Current Chemical Biology

Dr. Nader G. Abraham received a PhD from the Biomedical Science, Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York, NY. Currently, he is a Professor at the Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY and also the Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Marshall University, Huntington, WV. Besides, he is a professional member of the American Heart Association, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Nephrology, APS, and FASEB. Moreover, he has published more than 30 scientific papers in well-reputed international journals.

Dr Michal Laniado Schwartzman is currently a Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, a Visiting Professor at The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, and a Professor at the Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY. She is also a Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY. Dr Schwartzman received a PhD in Biochemistry from the Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel in 1981. She has contributed more than 200 publications in different scientific journals and has been awarded at various platforms for her outstanding contribution in Science.

Dr. Michio Iwaoka, currently appointed as a full professor of Department of Chemistry at Tokai University, was received a degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Tokyo in 1994. He was a visiting scientist in Cornell University from 1995 to 1997, a visiting professor in Korean Institute of Advanced Technology (KIAS) in 2002 and 2010, Cardiff University in 2008, Perugia University in 2016. His research interest covers redox chemistry of organic selenium and sulfur compounds in relation to their biological applications, weak atomic interactions, protein and peptide chemistry, and molecular simulation of peptides.

Dr. D’Auria is the Director of the Institute of Food Science, CNR, Avellino, and an Associated Professor at INRS, Laval, Canada. He also heads the Laboratory of Protein Biophysics and Biosensor Development at ISA-CNR, Avellino, Italy. The main interests of Dr. D’Auria Lab are focused on the design and realization of advanced bio/sensors for safety and security. Dr. D’Auria has authored more than 200 publications on international journals and several national and international patents.

Prof. E. J. Lenardao has pioneered studies on green procedures to prepare organochalcogen compounds (sulfur, selenium and tellurium-containing). He has made major contributions in the synthesis of vinyl chalcogenides and the chemical modification of natural compounds by including chalcogen in their structures. He is a researcher of The Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Fellow of RSC, and a Member of the International Board of the Networks “Selenium and Sulfur Redox and Catalysis” and of “ICCST”. He has authored 180 publications including reviews, book and book chapters. His research interests are studies on new chalcogen-containing reduced-risk insecticides and antibiotics.

Dr. Wen Zhang has been a full professor at the Second Military Medical University (Shanghai, China) since 2008. He has held a joint professorship with Tongji University (Shanghai, China) since 2013. Dr. Wen Zhang is currently the director of Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Marine Drugs. He also serves as the Vice Chairman of Marine Drug Division of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association. He has published more than 100 scientific articles and patents, focusing on the chemical and pharmacological investigation of marine natural products with antifungal, antitumoral, and immunomodulatory activities.

Prof. Ducki obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the University of Manchester UK. Currently Prof Ducki holds positions as a Professor in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the French Graduate School SIGMA Clermont and as the vice-president of the Foundation Analgesia Insitute. Among her previous positions are lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Salford UK, Research fellow at Arizona State University (AZ) and Emory University (GA) USA. She has published more than 50 scientific publications and is named as an inventor in over 10 patents.

Dr. Lauro Figueroa V completed Masters in Pharmacology from Instituto Politecnico Nacional, México, 1998 and PhD (Pharmacology) from University Autónomous Metropolitan, Mexico, 2001. Currently, he is Professor Research in University Autonomous of Campeche (Faculty of Chemical-Biological Sciences; 2005-2018). Before that he has worked in University Juarez Autonomous of Tabasco, Faculty Medicine as a Professor Research. He is the author of 114 papers in several journals as Steroids, African J. Pharmacy Pharmacol, Biomedical Papers, Chemical J., Organic let., and others. Presently, he is working on a project “Design and biological activity of new drugs to ischemia-reperfusion injury in heart”.

Dr. Suvroma Gupta is a Professor in Department of Biotechnology, Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia. She is a Phd from Bose Institute, Kolkata. She has more than eighteen years of research experiences on structural biology, biochemistry, protein chemistry and in cancer field with experiences in carrying out extramural government funded projects like DBT, SERB etc. She is a visiting research fellow in Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. She is member of several societies like Indian association of Cancer Research (IACR) Indian association of Science Congress (IASC), Society of Biological Chemists (SBC) and editorial member of some journals. She has published 28 peer reviewed papers.

