Dr. Shelley Chu, MD, PhD leads Biotech investing at Lightspeed, bringing more than two decades of investing and operating experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. As co-head of the firm’s Healthcare Sector, which actively invests across Biotech, Healthtech, and TechBio, Shelley’s passion is working closely with entrepreneurs to navigate scientific, clinical, regulatory, business development, and commercial hurdles to bring innovative new medicines to market that address significant unmet medical needs. To date, her investments across all stages, from seed to growth, have led to seven New Drug Approvals by the FDA, 12+ drug candidates in active clinical development, and 17 exits through M&As, IPOs, or partnerships, exemplifying her personal mission of Doing Well by Doing Good. During her time at Gilead, where Shelley led R&D strategy across all therapeutic areas and business development in immuno-oncology and HBV, three NDAs were approved and launched.
Since joining Lightspeed, Shelley has led the firm’s biotech investments in seed, spin-outs, series A, and crossover investments such as Dolomite Therapeutics, Antares Therapeutics, Xaira Therapeutics, Scorpion Therapeutics (acquired by Eli Lilly), Pheon Therapeutics, and Olema (NASDAQ: OLMA). She is a current or former member of the Board of Directors of private and public companies including Alpha-9 Oncology, Diagonal Therapeutics, Enlaza Therapeutics, Odyssey Therapeutics, Protego Biopharma, Seismic Therapeutics, Triana Biomedicines, Zag Bio, IFM Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb), IFM Tre (acquired by Novartis), IFM Due (partnered with Novartis), IFM Quattro, Tizona Therapeutics (acquired by Gilead Sciences), Trishula Therapeutics (partnered with AbbVie), SFJ Pharmaceuticals, and Phathom Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PHAT). Other previous investments where Shelley worked closely with the senior management team and Board include Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), Rempex (acquired by The Medicines Company), Tobira (NASDAQ: TBRA; acquired by Allergan), Anaptys (NASDAQ: ANAB), Marcadia (acquired by Roche), Calixa (acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals), and Cerexa (acquired by Forest Laboratories).
Shelley holds an MD and a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and a BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, where she serves as Co-Chair for Princeton ASC. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for BioCentury.
