Burgess received her B.Sc. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde, U.K. (1979) and her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of London, U.K. (1984). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Universities of Nottingham, U.K. (1984-1985) and North Carolina (1985). Dr. Burgess joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1986 as Assistant and then Associate Professor and moved to the University of Connecticut in 1993. She was promoted to Professor in 1999, and in 2009 she was appointed Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Connecticut.

Nano Medicine, Injectable Dispersed Systems, Formulation, Processing and Performance, Drug Delivery.

Dr. Roger M. Leblanc received a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Université Laval in 1964, followed by a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1968. Then, he obtained a postdoc position at the Royal Institution of Great Britain for two years before moving to the University of Québec, Trois-Rivières, Canada, where he spent 20+ years of studying photobiophysics. He moved his research to the University of Miami in 1994. Dr. Leblanc is Professor and Chair of Chemistry Department at University of Miami. And his research interests are centered on biophotophysics, spectroscopy and surface chemistry and he has published 502 research articles related to these topics and has guided more than 100 Ph.D. and M.Sc.

Nano Medicine, Drug Delivery, Quantum Dots, carbon dots for doxorubicin delivery, blood–brain barrier (BBB), Anticancer drugs, bone imaging, Biophotophysics, Spectroscopy and Surface chemistry

Vladimir P. Torchilin is a University Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Northeastern University, Boston. He graduated from the Moscow University with MS in Chemistry, and obtained there his Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry and Chemistry of Physiologically Active Compounds in 1971 and 1980, respectively. In 1991, Dr. Torchilin joined MGH/Harvard Medical School as the Head of Chemistry Program, Center for Imaging and Pharmaceutical Research, and Associate Professor of Radiology.

Dr. Torchilin is with Northeastern University. He was the Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1998-2008. His research interests include liposomes, lipid-core micelles, biomedical polymers, drug delivery and targeting, pharmaceutical nanocarriers, experimental cancer immunology. He has published more than 350 original papers (which received more than 30,000 citations), more than 150 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 10 books, including Immobilized Enzymes in Medicine, Targeted Delivery of Imaging Agents, Liposomes, Nanoparticulates as Pharmaceutical Carriers, Biomedical Aspects of Drug Targeting, and holds more than 40 patents. He is Editor-in-Chief of Current Drug Discovery Technologies and of Drug Delivery and on the Editorial Boards of many journals including Journal of Controlled Release (Review Editor), Bioconjugate Chemistry, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Molecular Pharmaceutics.

Volkmar Weissig, Sc.D., Ph.D. is a Tenured Full Professor of Pharmacology and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Weissig received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry and his postdoctoral Sc.D. degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany). Combined he completed several years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow (Russia), at the Academic Department of Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London (UK), at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science in Prague (CSFR), at the College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Before joining the faculty at Midwestern University, Dr. Weissig was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Dr. Weissig holds 16 patents and he has published 98 research papers, review articles and book chapters, mostly in the area of nano drug delivery systems. He also edited and published 8 books. He serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Liposome Research and he is member of several other Editorial Boards. In July 2009 Dr. Weissig was inducted into the World Technology Network as a Fellow. In October 2014 Dr. Weissig was elected President of the World Mitochondria Society.

Dr. Weissig’s major research interests lie in the areas of Mitochondrial Medicine and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology. In particular, his laboratory has pioneered the design and development of mitochondria-targeted nano drug delivery systems, which have opened new strategies for mitochondrial gene therapy, for apoptosis-based anticancer chemotherapies and for controlling and manipulating the redox status of mammalian mitochondria.

Dr. Irach B. Taraporewala has over 30 years’ experiece in drug discovery/drug development R&D. He currently is President of the Sitara Pharmaceutical Consulting Group. He previously served as founder, CEO, President and Chief Technology Officer, and on the Board of Directors of OHR Pharmaceutical, Inc. an ophthalmology drug development company, and as a Drug Development consultant at PAREXEL Consulting. Dr. Taraporewala has published papers in drug development and delivery in reputed journals and has lectured extensively. He received a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the Philadelpjhia College of Pharmacy and Science, and has been Principal Investigator on several NIH/DoD biomedical research grants.