Herbert Höpfl studied chemistry at the University of Munich. In 1997 he obtained the Ph.D. degree from the Chemistry Department of the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN (CINVESTAV), Mexico, in the field of Inorganic Chemistry. Since 1997 he is working as Professor at Morelos State University in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His research focuses on crystal engineering and macro- and supramolecular assemblies of boron and tin compounds. He has published more than 180 scientific publications and two U.S. patents.

Prof. Ivo Iavicoli obtained his degree in Medicine and his specialty in Occupational Medicine (both cum laude) at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy. He completed a Ph.D. in Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene at the University of Milan. At present he is Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine at the Department of Public Health of the University of Naples ‘Federico II’. He is also Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A. He is the author of more than 250 publications in national and international journals.

Irene Izzo received in 1994 a Magna Cum Laude degree in Chemistry from the University of Salerno where in the same year she began her PhD courses. She received her doctoral degree in Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Salerno. (Title of the thesis: "Synthesis of Biologically Active Marine Steroids and Cholestane Analogs. Thesis supervisor: Prof. Guido Sodano). In 1998 she received a post-doctoral fellowship, working at University "Louis Pasteur" of Strasbourg (France). Since March 2006 she is Associate professor at Department of Chemistry and Biology of the University of Salerno.

Paul Keller completed his BSc(Hons) and PhD from the University of New South Wales, Australia, before undertaking an Alexander von Humboldt funded post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany, working in collaboration with Gerhard Bringmann. Since 1994, he has been working at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and is currently a professor in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry. His interests lie in the drug design and development of new generation anti-infectives with a particular emphasis on anti-virals and multi-drug resistant anti-bacterials, new cascade chemistry of indigo and chiral ligand design for sterically hindered metal-catalysed reactions.

Reza Khodarahmi(Professor in Biochemistry) was born in Nahavand-Iran, 1974. He received his Bsc degree in general Biology from the Razi University-Kermanshah and then graduated in Biochemistry (Msc) from the Tarbiat Modarres University-Tehran, and finally received his PhD degree in 2005, from the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the University of Tehran for his studies on the effects of artificial chaperones on protein misfolding and aggregation. Since 2007, he has a position in the school of Pharmaceutical Sciences (and Medical Biology Research Center), Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. His research interests focus on the in vitro characterization of oxidative events accompanying amyloid aggregation, drug-protein interaction and enzyme inhibition, using both experimental and computational tools.

Prof. Gopal C. Kundu has obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Bose Institute, Kolkata, India (1989). Prof. Kundu is serving as Adjunct Visiting Professor at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. Prof. Kundu also served as Dean, Acting Director and Director (i/c) at National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India from 2018-2019. Currently, Prof. Kundu is Director, R&D of KIIT Deemed to be University (KIIT DU), Institute of Eminence, Bhubaneswar, India. Prof. Kundu has been given additional charge as Professor of Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology (KIIT DU) and Professor of Medicine and Molecular Research, Kalinga Institute of Medical Science (KIMS), KIIT DU, Bhubaneswar, India. His area of research at NCCS, Pune, India is tumor biology, cancer stem cells, tumor- stroma interaction, angiogenesis, cancer therapeutics biomarker development and nanomedicine. He has published 95 papers including Nature Medicine, Science, PNAS (USA), Cancer Research, J. of Invest. Dermatology, J. of Biol. Chem, Trends in Cell Biol., Oncogene, Nanomedicine (London), Molecular Cancer, Nanoscale, Carcinogenesis, EMBO Reports, BMC Cancer etc and one US patent and three Indian Patients. He serves as Editorial Board Member of Current Molecular Medicine, Current Chemical Biology, Molecular Medicine Reports, American Journal of Cancer Research and Associate Editor of Molecular Cancer, Journal of Cancer Metastasis and Treatment (JCMT).

Dr Nikolaos Labrou received his BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Patras, Greece (1987-1991) and his PhD in Enzyme Biotechnology from the Agricultural University of Athens (1992-1996). He has conducted postdoctoral research, as Marie Curie fellow, in Leeds UK (1996-1998) and then at Agricultural University of Athens (1998-2001). Dr Labrou started his career as Assistant Professor (2002) and he is currently full Professor with tenure and Director of the Enzyme Technology Lab at the Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens. He has authored more than 115 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals, 26 book chapters and he has edited two books. His research covers many areas of biotechnology including enzyme and protein engineering, immobilised enzymes, biosensors, drug design, protein downstream processing, microalgae technology as well as the characterization of therapeutic enzymes, proteins and other biomolecules.

