Hiroshi Maeda is a world renowned expert in macromolecular therapeutics. He created the world first polymeric-conjugate 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, Devis, Fulbright student, 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 Japan-Cancer-Assoc., and also selected as most cited influential scientist in pharmacology by Thomson Reuters 2014, and H-index of 89.

Cancer chemotherapy, macromolecular therapeutics (polymer drugs), molecular pathology in cancer and infectious diseases, drug targeting, bacterial infection/ mechanism of pathogenesis of proteases/kallikrein/kinin, role of free radicals/ nitric oxide in infectious diseases and cancer, mutation, cancer prevention

Jean-Michel Scherrmann, Pharm. D., Ph. D. is Professor in the Department of Pharmacokinetics, Faculty of Pharmacy, the University Paris Descartes. He received his Pharm.D. and Ph. D. in analytical radiochemistry from the University Descartes at Paris. He has led the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) from 2002 to 2013. He has been recently promoted Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at University Paris Descartes and nominated Professor at the National Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Techniques. Dr. Scherrmann has made significant contributions to the development of drug radioimmunoassay, drug detoxification by immunotherapy and drug redistribution concepts in pharmacokinetics. He pioneered the first clinical application of colchicine immunotherapy in acute colchicine overdoses and is now focusing his research on the role of drug transporters in neuropharmacokinetics and on drug delivery strategies to the brain. His work has resulted in two patents, 290 scientific articles, 35 books chapters and more than 250 invited presentations. He has served on the editorial boards of several journals in the analytical and pharmaceutical sciences. He has mentored over 30 postgraduate and 44 doctoral students. Dr. Scherrmann has been a recipient of the 1992 Americal Academy of Clinical Toxicology Award and the 1999 French National Academy of Medicine Achievement Award. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a member of the French National Academy of Pharmacy. He was visiting Professor at Tohoku University (Japan) Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2008 and awarded as Honoured Member of the French Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics Group in 2014.

Drug radioimmunoassay, drug detoxification by immunotherapy and drug redistribution concepts in pharmacokinetics, role of drug transporters in neuropharmacokinetics and on drug delivery strategies to the brain.

Haruo Sugi graduated from post-graduated school in the University of Tokyo with the degree of PhD in 1962, and was appointed to be an Instructor in Physiology, in the University of Tokyo Medical School. From 1965 to 1967, he worked at Columbia University as research associate, and at the National Instututes of Health as a visiting scientist. Sugi was Professor and Chairman in Teikyo University Medical School from 1973 to 2004 when he became Emeritus Professor. He was Chairman of Muscle Commission in the International Union of Physiological Sciences from 1998 to 2008 (IUPS). He organized Symposia on molecular mechanism of muscle contraction six times, each followed by Proceeding published from University of Tokyo Press, Plenum, Kluwer and Springer and regarded as milestones of progress in this area of research work.

Physiology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology

Dr. Yoshiro Fujii is a director and chief dentist of Shin Kobe Dental Clinic. 1985:D.D.S. (Certified by Japanese Health Ministry).1989: He received Koide prize. Finished graduate school, Nagoya, Japan. and Ph.D (Aich Gakuin University Graduate school, Nagoya). 2000: Dr. Fujii began to run Shin Kobe Dental Clinic (Kobe, Japan). 2009: Fellow of the international college of acupuncture and electro-therapeutics (F.I.C.A.E). 2013,2014: 100 next era CEOs in Asia (Japan times). 2014: Editioriall board member of Savvy Science Publisher. 2015: Editorial board member of British Journal of Medical Research.. 2015: 100 Next-era Leaders in Asia (Japan times). He has written five published works in Japanese and two in English. He is an Authorization doctor of the Japan Bi-Digital O-Ring Test. Association and a director of the Japan Society of Dental Equipment. He published eleven international academic articles in English. 2014-15: He was a chair or co-chair three times in various international congresses.

Medical Dentistry

Dr. Kanteti recieved his PhD in chemistry from the University of Pune, India, for his pioneering work in contraceptice steroid drug development. He subsequently trained at the Dana-Farber Institute at Harvard where he was also a faculty member. He has recieved multiple awards for his work in cancer biology including the 'Claudia Adams Barr Award'.

developing novel pedagogic tools for the next generations of physicians and biomedical investigators.

