Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry

Distinguished Professor Bill Denny holds PhD (synthetic chemistry) and DSc (drug development) degrees from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is Director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre at the University of Auckland, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Chemical Sciences there. He is an author on about 670 scientific publications and is a named inventor on 50 issued U.S. patents. He was a co-founding scientist of Proacta Inc and of Pathway Therapeutics, and was the recipient of the 2014 Medicinal Chemistry Award from the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Lidia Matesic completed an undergraduate degree in medicinal chemistry and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is currently a Radiochemist at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney, Australia. Her research focusses on the development of new radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as neurological disorders and cancer.

Dr. Zeng received his Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Muenster, Germany. He is appointed as a full professor at Central South University in 2008. Currently he serves as the deputy dean of School of Pharmaceutical Science in Central South University. Dr. Zeng has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. He also served on the Editorial Board of some scientific journals, such as Associated Editor in Anti-cancer Agents in Med Chem, performed peer-review for more than 50 journals, and participated in many grant review panels. His recent research is focused on the design and synthesis of multimodal molecular imaging biomarker platforms for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Hai-Liang Zhu, born in 1965 in China. Achieved his Master degree in 1988, in Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, specializing in inorganic chemistry. Worked at Department of Chemistry of Ningxia University as a Lecturer in 1988-1994, Lecturer. Achieved his PhD degree in 1998 at School of Chemistry of Nanjing University, and the research direction is bio-inorganic chemistry. From 1998 to 2002 turned to work at School of Chemistry of Zhongshan University and Department of Chemistry of Philipps-University Marburg in Germany as a postdoc. Started his professorship at School of Life Sciences in Nanjing University from 2004. Now focus his research field at Medicinal Chemistry, and has published more than 600 articles and applied for 160 patents.

Prof Patrick Dallemagne holds a Pharm D and a Ph D in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Normandy, Caen (France). He became Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Caen in 1991 and was received Full Professor in 1999. He is currently head of the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche sur le Médicament de Normandie whose activity is dedicated to drug design in oncology and neurosciences fields. Prof Patrick Dallemagne has authored more than 120 publications and he applied for numerous patents.

Dominique Delmas is Professor in the University of Burgundy at the Inserm Research Center Unit U866 “Lipids, Nutrition, Cancers” in Dijon (France) where he manages a research group entitled “Bioactive Molecules and Health”. The main research objectives of his group are to develop and to coordinate multidisciplinary and translational research from laboratory to clinical applications, including 1) the determination of early biomarkers in response to treatment; 2) the identification of new potential targets within membrane and lipid metabolism, 3) the development of new therapeutic strategies by the use of molecules with low toxicity (i.e. polyphenols). These fields constitute a main part of the recent creation by the French Ministery of the LabEx LipSTIC in Dijon. Dominique Delmas has authored or coauthored over 50 original papers and comprehensive reviews on polyphenols health effects. He has also contributed to over 10 books chapters concerning the molecular mechanisms of polyphenols in tumoral models.

Isao Okazaki, M. D., Ph. D. was born in 1941, graduated from Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. He was and is still an Internist, and the specialist of gastrointestinal and liver, gallbladder and pancreas. He is proud of the first finder of collagenase in the liver (Nature, 1974) and published original papers on MMPs in the recovery from liver diseases. He is also interested in the carcinogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (Cancer, 2014; J Mod Hum Pathol 2016). He is the Professor of Department of Medicine, Sanno Hospital, International University of Health and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Letizia Polito is an Assistant Professor in General Pathology at the Department of Experimental,Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna. Her PhD was in Experimental Pathology. She carried out her research activity in three main fields; (a) the study of plant toxins, known asRibosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs), (b) the design and the in vitro and in vivo experimentation ofimmunotoxins, in order to obtain toxic pharmacological molecules specifically towards certain Cellular targets responsible for a pathological state; and (c) the study of enzymes that can vary the Cellular REDOX balance. Dr. Polito research has been well published in 75 papers in international journals.

