creation plans with successful exits. He lives in London with his wife, Gaelle, and their three children — one of which lives with Angelman syndrome. Eight years ago, after learning of the robust and impressive vision of the drug development pipeline created by FAST, Julien and his family set out to support the concept of evaluating the potential to bring 6 disease modifying or gene targeted therapies from discovery to human clinical candidate. With their incredible support of FAST, and the entire scientific consortium, human clinical candidates were declared for numerous programs, leading to the broadening vision of the need for acceleration. Julien was taken by FAST's model of venture philanthropy while aggressively engaging in the biotech space to ensure these promising therapeutics do not languish and was part of the seed investors in GeneTx Biotherapeutics. Julien also saw the potential to leverage the learnings in the AS space to other similar neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mike Hanrahan
Board Director
Mike is an investor and entrepreneur focused on the tech sector. Most recently he was Executive Chairman of Sustain.Life, a sustainability SaaS platform sold to Workiva in June 2024. Prior to that Mike established and ran Walmart’s artificial intelligence computer vision group while also serving on the board of GeneTx Biotherapeutics, where he had the pleasure of working with the incredible team that shepherded GTX-102 to in human trials and eventual sale to Ultragenyx. He also serves as Vice Chair of the board for the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics and is chair of their investment committee.
Mike and his wife Jo are parents to 4 amazing children, including Tom who is their deletion positive Angelman child and light of their life. Mike hails from Ireland, but has lived in London for 14 years before settling in New Jersey in 2010.
Yong-hui Jiang
Chief Medical Advisor
Yong-hui Jiang, MD, PhD, is the scientific co-founder and Chief Medical Advisor of Couragene since 2022.
Dr. Jiang is a Professor of Genetics, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Medical Genetics of Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. Jiang is a physician scientist and active practicing physician at Yale Children’s Hospital and Yale Hospital.
Dr. Jiang’s clinical interest is inborn error of metabolism and genetic evaluation of neurodevelopmental disorder and rare genetic disorders. Prior to joining Yale, he was Professor of Pediatrics, Genetics and Neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine from 2008-2019. Dr. Jiang is Director of Yale National Organization of Rare Disease (NORD) Center of Excellence for Rare Disorders. Dr. Jiang’s research program focuses on the investigation of molecular and neurological basis of human neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral disorders, with a focus on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Angelman, Prader-Willi, Phelan-McDermid, PURA, TUSC3, and HIST1H1E syndromes in human and model organisms.
Dr. Jiang received his MD from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, and a PhD in Human and Molecular Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in clinical genetics and medical biochemical genetics at the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Jiang is board certified in Clinical Genetics and Medical Biochemical Genetics by American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.
Conrad Leung
Chief Scientific Officer
Conrad Leung, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Couragene. He joined Couragene in April 2023 and is responsible for overseeing the research and development activities.
Conrad has more than 18 years of experience in the Life Science industry. Prior to joining Couragene, Conrad was the Chief Scientific Officer at GENEWIZ, a leading global genomics service provider for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic institutions. At GENEWIZ, Conrad led a team of scientists to develop innovative technologies for genomic research. His works supported the growth of GENEWIZ to a company with $130M+ yearly revenue when it was acquired by Brooks Automation in 2018. Before joining GENEWIZ, Conrad was an Assistant Professor at Columbia University where his research focused on neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. He has co-authored numerous publications and patents related to genomics and pathogenesis of neurological diseases.
Conrad graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University.
Amy Liao
Board Director, Chief Executive Officer
Amy Liao, PhD, is a serial life sciences entrepreneur. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Couragene since its inception in 2022. Prior to starting Couragene, Amy was a co-founder and CEO of GENEWIZ, and then President of Brooks Life Sciences Services after GENEWIZ was acquired by Brooks Automation.
Dr. Liao has had a long and distinguished career in genomics services and sciences, with many academic and business achievements to date. In 2020, in honoring an individual for a lifetime commitment and important contributions to patient healthcare, Dr. Liao received the coveted Biomedical Engineering Society's Wallace A. Coulter award for innovation in healthcare. In 2010, Dr. Liao along with Dr. Steve Sun, co-founder of GENEWIZ, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 Award in the Services category for New Jersey.
Dr. Liao graduated with a bachelor's degree from Nankai University, a master's degree from Tsinghua University, and a PhD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Stony Brook University. Dr. Liao carried out her postdoctoral studies at Columbia University before she co-founded GENEWIZ with her business partner in 1999.
Ronald H.W. Lorijn
Board Director
Ronald HW Lorijn, MD, PhD, MBA is a seasoned leader with a proven track record of creating value in entrepreneurial and mid-sized biotech companies. Notably, Dr. Lorijn served as the CEO responsible for taking uniQure public, marking a significant milestone as the company introduced the first gene therapy to Europe. In his most recent role, Dr. Lorijn served as both the Board Director and CEO of NeuExcell Therapeutics.
As the CEO of uniQure, Dr. Lorijn played a pivotal role in transforming the company from a small spin-off of the University of Amsterdam into a publicly traded entity on the NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam.
Before his time at uniQure, Dr. Lorijn spent 11 years at Amgen, where he served as Vice President, responsible for Clinical Operations, Business Development, and Government Affairs. Earlier in his career, he held significant roles, including Chief Medical Officer and Sr. Director of Clinical Operations & Medical Affairs for Centocor, after working in various capacities at AKZO (Organon), including as the head of worldwide Medical Services and Product Surveillance.
Dr. Lorijn's expertise extends to board leadership, having served as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of nLife Therapeutics, Esperite Group, Pepscan Therapeutics, and several others.
Ronald Lorijn earned his MD/PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen, completed a fellowship in fetal physiology at the University of Loma Linda and was board-certified as an obstetrician/gynecologist in the Netherlands and Spain. Additionally, he holds an MBA from the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Jennifer Panagoulias
Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Panagoulias, RAC, is the Chief Operating Officer of AS2 Bio and the Head of Regulatory and Policy for the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST). Jennifer has worked in drug development for over 20 years, primarily focused on advancing global development programs for the treatment of rare neurological diseases.
She spent 16 years in Regulatory Affairs at Genzyme where she held various roles, including Global Therapeutic Head, Regulatory Affairs Neurology. At Genzyme, she supported global registration efforts for Myozyme (alglucosidase alfa), an enzyme replacement therapy for children and adults with Pompe disease—a rare, genetic, neuromuscular disorder.
Jennifer has experience in working with global regulatory agencies including the US FDA, the European Medicines Agency, and the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency in Japan. She has held key leadership roles in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance supporting the development of oligonucleotide drugs at Wave Life Sciences and was part of the founding team at GeneTx Biotherapeutics advancing an investigational ASO specific for the treatment of Angelman syndrome. Jennifer serves as co-Director of ABOM (Angelman Syndrome Biomarker and Outcome Measure Consortium) and INSYNC-AS (International Angelman Syndrome Research Council).
Jiangbing Zhou
Board Director, Chief Technology Advisor
Jiangbing Zhou, PhD, is the co-founder and Chief Technology Advisor of Couragene since its inception in 2022.
Dr. Zhou is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a leading expert on the development of non-viral approaches for delivery of genetic medicines. He is an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Dr. Zhou received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from East China University of Science and Technology, a master’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Tsinghua University, and a PhD degree in molecular microbiology and immunology from the Johns Hopkins University.