Li Peng is taking on a new role at Palleon Pharmaceuticals as the company’s first chief scientific officer. Peng was previously Palleon’s vice president of research and early product development. Before joining the company, Peng held various roles at AstraZeneca (NYSE: [[ticker:AZN]]). Palleon is developing drugs that target the Siglec-Sialoglycan axis, a mechanism of immune suppression, as an approach to treating cancer and other diseases characterized by immune system dysfunction. In 2017, the Waltham, MA-based biotech closed a $47.6 million Series A round of financing.