Dr. A. Shtil received his MD degree in Orenburg State Medical Institute and PhD in Moscow Research Institute of Otorhinolaryngology. In 1994-2002 he worked in the University of Illinois at Chicago, Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, studying the mechanisms of multidrug resistance and altered drug response in cancer (with I. Roninson, W. Dalton and K. Scotto). He established a new laboratory of tumor cell death with broad interests in cancer biology. Dr. Shtil has authored 150 scientific papers, review articles and a number of patents. He is member of editorial boards in four international journals.

Dr José Correa Basurto studied the Master Degree in Bioinformatic at Universidad Internacional de Andalucia-España 2013, he studied PhD in Medicine research 2006, MD in Pharmacology 2004, BS Medicine 2002. He is full professor-research of Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry at ESM-IPN, Mexico . Dr Correa had published 115 articles in JCR journals, 6 in no indexed journal, 3 book capters, and also, He had advised 20 posgraduate studens (10 are developing their proyect of thesis) and Dr Correa had receive 4 posdoctoral. Finally, He Had submit 3 patents.

Prof. Bei is M.D., Ph.D; Specialist in Medical Oncology and in Clinical Pathology. Currently, he is Full Professor of General Pathology at University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His teaching activity encompasses General Pathology for School of Medicine, Medical Biotechnology, Pharmacy, Dietician, Residency in Endocrinology, Oncology. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Rec. Pat Infl Allergy Drug Discov, J Liver, MOJ Immunol (Senior Editor), O J Immunol, J Immun Serum Biol, SciTz Nutrition and Food Science, Frontiers in Bioscience, Anti-Cancer Agents in Med Chem. Research interest: Cancer immunotherapy. Nutrition and cancer. He has published about 100 peer reviewed publications: Total IF=375 (ISI), H-index: 29, Citations: 2760.

Dr. Berretta obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Oncology from the University of Catania, Catania (Italy). Dr. Berretta is also Editor in Chief of World Cancer Research Journal, published by Verduci-international. Currently Dr. Berretta is also an Oncologist (MD) at National Cancer Institute of Aviano (PN), Italy. He has published more than 200 scientific publications and 3 books on oncologic topics. Dr. Berretta is the chief of Cancer survivors on solid tumor at Department of Medical Oncology of National cancer Institute of Aviano (PN), Italy.

Dr. Brabec is Head of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Pharmacology of the Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and professor of biophysics at the Palacky University in Olomouc. His experience in the research is aimed at structure, physical properties and interactions of biomacromolecules including mechanisms underlying activity of anticancer and antimicrobial drugs. Dr. Brabec has authored more than 300 full-length articles published in refereed international journals; these papers have been cited more than 10 000 times (Hirsch‘s index, h = 54), 8 review chapters and is currently member of the editorial board of three foreign international journals.

Dr. Zhen Cheng is an Associate Professor of Radiology and a member of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), BioX program, Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection and Stanford Cancer Center. He currently is the Director of the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory at MIPS where he is developing novel molecular probes, non-invasive imaging techniques, and bionanotechnology for multimodality early detection of diseases including cancer, cardiac and neurological diseases. Dr. Cheng has published over 200 articles, and he has served as a reviewer for numerous funding agencies and for over 100 research journals.

John Chirgwin, PhD, is Professor of Medicine at Indiana University, with previous appointments at Washington University and the Universities of Texas and Virginia. Widely cited for the original method of RNA isolation with guanidinium thiocyanate, he has been successively a biochemist, molecular biologist, cell biologist and cancer researcher. His laboratory recently developed high-throughput ex vivo assays for drugs targeting cancer:bone interactions in breast & prostate cancer and multiple myeloma, screening inhibitors of the proteasome, heparanase, FGFs, TGFβ, uPAR, PTHrP and Sema4D. The assays are being extended to fat, muscle and sensory neurons to model cachexia and cancer bone pain.

Dr. Brøgger Christensen got a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, which has now been merged with the University of Copenhagen. He has been an associated professor and later professor with special obligations at this University since 1971. Currently he is professor emeritus. His teaching has focused on natural product and his research has focused on drug development from natural products. Two biotech companies have been founded based on his inventions: Lica Pharmaceuticals and GenSpera, now Inspyr Therapeutics. He has co-authored more than 170 scientific publications. He is co-inventor on 10 patents. His h-index is 44.

