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Jeff Zablocki

VP, Head of Chemistry

Dr. Jeff Zablocki is an experienced leader of Chemistry having led teams at AbbVie, Gilead, CV Therapeutics, Amgen, and Searle. Jeff has discovered 15 development compounds including 3 approved agents: Lexiscan™ – an adenosine A2A agonist used in over 60 million patients as a pharmacological stress agent capturing a large market share; Ranexa™ – provided development support for the approval of Ranexa™ for stable angina; Voxilaprevir™ – contributed to the discovery of Voxilaprevir™ for Hepatitis C where Jeff helped address pre-clinical metabolism challenges applying novel medicinal chemistry approaches.

Prior to joining Bluejay, Jeff was head of chemistry at AbbVie’s west coast oncology efforts where a covalent Bruton Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor ABBV-992 was advanced to Ph1 clinical trials and multiple oncology programs were advanced. While at AbbVie, Jeff served on AbbVie’s Medicinal Chemistry Leadership Team (MCLT) evaluating programs and providing strategic direction. Before joining AbbVie, Jeff was a Senior Director at Gilead Sciences serving as a member of their Project Review Committee (PRC) providing critical feedback on all programs. While at Gilead, Jeff contributed to the discovery of 8 development compounds including the approved Hepatitis C NS3/4A protease inhibitor, a Ph I immunomodulator Selgantolimod for Hepatitis B, a Ph III late Ina sodium channel inhibitor Eleclazine for VT-VF, a Phase II ASK-1 kinase inhibitor Selonsertib for NASH, and a Ph I ALDH-2 inhibitor GS-6637 for addiction. Prior to Gilead, Jeff was head of chemistry at CV Therapeutics where beyond Lexiscan™ and Ranexa™ Jeff discovered a Ph I partial adenosine A1 agonist for type II diabetes and a Ph II adenosine A2B antagonist for asthma. Jeff led the collaborations with Dr. Frantisek Rypacek from Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic to discover drug eluting stents and Dr. Gloria Cristalli to discover partial adenosine A1 agonists.

Jeff has served as the Chair of the ACS MEDI division and the Long-Range Planning Committee (LRPC). He had the forethought to propose a COVID-19 symposium in Feb. of 2020 that took place in April of 2021 where he provided the introductory remarks. Jeff also served as an Associate editor for the J of Med. Chem. starting the popular Drug Annotations series. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society for his service to medicinal chemistry. Jeff is highly creative and well published with 126 patents and 61 publications. Jeff received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Dr. John Katzenellenbogen and completed his studies at UC Irvine with a NIH post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Larry Overman.

Keting Chu

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Keting Chu is an experienced biotech executive, entrepreneur and life science venture investor with a broad range of experiences in therapeutic development in both large and small biotechnology companies and venture investments.

Prior to founding Bluejay, Keting was a Partner and a Venture partner at LYFE Capital. Working with the team in Lyfe capital, Keting helped to close $550M Lyfe Capital Fund III and invested in Ansun Biopharm, Pliant Therapeutics and Tempest Therapeutics. Pliant and Tempest went IPO in NASDAQ successfully in 2020 and 2021. Keting was previously a venture partner in Apple Tree Partners briefly. Before joining Apple Tree Partners, Keting spent five years as VP, Research TAP at The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). There she was responsible for venture philanthropy, also known as the Therapy Acceleration program. At LLS, Keting led the investment into Celator, Stemline, Constellation, Affimed, ArgenX, Kite Pharma, Kiadis, OncoPep, Valor and a number of projects in academic institutions with the focus on proof-of-concept (POC) studies in patients. Three of the nine companies received “Breakthrough” designation by the FDA in 2016 after positive proof-of-concept studies. Celator was acquired by Jazz Pharma for $1.5B, Kite by Gilead for $12B and Stemline by Menarini for $677M. Three NDAs, by Celator, Kite and Stemline, were approved by the US FDA successfully. Prior to LLS, Keting was the CEO of Mission Therapeutics and the Co-Founder, President and CEO of DigitAB, Inc. and BioCubed Corporation. For her first startup company, Five Prime Therapeutics, Keting was Vice President of Biology and Head of R&D where she built the R&D strategy and team, established the technology platform and generated a product pipeline. Prior to Five Prime, Keting was the Head of Immunotherapy and Antibody Therapeutics Division at Chiron Corporation, where she engaged in preclinical and clinical developments of protein, DNA-based, and small molecule therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Three cancer therapeutic antibodies that keting led the team from discovery to phase I clinical trials are in phase II and III testing now.

Keting received her MD in Sun Yat-Sen Medical University where she specialized in infectious diseases in China, and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). She also conducted her postdoctoral training at Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF.