Tiansheng Wang joined Expansion Therapeutics in November 2022 as the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. Prior to this, he was the Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Allorion Therapeutics and a Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Skyhawk Therapeutics. He previously worked at Vertex Pharmaceuticals from 2000 to 2019 as a Staff Investigator and a Research Fellow in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. Dr. Wang was one of the key inventors of inaxaplin (VX-147, in phase 2/3) for APOL1-mediated focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), which was granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA in June 2022. Additionally, he contributed to the discovery of three other clinical candidate molecules including fobrepodacin (VX-486, SPR720), pimodivir (VX-787) and decermotinib (VX-509). Dr. Wang also contributed to more than 10 compounds in preclinical tox evaluation stages. Before Vertex, Dr. Wang was a Sr. Scientist at Nitromed Inc. and at Novartis (formerly Sandoz) where he began his career. He obtained his Ph.D. at Nankai University with Professor Zheng-Ming Li in synthetic organic chemistry, and he completed postdoctoral research at the University of Vermont with Professor Martin Kuehne on the total synthesis of indole alkaloids.