Ana Conejo-García was born in Malaga, Spain in 1975. She received the degree in Pharmacy in 1998 from the University of Granada (Spain) and the Ph. D. in Pharmacy from the same University in 2002. She jointed Prof. Schofield's group (2003-2005) at University of Oxford as a postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellow. From 2006 she works as a lecturer in the Department of Medicinal and Organic Chemistry of the University of Granada. She is specialized in studying mechanisms that regulate proliferation, differentiation and cellular apoptosis and searching for new therapeutic strategies based on the rational design of highly selective antitumor agents.

Dr. Bikash Debnath works as a Visiting Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy at University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005 from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Over the past 15 years Dr. Debnath is actively involved in the discovery of novel anticancer and anti-HIV agents. He has published more than 40 scientific papers.

Alessandro Desideri received the degree in Physics in 1975 from the University of Roma La Sapienza (Italy) and the Ph. D. in Chemistry from Leicester University (UK) in 1982. From 1995, he has been appointed as full Professor of Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Science University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he has set up an interdisciplinary group having both experimental and computational expertise. He is involved in the structural and functional characterization of human topoisomerase I and in its interaction with antitumoral drugs. He is also involved in the development of DNA-based nanostructures for a targeted delivery of anticancer drugs.

I graduated at Medical School on July 3rd 1995 in Catania, my hometown. Afterwards, I had my Residency in General Surgery in Milan at “Niguarda Ca’ Granda Hospital”, and I spent 4 months at the Liver/Gastro Intestinal Transplant Division, Department of Surgery, University of Miami. Since then, my career was mostly dedicated to the surgical oncology of the hepato-pancreato-biliary district and to liver transplantation, with both clinical and translational interests. From 2008 I am Associate Professor at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Modena, Italy), where I currently direct the Hepato-pancreato-biliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit. Robotic surgery, immunosuppressive therapy and regenerative medicine are the research field of interest in our unit.

Mohammed I. El-Gamal, Ph.D. is the author of more than 51 publications in highly reputed journals. He got 3 patents, and presented more than 37 posters and 8 oral presentations in different international conferences. He has peer-review more than 50 articles. And he has been an editorial board member in more than 17 international journals. He has been also a member of the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE). Mohammed I. El-Gamal, Ph.D. and his group have developed a new more efficient prodrug of Olmesartan (antihypertensive agent) which has been marketed in the Republic of Korea. And he is interested in anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial drug development.

Anton FICAI obtained his diploma in Organic Chemistry, the master in Bioengineering and the PhD in Collagen/Hydroxyapatite composite materials. He accomplished the Postdoctoral stage in bone substitutes. His research activity is mainly focused on biomaterials for bone healing and treatment. Also, he was involved in some projects dealing with bone cancer treatment and pain management in improving the prosthetic tubular devices, in ligament reconstruction, etc. He has obtained various national and international awards and prizes, including 25 Gold Medals as well as 25 Special Prizes offered by the International Jury of the different countries: Moldova, China, Hong-Kong, Turkey, Hungary, etc.

Dr. Folini obtained the Degree in Biological Sciences and the doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biotechnological Applications from the University of Milan, Italy. Currently Dr. Folini is Staff scientist at the Molecular Pharmacology Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, National Cancer Institute of Milan. He is member of the American Association for Cancer Research and of the EORTC-Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanism group. Dr. Folini has authored 65 manuscript (h-index: 28; total impact factor: 330), guest-edited the thematic issue “Targeting Telomere Maintenance Mechanisms in Cancer Therapy” published by Bentham Science Publishers and is a named inventor of 1 patent (WO/2006/087752).

Dr. Gangjee obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Dr. Gangjee also holds a BS and MS in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Dr. Gangjee is a Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Duquesne University. He has published more than 165 scientific publications and holds 37 patents.