Avi Domb is a Prof. for Medicinal Chemistry and Biomaterials at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry, Pharmaceutics and Law; Diplomas in Polymers and Textiles and in Business Administration, and PhD degree in Chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He did his postdoctoral training at Syntex Inc. CA; Harvard Univ. Medical School; MIT, Dept. Chemical Engineering, Cambridge, MA, USA. He was Senior Scientist at the Biological Institute, Ness Ziona, Israel and R&D manager at Nova Pharm. Co. Baltimore USA. Since 1991 he is a faculty member at the Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University. During 2007-2012 he headed the Division of Forensic Science at the Israel Police and during 2014-2016 he served as President of the Jerusalem College of Engineering (JCE).

His current areas of research include: Nanoparticles and nanocoatings, Biopolymers, Drug delivery systems and Forensic Sciences.

Dr Michal M. Godlewski is currently the Vice-Dean for International Studies at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, WULS-SGGW. He defended the PhD in 2003 and received habilitation in 2015. Currently he manages Cytometric Laboratory of the Department of Physiological Sciences and Laboratory of Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering in the Veterinary Research Centre/Centre for Biomedical Research of the Department of Large Animal Diseases with Clinic. Dr Godlewski is recognized expert in the field of nanoparticle applications for medicine. In his research he collaborates with 20 scientific institutions and 6 business partners. His recent scientific interest relate to the interactions of nanomaterials with living organism and the development of nanoparticles for bio-medical applications. He is author/co-author of 60 papers in the WoS database and over 10 chapters in academic monographies, cited over 500 times. Forty invited talks and 30 national and international prizes and medals for innovation, reflect the relevance of his research.

nanoparticles in animal models

Prof. Arote Rohidas is an Associate Professor and the director of Nanomedicine Laboratory in the Dept. of Molecular Genetics, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University. Prof. Arote is one of the leading scientists in the field of biomaterials development for gene delivery especially for cancer treatment. His research on DNA therapeutics, biodegradable polymeric carriers, and nanoparticles has been published in over 50 international journals and also produced various patents. Prof. Arote’s lab is focusing on development of novel biomaterials and nanotechnologies for a variety of medical applications including gene/drug delivery, diagnosis, bioimaging, and regenerative medicine also on both fundamental and applied questions in the cross-disciplinary fields of biomaterials and medicine in order to develop novel therapeutic methods for the treatment of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

Biomaterials and medicine in order to develop novel therapeutic methods for the treatment of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

Dr Julien Bras (H index: 32; 122 scientific papers, 11 patents) is Associate professor at Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP Pagora). He is member of Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, 2016-2021). He is deputy director of LGP2 (Laboratory of Pulp & Paper Science) and head of the “Multiscale Biobased Material” group (ab. 40 pers.). He has directly supervised 23 PhD and 14 Post-doc focusing on research on Biomaterials, Nanocellulose & Specialty papers. After engineer diploma in Chemistry and a PhD on Renewable Materials in 2004, he worked in industry few years as Innovation Manager within Ahlstrom Specialty paper and then left industry to become associate professor since 2006. Through his different experiences, he develops several competences. His expertise deals particularly with Nanocellulose, biobased and smart materials. More precisely, he proposed new way of production, characterization and functionalization of nanocellulose for several applications since more than 10 years. He has already coordinated or supervised several industrial and European projects in FP6, FP7 and Marie-Curie calls. He is involved in a Labex & Carnot institute organization as WP leader and is associate editor for an Elsevier Journal (Industrial Crops and products).

Biomaterials, Nanocellulose & Specialty papers

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.

Dr. Shaoqin Sarah Gong is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prof. Gong’s research group has developed a series of multifunctional drug/agent nanocarriers including unimolecular micelles, polymer nanocapsules, polymer vesicles, and polymer-functionalized inorganic nanoparticles for targeted drug/agent delivery to treat and monitor various major health threats including cancers, vascular disorders, and eye diseases. She has co-authored over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 130 conference papers. Her H-index is 49. She is an editorial board member for several journals including Biomaterials, Theranostics, Biofabrication, and Nanotheranostics. She also served as an Associate Editor for Biomaterials and is the winner of a number of awards including the NSF CAREER Award and NIH Career Development Award. Email: sgong@engr.wisc.edu

unimolecular micelles, polymer nanocapsules, polymer vesicles, and polymer-functionalized inorganic nanoparticles for targeted drug/agent delivery to treat and monitor various major health threats including cancers, vascular disorders, and eye diseases

