Tian Zhao, PhD

Vice President of R&D at OncoNano Medicine Inc.

Speaker

Tian Zhao, PhD is Vice President of Research & Development at OncoNano Medicine, where he leads the strategic direction and execution of the company’s research pipeline. He is a co-inventor of OncoNano’s core pH-responsive nanotechnology platform. Dr. Zhao focuses on advancing a new class of tumor microenvironment–activated therapeutics and imaging agents for solid cancers. Dr. Zhao joined OncoNano in 2016 as its first employee and has since overseen the development of multiple nanomedicine programs spanning image-guided surgery (pegsitacianine (FDA breakthrough and fast-track designations, Ph2 completed)), targeted drug delivery (ONM-421 preclinical stage), and immuno-oncology (ONM-501, Ph1 stage). His work focuses on exploiting tumor acidity as a universal biomarker to enable precise, tumor-specific activation of therapeutic payloads, aiming to improve efficacy while minimizing systemic toxicity. Dr. Zhao received his PhD in biomedical science from UT Southwestern, a master’s degree in chemistry from Texas Tech University