Dr. Roy Golsteyn is an Associate Professor of Biology and the Director of the Cancer Cell and the Natural Product Laboratories at the University of Lethbridge in Canada. He undertook his PhD in biochemistry in Sir Tim Hunt’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge (Nobel Prize 2001). Dr. Golsteyn completed his studies as a post-doctoral fellow at the ISREC in Switzerland, at the Institute Curie in Paris with Dr. Evelyne Friederich and Prof. Daniel Louvard. Prior to joining the University of Lethbridge, he was a senior research scientist in drug discovery in oncology with the pharmaceutical company Servier in Paris, France. He has published more than 80 papers and holds 5 patents.

Dr. Vita Golubovskaya is a Director of Research and Business Development at Promab Biotechnology developing novel anti-cancer immunotherapies including CAR-T therapy. She has more than 20 years of experience in cancer research, oncology and immunology. Previously, Dr. Golubovskaya was Research Associate Professor at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Research Professor at University of Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY. She holds Ph.D from Institute of Cytology, St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Golubovskaya authored more than 75 manuscripts, 8 patents and several book chapters. She was awarded as a Principal Investigator Susan Komen Grant, NCI NIH grants as Co-Investigator and STTR grant as PI. Dr. Golubovskaya served as a Guest Editor in Frontiers in Bioscience, Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry and Cancers.

Isabel M. Gomez-Monterrey is Associate Professor in the University “Federico II” of Naples with more of 25 years of experience in the academic research. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Extremadura, Spain, and served as postdoctoral researcher at both the University René Descartes of Paris, and the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (C.S.I.C.) of Madrid. She has published more than 85 scientific publications and one patent. Dr. Gomez-Monterrey is also faculty member of the Biotechnology Center at Naples, where she teaches “Principles of Medicinal Chemistry” for health biotechnology students.

Dr. Génisson completed his PhD at the ICSN in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, under the supervision of Dr. C. Marzano. After working for two years at Merck Frosst in Montreal, Canada, he joined the CNRS in the group of Dr. A. E. Greene in Grenoble, France. In 1998, he moved to Toulouse, France, where he is now the director of the SPCMIB laboratory. President regional board and vice president of the Organic Chemistry Division of the French Chemical Society, he has co-authored more than 68 publications and 2 patents. His scientific interests lie in the field of chiral ionic liquids and bioorganic chemistry of lipids.

Professor Wing Shing (John) Ho, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Biochemistry Programme of School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He obtained a B.S. from The University of Alberta, and M.A., and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry (1985) from State University of New York at Buffalo. After completing a post-doctoral training in Pediatrics Department at SUNYAB and University of Utah. He was appointed associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994.

Dr. Huang obtained a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in Pharmacy (Medicinal Chemistry) from the University of Regensburg, Germany. Dr. Huang was former dean of School of Pharmacy, and head of the Department of Research and Development in NDMC and director of Department of Pharmacy Practice, Tri-Service General Hospital/NDMC. Currently, Dr. Huang is a Professor in College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University also an Adjunct Professor in NDMC. He has published more than 90 scientific publications and is a named inventor of 30 issued U.S., Taiwan or other countries patents. Dr. Huang is currently the Editorial Advisory Board of this journal, published by Bentham Science Publishers.

Dr. Shile Huang focuses on studying the role of mTOR signaling in tumorigenesis and metastasis. Since 2008, he has been studying how mTOR regulates cell survival, cell motility and lymphangiogenesis; how some small molecules (e.g. curcumin, cryptotanshinone, dihydroartimisinin, and ciclopirox) act as anticancer agents and how the heavy metal cadmium induces neuronal apoptosis. He is an editor-in-chief for "Metals and Neurodegeneration". He serves as ad hoc reviewers for funding agencies (e.g. NIH, DOD, ACS, and AHA) and journals (e.g. Cancer research, Oncogene, JBC, etc.).

Pawel Kafarski was born in 1949 in Gdańsk. After finishing studies in chemistry at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in 1966 he stays at this university defending doctoral thesis (1977), receiving habilitation (1990) and becoming a full profesor (2000). Now he chairs Department of Bioorganic Chemistry. He was staying for nine months at Marquette University, Milwaukee (Wisconsin, U.S.A.) in 1976/1977 and six months at poste rouge at Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Montpellier (France) in 1989. He promoted 37 PhDs an published over 300 papers, which are cited over 5000 times.

