Lian Ni Lee

Dr Lian Ni Lee is a Malaysian-born immunologist and co-founder of Infinitopes, the Oxford-based precision cancer vaccine company. Her scientific career has been dedicated to understanding T-cell immunology — the branch of immunology concerned with how the immune system's cytotoxic T-cells recognise, attack, and eliminate abnormal cells, including cancer cells. That expertise sits at the heart of Infinitopes' approach to building cancer vaccines that generate durable, protective immune responses.

Lee completed her PhD in Immunology at University College London and then gained postdoctoral experience at GSK and Pfizer in San Diego before returning to academia at the University of Oxford, where she worked within the Klenerman laboratory. Her Oxford research, funded by Cancer Research UK and the Emerson Collective, focused on developing novel cancer vaccine candidates, directly informing the scientific foundations of Infinitopes. She has more than a decade of deep expertise in T-cell immunology and has been central to building Infinitopes' laboratory team, recruiting exceptional scientists from the Oxford Vaccine Group and beyond.

Lee co-founded Infinitopes in 2021 alongside Dr Jonathan Kwok and Dr Senthil Chinnakannan. As head of the laboratory function, she has been instrumental in translating the company's computational antigen discovery work into physical experimental validation — a critical bridge between Infinitopes' AI-driven immunopeptidomics platform and its clinical programme. Her team has built the in-house capability in antigen discovery, immunology, and biomanufacturing that has taken Infinitopes from three academic co-founders to a team of over 20 scientists and clinicians.

Infinitopes' lead vaccine ITOP1 entered a Phase I/IIa clinical trial in 2026 with $35 million in total seed financing. Lee's scientific leadership has been recognised by investors and academic collaborators alike as central to the company's credibility and speed — from MHRA regulatory approval to Innovate UK awards — as it advances toward demonstrating that off-the-shelf cancer vaccines can generate the durable T-cell immunity needed to prevent post-surgical recurrence.