Dr. Andrew Chan is an accomplished drug discoverer and developer, immunologist and rheumatologist, with distinguishing careers spanning academia and industry. He began his independent scientific career at Washington University School of Medicine in 1994, where he was Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology and an Associate Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Chan joined Genentech in 2001 overseeing Immunology and Antibody Technologies. From 2010 to 2025, he served as Senior Vice President of Research-Biology at Genentech, Inc where he led biological research across all therapeutic areas and had joint oversight of the early clinical development through Phase 2 portfolios. During his tenure, more than 100 molecules advanced into clinical trials, including multiple FDA-approved therapies such as atezolizumab, giredestrant, inavolisib, mosunetuzumab, and ocrelizumab.
Chan’s research focuses on how our immune system protects us from foreign pathogens and, when dysregulated, can cause autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Understanding this underlying disease pathobiology, in turn, enables development of new therapies to address unmet medical needs. Chan is also a leader in advocating and implementing precision medicine strategies through biomarker discovery and development to provide the best therapy for patients. He has published over 100 research papers, review articles and books. Chan is a co-inventor of ocrelizumab (Ocrevus™), the first B-cell directed therapy approved by the FDA for treatment of both relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. His translational research has brought important insights on the mechanisms by which B-cell directed therapies impacts human B-cell biology in health and disease.
Chan plays key roles to bridge academia, patient advocacy and industry. He presently serves as Chair of the National Council at Washington Univ School of Medicine, Chair of the Executive Advisory Board of the Chemistry Life Processes Institute (Northwestern Univ) and member of the Biopharma Advisory Board at Washington Univ. He is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lupus Research Alliance, member of the National Medical and Scientific Advisory Board and Chair of the Workforce Development Committee of the Arthritis Foundation. He is also a Board member of the Russell/Engleman Rheumatology Research Center at the Univ of California at San Francisco (UCSF).
Chan received his BA and MS degrees in Chemistry at Northwestern Univ, MD and PhD degrees from Washington Univ and completed his internal medicine residency at Barnes Hospital and rheumatology fellowship at UCSF. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF.
He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1999), American Association of Physicians (2009) and Henry Kunkel Society (2005), honorary elected member of the Scandinavian Society of Immunology (2023) and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists (2025). He is the recipient of the Charles B Harding Award for Distinguished Service from the Arthritis Foundation (2026), an honorary Doctorate in Medicine from Washington Univ (2024), Washington Univ Founder Award (2023), UCSF Alumni Discovery Award (2023), Lee Howley Sr Prize in Arthritis Research (2021), Northwestern Alumni medal (2020), Washington University School of Medicine Alumni Achievement award (2019), American Federation for Aging Research Chairman’s Award of Distinction (2013), Guin Warnock Award from the Arthritis Foundation (2012), Washington Univ Special Recognition Award for Mentoring Graduate Students (2000) and a Pew Biomedical Scholar (1995).