Dr. Hemachand Tummala is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also serves as the Director, Vaccine Adjuvant research at Medgene Labs., Brookings and a Faculty Scholar at the College of Pharmacy. He has over 15 years of experience in disease biology, immunology and drug/vaccine delivery His research interests are in the area of design of various vaccine and drug delivery systems for cancer, and infectious diseases. He has over 30 publications and presentations, 1 book chapter, four pending patent applications. Dr.Tummala’s lab has discovered a novel bioactive polymer (TLR-4 agonist), inulin acetate. Using Inulin acetate they have engineered a pathogen mimicking vaccine delivery system (PMVDS). Based on its innovation PMVDS technology won the national award “2013-American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists- Innovation in Biotechnology award”. PMVDS technology is licensed to Medgene Labs., Brookings, SD for commercialization. It is currently being tested by three big animal health pharmaceutical companies in USA and Europe. Dr. Tummala teaches pharmaceutics courses to professional pharmacy students and graduate students. He has been a research mentor for 12 undergraduate students, five graduate students. He also serves in the editorial board of several journals and has served as a reviewer for national funding agencies. He is a recipient of “2013-Distinguished Researcher”, “2014-Student Association Teacher of the Year”, and “2015- Excellence in Teaching” awards from the college of Pharmacy.

Development of novel vaccine adjuvants and delivery systems. Development of cancer vaccines and viral vaccines using novel vaccine delivery systems.

With more than 15 years of teaching and research experience, Prof. Shahiwala is currently serving as a Professor in Department of Pharmaceutics and Program Director-Postgraduate studies at Dubai Pharmacy College, Dubai. Prof. Shahiwala received his masters and doctorate in pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical technology from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, INDIA with high research output in the area of novel drug delivery. His Postdoctoral Research at Northeastern University, USA was specifically focused on applications of nanotechnology in the field of drug delivery and drug targeting. Prof. Shahiwala published several international publications in high impact peer reviewed journals, four book chapters with internationally renowned publishers and one patent. He is an editor of the book entitled “Applications of Polymers in Drug Delivery” published by Smithers Rapra Technology, a UK based publisher. Prof. Shahiwala’s research credentials have established him as a reviewer, a member of editorial board, a speaker and an invited author for various pharmaceutical scientific journals and conferences. Prof. Shahiwala also has more than 3 years of rich research experience in Formulation & Development Division of large scale manufacturers of Pharmaceuticals in India as an added technical expertise in his field. In his recent projects, Prof. Shahiwala is working on a book entitled “In vitro and in vivo tools in drug delivery research for optimum clinical outcomes” with CRC Press, Taylor & Francis group.

Applications of nanotechnology in the field of drug delivery and drug targeting

Dr. Kumar is the Associate Professor and Program Director of Biotechnology in the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Biotechnology in the Jefferson College of Health Professions.

Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine

Giovanni Ligresti ,Ph. D. is Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Udine. Previously he also worked at Biogen Idec, University of Washington - Departments of Medicine and Bioengineering, University of Washington - Departement of Pathology. Research Investigator with over 12 years of experience in molecular biology, vascular biology, immunology, tissue fibrosis, and tissue engineering. Lead investigator in several research projects focusing on different aspects of cell biology and disease including tumor growth and metastasis, angiogenesis, vascular rarefaction, tissue injury, and inflammation. Experienced in developing 3D multicellular cultures and tissue organoids in serum free-defined media to study cellular response mechanisms and for drug testing. Experienced in developing complex human 3D cellular systems using microfluidic platforms to study disease dynamics. Extensive experience in most aspects of the drug discovery process including cell signal transduction, target selection and validation, development of in vitro cell-based assays and the design of in vivo preclinical mouse models. Demonstrated abilities of leadership as a group manager and project leader in designing and managing multiple research projects in collaboration with universities, hospitals and health care institutions. Large peer-reviewed publication history in the fields of research oncology, signal transduction biology, vascular biology, immunology, fibrosis and tissue engineering.

