Meet Ahryon Cho: new interim head of JLABS Korea

Johnson & Johnson's global incubator network, JLABS, officially appointed a new interim site head to its Korea branch in April 2026. Ahryon Cho previously served as Head of Venture Relations at JLABS Korea and steps into her new role with more than 15 years of experience spanning venture and strategic investment, biomedical research, and senior investment roles at SK Group and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, as well as a research background at Stanford University and Yonsei University College of Medicine.

We sat down with Ahryon to talk about her path into healthcare innovation, what drew her to JLABS Korea, and what she's most looking forward to.

Q1. What excites you most about stepping into your new role as Interim Head of JLABS Korea?

Two things excite me most about this role, and they pull in different directions in the best way.

The first is personal to my background. I have spent my entire career inside the lab and at the investment table, and this role sits right at the intersection of both. I have the privilege to spend my days finding great science and helping it reach the world, which is the work I love most.

The second is what I am most eager to grow into: leading people and strengthening Korea's life science ecosystem. Stepping into this role, I inherited both real momentum and opportunities, and the past few months have taught me how much I value leading a team, not just sourcing for a transformational deal but making sure the whole operation delivers to a standard I am proud of. This opportunity for a global organization like J&J, guided by our Credo, is exactly the kind of leadership challenge I welcome.

Korea has become one of the most exciting innovation hubs in the world, with extraordinary science and entrepreneurial ambition. I am excited to work alongside our member companies, our partners, and our J&J network to help unlock that potential and translate it into global impact.

Q2. Your background spans venture investment and biomedical research. How has that mix of science and investment experience shaped your leadership approach?

My career has taught me to be a translator between two worlds that don't always speak the same language - the language of science and the language of deals. But being part of the JLABS Korea community under Johnson & Johnson's Global External Scientific Innovation (ESI) team has taught me that translation is only half of it; the other half is execution and accountability.

The science side started at the bench. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Isabella Graef's lab at Stanford, I worked on research that eventually contributed to the discovery of AttrubyTM (acoramidis), now an approved treatment for transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy.

It was incredibly rewarding to see how discoveries made at the bench could ultimately change patients' lives. At the same time, it taught me that great science doesn't translate into impact on its own. To create impact for patients, scientific discoveries must be translated into a clear development strategy, a compelling partnership opportunity, and a vision that investors, collaborators, and healthcare stakeholders can rally behind.

The investment side taught me conviction. One founder I backed captured this learning. He identified a real unmet need in oncology and his earliest investors backed him on little more than a sketch of the idea, because he made the logic of his platform unmistakable. He then built a team aligned around the mission that it carried the company to a public listing and eventual partnership with a global pharma company. That's the arc I look for, not just strong data, but a team capable of carrying it to a global product.

And leadership has taught me a third dimension: delivery. Discovering great science is where the journey begins, but creating meaningful impact requires turning potential into outcomes. That means guiding teams through complexity, managing risk thoughtfully, honoring commitments to partners and regulators, and keeping momentum toward important milestones. Bringing together the scientist's judgment, the investor's conviction, and the operator's focus on execution is what I strive to do every day.

Q3. What opportunities do you see in Korea's healthcare innovation and life sciences ecosystem right now?

I think Korea is at a real inflection point, and it is exciting to watch. There is a generation of founders here doing differentiated science such as novel targets, new modalities, platform technologies that don't exist anywhere else, and increasingly they are building with the global market in mind from day one.

What I found most compelling is where Korea is strong and where it is still growing. The discovery science and platform innovation coming out of local labs is world-class. Where companies often need support is in the later stages - the global development, the execution, the partnerships that turn a promising asset into a product that reaches patients everywhere. I see this opportunity as the most meaningful place to add value. And it maps exactly to what I have learned at JLABS Korea under J&J ESI: great science needs an equally strong operational and partnership engine around it to progress. This is the role for J&J: identifying breakthrough science early, supporting innovators at critical moments in their journey, and leveraging our expertise, capabilities, and global network to help translate promising ideas into meaningful impact for patients.

One recent success story from the JLABS Korea community that embodies this learning focuses on member company Prazer Therapeutics. Earlier this year, Prazer Therapeutics announced a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Johnson & Johnson to advance the discovery of novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. The collaboration aims to leverage Prazer's proprietary SPiDEM® (Selective Protein Degradation Enabling Moiety) platform technology to develop novel targeted protein degraders (TPD) for a neurodegeneration-relevant target. Prior to this announcement, the company raised approximately USD 20 million in a Series B funding round to be used for new drug research and development and global commercialization; the investment round was led by Johnson & Johnson's corporate venture capital organization, JJDC.

Q4. What kinds of innovators and startups are you hoping to attract to the global JLABS network and J&J ESI?

We are looking for founders with real scientific conviction, teams who can defend their data rigorously, who know precisely what question their science answers, and who are building for global relevance from day one. Given where Korea's platform science is strongest, I am especially excited about next-generation biologics, advanced delivery platforms, novel discovery technologies, and novel targets and modalities that show absolute differentiation in a competitive landscape.

Just as important as the science is the mindset. Given my experience as an investor and board member of early-stage startups, and as someone accountable for a community of over 35 member companies, I have learned that the founders who go further are not necessarily the ones with the most polished data on day one. They are the ones who build a team and a story others want to invest in, and are willing to engage early with the discipline that global development demands. I have a deep appreciation for how challenging that journey can be because I now have the opportunity to experience it from the operational side as well. Those are the founders I want in the JLABS community: those who see us not as a finish line, but as a launchpad, and who are ready to leverage our network and our team to move faster and further than they could alone.

Q5. What advice would you offer to early-stage founders based on your own experience across investment and research?

I'd offer three pieces of advice, shaped by observing what consistently distinguishes successful companies and through my own experience helping turn opportunities into outcomes.

First, learn to tell your story to people who don't share your expertise, and don't wait for perfect data to start. Investors and partners are asking a different question than scientists ask: what does this mean for patients, and why now? The founder I mentioned earlier didn't wait until his platform was de-risked to raise funding; his earliest backers invested on little more than a sketch because he made the unmet need impossible to miss.

Second, invest in your team and your operational foundation as seriously as you invest in your science. What carried that same company round after round wasn't just the science; it was a team deeply aligned around the company's mission. Whether you're building an organization or helping it scale, strong operations, thoughtful risk management, and effective governance create the foundation that allows great science to reach its full potential. The most successful founders recognize early that disciplined execution is as important as scientific excellence.

Third, think about global partnership early as a deliberate strategy rather than as a last resort when domestic capital runs out. The founders who engage global partners while they still have leverage are the ones who shape the terms of their own globalization. And view those partners as long-term collaborators, bringing shared expertise, capabilities, and commitment to advancing innovation together. Some of the most rewarding moments in my career haven't been the deal closings, they have been watching companies I helped build grow to the point where others started seeking them out on their own.

As Ahryon continues to lead in her new interim role, JLABS Korea continues to build on a strong foundation of scientific talent and investment expertise in the region. Stay tuned for what's ahead as she and the J&J External Innovation team continue to identify and source high-potential innovations in Korea, and bring the best of Korea's innovation ecosystem to the rest of the world.