Shelley Chu

Shelley Chu has two decades of venture investing and operating experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Her 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, nine drug candidates in ongoing clinical development, and 16 exits through mergers and acquisitions, IPOs or partnerships. 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 new biotech investments in multiple seed, series A and crossover companies. In addition to Abata, she is a current or former member of the board of directors at Enlaza Therapeutics, Scorpion Therapeutics, Tizona Therapeutics (acquired by Gilead), Trishula Therapeutics, SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Phathom, Q32 Bio, IFM (acquired by BMS), IFM Tre (acquired by Novartis), IFM Due, IFM Quattro and Venatorx. Other previous investments Shelley worked closely with include Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), Rempex (acquired by The Medicines Company), Tobira (acquired by Allergan), Anaptys, Marcadia (acquired by Roche), Calixa (acquired by Cubist) and Cerexa (acquired by Forest). Shelley also serves on the scientific advisory board for BioCentury.

Shelley holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and a B.A. in molecular biology from Princeton University, where she serves as a co-chair for Princeton ASC.