Consulting on Pharmaceutical Company start-up and phased growth strategic planning, Drug Development and Regulatory Strategy, Risk management, CMC Regulatory Affairs, CMC Module 2 and 3 CTD submissions and review, Drug Master File submissions for APIs, GMP, Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Design, Organic Synthesis, Drug Discovery and Development, Quality Assurance, Quality Systems, Technology/intellectual Property Due Diigence for Mergers and Acquisitions, Pharmaceutical Portfolio Assessment , Formulation Development, Sustained Release Pharmaceuticals, Drug-Device Combination Products, SBIR/STTR Grants and IP Evaluations. Specialist on guiding success-driven strategy and regulatory pathway development to small and mid-sized pharmaceutical and biotech companies transitioning from the R&D stage to preclinical and clinical phases of drug development. Consultant services for strategic partnerships, due diligence for technology/IP evaluation on Mergers & Acquisitions, and on portfolio companies for venture firms.

Roberto De Santis was born in Naples, Italy, in 1966. He received the mechanical engineering degree in 1994, the PhD in Biotechnology of Dental Materials in 1997 and the Master in Biomaterials in 2001. He is Researcher at the Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB) of the Italian National Research Council from 2001. He is adjunct professor of Science and Technology of Dental Materials at the School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine of Naples “Federico II”. He has worked for many years on materials for biomedical applications developing particular skills on the properties of natural tissues, design of prostheses for hard tissues replacements and scaffolds for tissue engineering.

BIOMATERIALS AND TISSUE ENGINEERING

Erwan Rauwel PhD, habil. obtained his PhD from Caen University in Materials science. He continued with postdoctoral studies at Minatec, Grenoble, France where he worked in collaboration with STMicroelectronics. He then moved to the University of Aveiro, Portugal where he held a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship and developed a new chemical method based on atomic layer deposition (ALD) (patented). He has been a Senior Researcher at University of Oslo where he has developed a new method for the synthesis of ultrastable metal nanoparticles (patented). Since, 2013, he is Professor at Tallinn University of Technology, Tartu College where his team is investigating the properties of these nanoparticles for biomedical applications and sustainable energy applications. He has more than 45 peer-reviewed publications, 2 book chapters and 4 patents. He is presently consulting editor for International Journal of Nanomedicine.

Metal nano particles, Monodisperse nanoparticles , interest for cancer treatment, Targeted Drug Delivery, Nano Medicine, and Drug Delivery

Dr.Fenniri was educated at the Université de Strasbourg, France, receiving his undergraduate degree in chemistry and biochemistry, and his M.Sc./Ph.D. degrees in supramolecular science and engineering under Nobel Laureate Professor Jean-Marie Lehn. He then joined the Scripps Research Institute in California, USA, where he carried out his postdoctoral training under the supervision of Professor Richard A. Lerner. In 1997 he moved to Purdue University, where he initiated his independent academic career, and established the Purdue Laboratory for Chemical Nanotechnology. In 2003, He joined National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) as a founding member and the University of Alberta where he led the Supramolecular Nanoscale Assembly program. Since 2013, Dr. Fenniri has been Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. Dr. Fenniri has achieved international recognition as a leader in the areas of self-assembly, supramolecular chemistry, nanomedicine, and materials sciences. His group works at the forefront of basic and applied nanosciences, in collaboration with various academic institutions, federal laboratories, and with the private sector. Dr. Fenniri’s contributions appeared in over 220 publications, 20 patents and patent applications, and over 450 contributed national and international conference papers. Dr. Fenniri has also presented his work in over 170 invited distinguished lectures, colloquia and seminars around the globe. Dr. Fenniri is the recipient of several academic and professional honours and awards, including the Xerox UAC Award, the 3M Faculty Award, the Showalter Trust Fund Award, the Trask Trust Fund Technology Innovation Award, the Cottrell Teacher Scholar Award, and the US National Science Foundation Career Award. Dr. Fenniri is Member of the Editorial Board of several scientific journals and serves on several national and international scientific boards, panels, and committees.

Nanotechnology for biomedical applications, nanoscale materials for drug delivery, and cell therapeutics and regenerative medicine.