Dr. Kaipparettu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and research member of Dan L Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor. His major research area is mitochondria-nuclear crosstalk in cancer progression and metastasis (https://sites.google.com/site/kaipparettulab/ ). The lab use transmitochondrial cybrid models to compare mitochondria from different sources under a common nuclear background. His lab also focus on the development of nano materials for Bioimaging.

Jinwoong Kim graduated College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University in 1979, and received master degree in science in the same College. Then he went to USA for doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating with a Ph.D. in Pharmacognosy in 1988. and moved to University of Oklahoma in Norman as postdoctoral fellow. He joined the College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, his alma mater, in 1989, where he rose to the rank of Professor in 1999. He published about 140 papers in international journals, 10 books or book chapers, and 12 patents including 2 US Patent. He served Korean Society of Pharmacognosy as a President in 2009, and currently works as editorial advisory board members in the international scientific journals such as Planta Medica, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and Drugs of the Future.

Prof. A. Douglas Kinghorn has been Professor and Jack L. Beal Chair in Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University (OSU) since 2004. He received Ph.D. (1975) and D.Sc. (1990) degrees from The School of Pharmacy, University of London. He has authored or co-authored over 500 peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, and book chapters. His research interests include the isolation and structural characterization of bioactive natural products from higher plants, particularly potential anticancer agents, antileishmanial compounds, cancer chemopreventives, and taste-modifying substances. In 2016, he received a Distinguished Scholar Award from OSU.

Dr. Gregory Kouraklis obtained an M.D. from the University of Athens, Greece. He had postgraduate education in Greece and USA and he hold the specialty of General Surgery, with special interest in Surgical Oncology. His current position is Chairman of Surgery in the School of Medicine at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He has published more than 225 scientific publications in peer reviewed international journals, plus 150 in National journals. Dr. Kouraklis is Editor in 2 books, Guest Editor in 3 special issues of Eur Surg Res, Senior Editor in 1 journal and Editorial Board in 20 journals.

She received her degree in Biology at the University of Milan and conducted her postdoctoral training at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, where she is currently working as in staff researcher. She has been working in the field of molecular/cellular pharmacology participating in the preclinical development of anticancer drugs. With a specific expertise in molecular targeted therapies, her early research work focused on RET oncogenes and Ret oncoprotein inhibition as a therapeutic approach [1-6]. Recent interests include innovative therapies for sarcomas with a particular focus on agents targeting the tumor and its microenvironment [7-11].

Feng Liang earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2003 at Wuhan University in China, and took his first faculty position at the same University in 2004. He moved to Arizona State University (USA) in 2006, where he was an assistant research scientist at the BioDesign Institute. In 2012, he joined Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China, where he is currently a ‘‘Xiang-Tao’’ Special Term Professor. His main research interests include: 1) Smart Molecules and Materials for Cancer Theranostics; 2) Bio and Chemical Sensors; 3) Recognition-based Single Biopolymer Sequencing.

Dr. Kyu Lim is currently full Professor (1996- ), Department of Biochemistry, Chungnam National University School of Medicine, Korea. Dr. Lim is one of the leading scientists in the field of Omega-3 fatty acids and Cancer research. He has worked to identify novel molecular mechanisms of anticancer action of omega-3 fatty acids in several cancers since 2005. For example, he found that omega-3 fatty acids inhibits wnt/beta-catenin signaling and Cox-2 (Cancer Res, 2008; Mol Cancer Ther, 2009), and induces cell death through autophagy (Autophagy, 2011; BioMed Res Intl, 2013). Additionall, DHA degrades HPV E6/E7 oncoprotein through Ubiquitin/proteasome activation. Recently, he published that DHA suppresses breast cancer cell metastasis by targeting matrix-metalloproteinases (Oncotarget, 2016). He also published several books’ chapter and reviews on Omega-3 Fatty acids and Cancer. In 2010, he organized Korea-EU International Forum on Omega-3 fatty acids and Cancer. Dr. Lim has been invited to speak more than 50 times from International and domestic Laboratories.

