Shao-Lee Lin, MD, PhD

Shao-Lee Lin, MD, PhD

A physician, scientist and leading biopharmaceutical executive with board level experience, Dr. Lin is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACELYRIN, INC., a California-based, innovative biopharma that invests in, develops and commercializes life-changing therapies for patients with serious diseases.  

Dr. Lin was the first chief scientific officer and head of research and development at Horizon Therapeutics, a global biopharmaceutical company targeting medicines for rare diseases, rheumatology and primary care. She helped drive the transformation of Horizon from specialty to biopharma, which contributed to more than a tripling of the company’s market cap within two years. This was achieved in part by gaining the first FDA approval of a treatment for the vision-threatening autoimmune condition, thyroid eye disease

Throughout her career, Dr. Lin has worked on rapidly developing life-changing medicines, including a cure for Hepatitis C. She previously was as a corporate officer at AbbVie leading therapeutic areas, development excellence, and international development, was a VP at Gilead, and held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen.

A strong advocate for medical innovation, culture transformation, work-life balance, building diverse teams, and fostering creativity in medicine, Dr. Lin is a sought after speaker. She led discussion on innovation in healthcare at the Aspen Ideas Festival and served on a panel with the Illinois governor at the Democratic governors’ convention.

Dr. Lin has been recognized in numerous industry-leading publications. PharmaVOICE cited her one of its “Most Inspiring People,” and she was named one of Crain’s “Notable Women Executives.”

Dr. Lin has been published in many peer reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Lin is magna cum laude graduate of Rice University in chemical engineering and biochemistry and holds an MD and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  She was on faculty as Clinical Scholar and associate physician at The Rockefeller University prior to joining industry and has also served as adjunct faculty in medicine at UCLA, Stanford, and Northwestern.

She has served on public and private boards, including Principia Biopharma, Lake Forest College and Third Harmonic Bio.