Hidetoshi Arima has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from Kumamoto University and worked in Eisai Co., Ltd in Japan. Next, he moved to Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, and then he came back to Kumamoto University, Japan, 1998. He was a vesited researcher in 2001 in University of Southern California, CA, USA. He is a professor in Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto Universiy, Japan. He has published more than 190 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of Scientific Reports and so on.

shRNA and siRNA, dendrimers, siRNA complexes, and CDEs and GUG CDEs as cell-selective nonviral vectors.

Hiroshi Maeda is a world renowned expert in macromolecular therapeutics. He was successful in creating the world first polymeric drug, SMANCS, approved for treatment of hepatoma in Japan. Consequently, he discovered the concept of EPR effect of macromolecular-drugs, ubiquitous mechanism for solid tumor selective targeting of polymeric drugs. He received MS, University of California, Fulbright Fellow, and Ph.D., M.D., Tohoku University. He published more than 450 papers in reputed journals. He was awarded Lifetime-Achievement-Award at Royal-Pharmaceutical-Society, Princess-Takamatsu-Award in Cancer Research, Tomizo-Yoshida-Award, highest award of JCA, and also selected as most cited influential scientist in pharmacology by Thomson Reuters 2014.

Formulation and Development, Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutical Industry, Drug Delivery Technology, Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Peptide and Protein Drug Delivery, Drug Discovery and Drug Development.

LIU is currently a professor at Lanzhou University (China). He received his BEng degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University (China) in 1996 and PhD degree from Lanzhou University in 2001. He was a postdoctoral researcher in Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS from 2001 to 2003 and visiting professor in Akita Prefectural University (Japan) from 2011 to 2012. His research interests mainly focus on the design of micro-/nano-structured functional polymeric materials and composites and their applications in biomedical field. He has authored over 200 original research papers and reviews in SCI-indexed journals and 6 invited book chapters for international publishers such as Wiley and American Scientific Publishers.

His research interests mainly focus on the design of micro-/nano-structured functional polymeric materials and composites and their applications in biomedical field.

Kun Cheng is currently Associate Professor of Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences at School of Pharmacy in University of Missouri-Kasas City, USA

Development of nucleic acid therapy for cancer, liver disease, and islet transplantation Development of targeted delivery systems for therapeutic macromolecules Synthesis of novel polymers for nucleic acid drug delivery Identification of molecular ligand for specific cells Designing of anti-tumor prodrug for improving target-ability and efficiency

Dr. Vincenzo Guarino, PhD in Biomaterials Science, is Research Scientist at National Research Council of Italy (IPCB-CNR) since 2006. He is expert of process technologies for scaffold design and electrohydrodynamic technologies (i.e, electrospinning, electrospraying, Electro Dynamic Atomization) to produce micro/nanofibres, particles and capsules for tissue regeneration, drug delivery and cancer therapy. Currently, he is scientific partner of International Islamic University of Malaysia (RAGS) and of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (PAPIIT). He was scientific responsible of several post doc and ESR fellows and supervisor of PhD fellows and BSc/MSc students. He is author of over 70 international publications (H-Index 18 – Google scholar source), 9 book chapters, 2 patents (1 pending) and over 200 communications in international/national conferences. Member of the European (ESB) and Italian (SIB) Society of Biomaterials, American Nano Society and reviewer of several international journals, he has been awarded as author/co-author in several international congresses on biomaterials and his publication has been cited and abstracted in the Highlights CNR 2008-09 – collection of best CNR works 2008-2009.

electrospinning, electrospraying, Electro Dynamic Atomization, Tissue engineering, Regenerative Medicine.

D.Nagasamy Venkatesh is Assistant Professor at Department of Pharmaceutics, JSS College of Pharmacy, Udhagamandalam. India. Nagasamy Venkatesh is interested in developing certain nanobased drug delivery systems for antiviral and anticancer drugs. His research is also involved in developing sustained/controlled drug delivery systems for certain drugs and analytical and bio-analytical method development for drugs. He serves as a reviewer of more than 25 peer reviewed journals including AAPS, Carbohydrate polymer, Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He serves editorial board member for more than 20 international journals.Nagasamy Venkatesh has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. He has received two awards for his presentations/publications in a national level seminar.

Nano based drug delivery systems for antiviral and anticancer drugs,developing sustained/controlled drug delivery systems for certain drugs, dissolution enhancement of certain drugs by solid dispersion techniques analytical and bio-analytical method development for drugs.