Professor Laurent MARTINY has more than 25 years of experience in the research of molecular mechanisms involved in cancer progression. Laurent Martiny and his team aimed to elucidate the role of matrix macromolecules or peptides able to counteract or to facilitate invasiveness and tumoral dissemination in order to identify novel therapeutic targets or biomarkers leading to alternative therapeutic strategies. Notably, Pr Martiny and colleagues have published more than 65 manuscripts, 5 patents, 9 reviews . Pr. Martiny is also deputy director of UMR CNRS MEDyC (Extracellular Matrix and Cellular Dynamics) in Reims Champagne Ardenne University.

Rafat M. Mohareb Professor of Organic Chemistry at Department of Chemistry faculty of Science Giza, Egypt since 1994 till now. He got his Ph D Organic Chemistry on 1984 Cairo .Worked as Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley University State of California USA from 1999- 2002 Visiting Professor At Kuwait University 1995- 1996. He was Humboldt fellows in Germany in 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009-2012, 2013-2016. Occupied the position Head of Organic Chemistry department Faculty of Pharmacy Modern Sciences and Arts University. He He received the price of encouragement of research work from Egypt 1995. He published more than 190 Scientific publications in International journals. He Supervised more than 30 PhD and 60 MSc Theses.

Faustino Mollinedo received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1982 (Complutense University, Madrid). He then moved to Dartmouth Medical School in Donald L. Schneider’s laboratory (1982-3), where they identified a novel cytoplasmic granule (tertiary granule) in human neutrophils, and then to New York University Medical Center. In 1986 he obtained a tenure position at the Spanish National Research Council, establishing successively his laboratory in Madrid, Valladolid and Salamanca. Now he has moved to the Center for Biological Research in Madrid (2016). His laboratory has made several important contributions in neutrophil biology, ether lipids’ mechanism of action, and apoptosis as a target in cancer therapy. His laboratory identified the translocation of Fas/CD95 death receptor into lipid raft membrane domains as a new mechanism of apoptosis regulation, unveiling rafts as a new target in cancer therapy.

Dr. S. Nagini is currently a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India. She did her Masters Degree in Biochemistry from JIPMER, Ph.D. in Cancer Institute, Chennai and postdoctoral research in the University of Liverpool, UK. Prof. Nagini's research focuses on oncogenic signalling pathways, molecular targets for chemointervention and comparative oncology. Prof. Nagini has supervised 16 Ph.D. students, and authored 4 books, 8 chapters in edited research volumes, and 135 international research papers. She has filed 1 national and 2 international patents. She has successfully completed several research projects and was the Coordinator for the Indian side of the Indo-EU Collaborative Project under the 7th Framework programme on FUNCFOOD. In 2002, she received the National Young Woman Bioscientist Award, from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.

Peter E. Nielsen is full professor at University of Copenhagen, Denmark since 1995. He is one of the inventors of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) (1991), and has further studied and developed this DNA mimic during the last 25 years in relation to chemistry, origin of life, molecular biology and drug discovery. He is the co-author of more than 400 scientific papers, reviews and books. He is a member of EMBO and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, and he has received several national and international scientific prizes including the Novo Nordic Foundation and the Lundbeck prizes.

Prof. Józef Oleksyszyn has recived his Ph.D. (1974-1977) and D.S. (doctor of sciences, habilitation, 1978-1986) from Faculty of Chemistry, Wrocław University of Technology. Currently he is professor of biochemistry at that place. Two postdoctoral scholarship. The first (1982-1984) at Department of Chemistry, Michigen University with prof. Arthur Ashe and the second one at Georgia Institute of Technology with prof. James C. Powers. During the period of 1990-2000 has been working in few biotechnology companies including CORTECH Inc., (Denver,CO), OsteoArthritis Inc., (Boston, MA) and DYAX (Boston, MA), at positions from research scientist to the Director of Chemical Sciences. One of the compounds, inhibitor of human neutrophil elastase, designed and synthesized by him went to the clinical trial (Cortech). He discovered an amidoalkylation reaction of trivalent phosphorus derivatives, named in literature sometimes “Oleksyszyn reaction”. His research resulted in more than 70 publications in reputed journals and more than 50 patents and patents applications, including 8 USA patents.