Tissue injury and fibrosis research

Kenji Suzuki, Ph.D. (by Published Work; Nagoya University) worked at Hitachi Medical Corporation, Japan, Aichi Prefectural University, Japan, as a faculty member, and in Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, as Assistant Professor. In 2014, he joined Department of Electric and Computer Engineering and Medical Imaging Research Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, as Associate Professor. He published more than 300 papers (including 110 peer-reviewed journal papers). He is inventor on 30 patents (including 12 granted patents), which were licensed to several companies and commercialized. He published 10 books and 22 book chapters, and edited 12 journal special issues. He was awarded/co-awarded more than 25 grants as PI including NIH R01 and ACS. He served as the Editor of a number of leading international journals, including Pattern Recognition and Medical Physics. He served as a referee for 80 international journals, an organizer of 25 international conferences, and a program committee member of 145 international conferences. He received 25 awards.

Computer-aided diagnosis of lesions in the abdomen, thorax, and heart and the development of techniques of machine learning, image processing, and pattern recognition.

Bruno Sarmento graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Porto (UP) in 2002 and completed a PhD in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at UP in 2007, in collaboration with Queens University (CA), University of Copenhagen (DK) and University of Santiago de Compostela (ES). From 2007 to 2012 he held a Post-Doc position at UP, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, investigating insulin intestinal absorption mechanisms using in vitro models. In 2008 he was appointed Assistant Professor at IUCS. He is currently visiting professor of the Post-Graduate School, UniOeste (BR). In 2012 he became Associated Researcher at INEB, where established an independent team. He was appointed as Assistant Researched at i3S (Institute for Investigation and Innovation in Health)/INEB in 2016. So far, he has supervised/co-supervised 8 Post-Docs, 29 PhD students (9 completed) and 23 MSc students (19 completed), and 6 researcher assistants. He also co-founded Inovapotek in 2008, and is member of its advisory board.

His current research is focused on the development of functionalized nanomedicines and their application in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. In particular, nanoformulations of biopharmaceutical drugs with interest in diabetes, cancer and infectious diseases. He has also specialized in mucosal tissue engineering models to validate functionalized nanomedicines and to perform in vitro/in vivo correlation.

Dr. (Ms) T.Theivasanthi of Kalasalingam University doing research in nanomaterials / nanotechnology; has 14 years of teaching experience; published many research articles/ books and h-index 9; life member of Indian Science Congress Association and Magnetics Society of India; serving as Editorial Board Member/ reviewer for some scientific journals; achieved many awards/ honours/ recognitions including - Madurai Women Achievers Award - 2013, Motivational Award - 2015 and 2015 Women’s Day Award of St.Annes College; achieved World Record in LIMCA Book of Records-2015 for nanotechnology invention “World’s first superparamagnetic plants materials” – named “Santhi Particles”, World Record– 2016 for innovative products "The World’s lowest priced graphene" & "World’s Smallest Particles of Vegetables" and World Record– 2017 for the invention "The World’s Smallest Anti-Viral Plant Particles". Other innovative products- Superparamagnetic lead nanoparticles, semiconducting lead Nanoparticles, Low cost-mass production of graphene, agricultural nanofertilisers, vegetable powder for diabetes, plants materials for diabetes & psoriasis and nanoparticles for treatment of EBOLA, DENGUE, HIV & H1N1 virus infection. Govt. of India shows interests to develop her inventions for the benefits of public; she has been invited to deliver lectures (more than 105) in International / National scientific conferences, foreign countries (China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Greece) and renowned institutes like National Institute of Technology, Anna University, Central University of all over India; she delivered Motivational Lectures for women, students and staff of institutes / Multi-national corporate companies (Cognizant Technologies); Artha Nyana Academy (Malaysia), ISOM (Malaysia) etc. Economic Times and Telegraph have published news about her research; Thanthi TV, All India Radio, Minnal FM (Malaysia) and Bernama TV (Malaysia) have broadcasted her interviews.

nanomaterials / nanotechnology

Dr Zi (Sophia) Gu is a Lecturer and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. She obtained PhD from Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, in 2011, and she was awarded a NHMRC EC Fellowship in 2013 when she started her independent research at UQ prior to joining UNSW in 2016. Sophia has been working in multidisciplinary research areas that combine the knowledge and skills across nanotechnology and biomedicine, and has developed a targeted anti-restenotic therapy and built inorganic nanoparticle platforms for diagnosing and treating diseases. She published in high-impact journals including Advanced Materials, Biomaterials, Chemistry of Materials, Materials Horizons, and Journal of Controlled Release etc. Her recent awards include The Monash Engineering Women’s Leadership Award and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Award. Her research group focuses on developing multifunctional nanomaterials for theranostic application (disease therapy and diagnosis

Nanoparticles for cancer treatment and diagnosis