Frank Kung, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Managing Partner at Vivo Capital · Joined 1996

Biography

Frank Kung is a founding member and Managing Partner of Vivo Capital, the Palo Alto healthcare investment manager he co-founded with Dr. Edgar Engleman in 1996. Vivo's own history page names BDF Fund as the predecessor entity; the co-founders' 30th anniversary letter says the firm was originally named BioAsia Investments and was later renamed Vivo Capital because its base of operations and most of its investments were in the United States. Kung began his biotech career at Cetus Corporation in 1979, co-founded Cetus Immune Corporation in 1981 (acquired by parent company Cetus in 1983), and in 1983 co-founded Genelabs Technologies, Inc., where he served as Chairman and CEO until 1995 and took the company public on Nasdaq in 1991 under the ticker GNLB. He holds a B.S. in chemistry from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Bolt Biotherapeutics' April 2026 proxy statement identifies him as one of the voting members of both Vivo GP and Vivo PANDA GP. His Vivo biography lists board and public-body service in the past tense only, so no current board seat is recorded.

Education

• B.S., Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
• Ph.D., Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley
• M.B.A., University of California, Berkeley

Previous Experience

• Cetus Corporation, joined 1979 (start of his biotech industry career)
• Cetus Immune Corporation, co-founder, 1981 (acquired by parent company Cetus in 1983)
• Genelabs Technologies, Inc., co-founder, Chairman and CEO until 1995

Career Timeline

Sources & References