Neil Osheroff received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from Hobart College in 1974 followed by a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Northwestern University in 1979. Dr. Osheroff moved to the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1980, where he was a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry. In 1983, he moved to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and he has been on the faculty since that time. Dr. Osheroff currently holds Professorships in the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine and was endowed with the John G. Coniglio Chair in Biochemistry in 2003. Dr. Osheroff’s research focuses on DNA topoisomerases, essential enzymes that remove knots and tangles from the genome and are targets for several widely prescribed anticancer and antibacterial drugs.

Dr. Luigi Quintieri completed his undergraduate studies in Pharmacy as well as his PhD studies in Oncology at the University of Padova, Italy. Since 2006 he is Assistant Professor at the same University. His areas of research interest include phase I and phase II metabolism of drugs, and the pharmacological characterization of novel inhibitors of glutathione transferase P1-1 for cancer therapy.

I am Associate professor at the University of Barcelona since 2012. I am the responsible of the Supra- and Nanostructured Systems and we are mainly interested on the synthesis and characterization of novel water soluble supramolecular structures that are luminescent and present different properties, being the formation of gels, vesicles, biological activity and metallic nanostructures among others. We have national and European funding and we are an active group involved in several European COST Actions and regular participation in national and international conferences.

Professor Rawat obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India under the supervision of Dr D Bhakuni. He has 18 years of experience in the field of medicinal chemistry aimed to treat cancer, microbial infections and Parkinson disease. Professor Rawat is a visiting Professor at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan. Professor Rawat has authored more than 118 papers with 2750 citation with 32 H-index. He has nine patents to his credit and co-authored a book on “Bioactive marine natural products”. Professor Rawat is a member of Editorial Board of Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, Marine Drugs and he is an Associate Editor of RSC Advances.

Dr. Rudolf obtained his Ph.D. in Medical biology from the Charles University, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove. Currently, Dr. Rudolf is Full Professor and head of Department of Medial biology and genetics in the Charles University, Faculty of Medicine. He has authored more than 70 scientific papers and 7 chapters in books.

Dr. Yusuf TUTAR is the Head of Biochemistry Division and the Head of Basic Sciences Department at Faculty of Pharmacy, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas Turkey. Dr. Tutar is also the Head of Biomedical Engineering Program at the same university. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Oregon State University and Texas Tech University respectively. He pursued his postdoctoral study at National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIDDK), USA. His research focuses on Biochemistry, Biophysics, Genetics, and Molecular Biology with specialization in the fields of protein structure-function, protein folding, prion, microrna, pseudogenes, molecular cancer, proteomics, genomics, protein expression and characterization by spectroscopic and calorimetric methods.

Pharm.D. (2002); Ph.D. Caen (2005), University of Caen Normandie (France). Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry (2007) in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Caen. Since September 2015, she has assumed the position of Prof. of Medicinal Chemistry. Her research interests include medicinal chemistry in the field of protein-protein interactions, in order to design oligo(het)aromatic foldamers that mimic the ability of proteins to fold into well-defined conformations, such as helices and β-sheets. Since 2012 she has been leading a research program dedicated to the development of foldamers of interest in the treatment of ovarian cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Winum received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Montpellier (France), in 1998. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department of Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and in the Organic Chemistry Department of the University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 1999, he joined the Department of Chemistry of the University of Montpellier, where he is now an Associate Professor. He has published more than 135 scientific papers and is a named inventor of 6 patents. He is also regional editor of Recent Patents in Anti-cancer Drug Discovery, associate editor of Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, and editorial board member of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, and Current Organic Chemistry.

Dr. Xiao obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in nutrition science from Okayama Prefectural University (Japan) in 2009 and worked as a Humboldtian in Universität Würzburg (Germany) supported by AvH Foundation. Currently Dr. Xiao is an Assistant Professor in University of Macau and a Distinguished Professor in Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University (China). He has published more than 120 scientific publications and is named a 2016 Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters. Dr. Xiao is currently the Editorial Board Member of Current Drug Metabolism, Frontiers in Pharmacology, Industrial Crops and Products, Phytochemical Analysis, Molecules, Journal of Berry Research, Phytomedicine, and Pharmacognosy Magazine.

Dr. Chao Zhang earned his Ph.D. degree in Polymer Chemistry (2005) from Wuhan University, China, and had been working as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of California, San Diego from 2006 to 2010. In 2010, Dr. Zhang joined the the School of Engineering at the Sun Yat-sen University (China) as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; he currently serves as the Associate Dean of the School and the head of the Biomedical Engineering Program. His current research interests include the nano-sized drug carriers, contrast agents for medical imaging, and tissue engineering.

Dr. Zhang has extensive expertise and experiences in translational biomedical research, particularly translational medicine, cancer therapy and prevention, pharmacogenomics and therapeutics. He has published more than 210 papers, 2 books, more than 50 invited reviews/book chapters, and more than 180 meeting abstracts. Dr. Zhang has made more than 200 invited presentations. He is a certified toxicologist by the American Board of Toxicology (D.A.B.T.). He is also an editor-in-chief, associate-editor-in-chief, associate editor, or editorial board member of 25 scientific journals. Dr. Zhang has been elected as a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2009.

Dr. Yingjie obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Medicinal Chemistry from Shandong University, China in 2012. After that, Dr. Yingjie became a faculty member in Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University. Dr. Yingjie’s research interests focus on rational design, synthesis and biological evaluation of compounds targeting histone deacetylases (HDACs), aminopeptidase (AP) and kinds of protein kinases. Dr. Yingjie has published more than 40 scientific publications. Dr. Yingjie is also a teaching member of national excellent open course《Drug Design》.

Maria Maddalena Cavalluzzi was born in Bari (Italy) in 1974. She graduated cum laude in Medicinal Chemistry and Technologies in 1998 (University of Bari) and in the same year she got the approbation as pharmacist. Doctor of research (XIV cycle, 1998–2001) in Medicinal Chemistry on “2-(9-Anthryl) and 2-(9-xanthenyl)alcanoic acids, homologues, and derivatives: synthesis and biological evaluation” (University of Bari,), in 2002–2004 she was a post-doctor researcher at Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Bari. In 2005 she won a research grant in Medicinal Chemistry, at the same University of Bari, that lasted in February 2009 when she became Researcher in the same discipline.

Sercan Ergun is working as Asst. Prof. Dr. in Department of Medical Biology, Bacis Sciences Division, Faculty of Medicine, Ordu University. He was included as researcher in a team studying briefly epigenetic changes in disease mechanisms of different types of cancers, including oncogenic/tumor suppressor gene and miRNA expression level changes, cell death mechanism analysis, development of some cancer therapy agents’ efficiencies via miRNAs. Also, He is analyzing some plant extracts and newly designed metal-bound compounds with respect to their anti-cancer potential and their effects on non-coding RNAs. Now, he is part (as a researcher) of a team studying on in silico miRNA and ceRNA analysis, miRNA heterogenetiy, piRNA expression changes in different cancer types , especially urological cancers.

Olga Janoušková has completed her PhD from molecular biology and experimental virology and oncology at the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Praque, Czech Republic. As a postdoc she worked in department of neurodegeneration and prion diseases in 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Praque. She is head of the Department of Biological Models of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences from 2013. Her research is focused on the biological evaluation of medicinal polymers and newly prepared polymeric materials for tissue engineering. The main current research is concentrated on the interaction of various types of polymers as a carrier of anticancer drug/diagnostic agent with cells, changes in cell behavior and characterization of cell to cell interaction and communication.

Vesna Rastija graduated biology and chemistry at the Faculty of Education in Osijek in 1994. After the graduation she taught the chemistry and biology in elementary school for a three years. She has been employed 1997 as a teaching assistant of Chemistry on Faculty of Agriculture in Osijek, University of J. J. Strossmayer Osijek. Vesna has made master thesis on the Institute “Rudjer Boskovic” in Zagreb in area of inorganic and structural chemistry, and 2001 earned a Master of Science degree at the Faculty of Science (University of Zagreb). She obtained a doctoral degree in Chemistry at the Faculty of Science (University of Zagreb) 2007 in area of analytical and computational chemistry. She is currently employed as an associate professor of Chemistry at the Faculty of Agrobiotehnical Sciences Osijek.