Huimin Ma is a Professor of Chemistry at the Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). He received his B. Sc. in 1983 from Shandong University and Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 1990 from ICCAS (supervisor, Prof. Shuquan Liang), followed by doing 2-year postdoctoral research at Wuhan University with Prof. Yun’e Zeng. He was granted a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, working at Bremen University with Prof. Wolfram Thiemann in Germany (1996−1997). In 2005, he was granted the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in China. He has contributed more than 150 journal articles as well as 20 invited book chapters and reviews, and is a member of the Editorial Board of several chemical and biological journals. His research interests focus on the design and synthesis of new spectroscopic probes and their analytical applications.

Dr Jianjie Ma received a PhD in Physiology & Biophysics from the Baylor College of Medicine in 1989. His research programs are focused on ageing biology, cardiovascular disease, and regenerative medicine. His interests are mainly in Ca signalling in muscle and cardiovascular diseases, cell membrane repair and regenerative medicine; apoptosis and cancer therapy. Currently, he is a Professor and Karl P. Klassen Chair in Thoracic Surgery and a Vice-Chair of Research, Department of Surgery Investigator, Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Due to his outstanding contribution, he received several awards and has published many articles in well-reputed journals.

Dr. Anna Marabotti obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Turin. She worked as post-doc fellow in several Italian universities, public and private research institutions. Since October 2012 she is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biology “A. Zambelli” from the University of Salerno at Fisciano. Her main research interests are the studies of structure-dynamics-function relationships of proteins, protein-ligand interaction and allosteric regulations using a combination of experimental and bioinformatics techniques. She is a co-author of more than 70 full papers and of about 100 short communication to congresses.

Enrica Migliaccio has many years of research experience in the fields of signal transduction, molecular biology and aging. She has expertise in cell biology, molecular biology and animal models. She graduated from the University of Naples, in Italy, and gained her postgraduate degrees from the Open University of London, UK. She worked in Pier Giuseppe Pelicci's group as Ph.D. student, then as postdoctoral scientist and now as a staff scientist. In 1992, she cloned the p66Shc, gene that is a master regulator of oxidative stress response in mammals, and has been working on p66Shc function and biology since then. Now, her research focuses on the characterization of pathway that involves both p53 tumor suppressor protein and p66Shc that is involved in cancer and aging mechanisms. She carried out educational activity at the University of the Studies of Siena (Italy), as teacher in the course: “Mechanisms of aging”.

Luis S. Monteiro obtained his BsC in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1988 by the University of Porto (Portugal). He was awarded his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Minho (Portugal) in 1994 in the area of electrochemical cleavage of amine protecting groups, under the supervision of Professor Hernâni L.S. Maia and in collaboration with the research group of Professor Ulf Ragnarsson at the University of Uppsala (Sweden). He is at present associate professor at the University of Minho where he has been interested in the development of methods for synthesis and application of non-proteinogenic amino acids, namely, dehydroamino acids, β,β- disubstituted amino acids, N-akylamino acids and Cα,α-dialkylglicines.

Brief Biography: Kazuo Nagasawa obtained his Ph.D. in 1993 from Waseda University. In 1993, he joined RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) as a researcher under Professor Tadashi Nakata. From 1997 to 1999, he worked in Kishi’s group at Harvard University. He moved to the University of Tokyo (IMCB) in 2001, and to the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2004 as an associate professor. In 2009, he was appointed to his current position as a professor. He has received the TORAY Award for Synthetic Organic Chemistry Japan (1999) and Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists (2003).

Biography: Steve is currently Professor of Proteomics at University College Dublin, Ireland (since 2003). He is a chemist and biochemist by training (BSc Imperial College London and PhD University of Cambridge). Steve has given over 150 invited presentations at international events, published over 75 scientific papers as well as edited and contributed to several books. He is on the editorial board of several journals including in a more senior capacity for 'Proteomics' and 'Journal of Proteomics’ and regularly reviews manuscripts and grants for a number of international organisations. Steve is the lead organizer of 16th HUPO World Congress which willl be held in Dublin in September 2017.

G. Perin received his under graduate education (1994), MSc (1996) and PhD thesis (2000) at Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil) under the guidance of Prof. Claudio C. Silveira. In 2004, he obtained a position at the Federal University of Pelotas-RS (southern Brazil) as Professor of Organic Chemistry. His research interest lies in the area of organic and green chemistry focused in the synthesis of organochalcogen compounds using new cleaner approaches. He is author of more than 150 publications.

Dr. Pittalà is an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Drug Sciences at the University of Catania (Italy). She attained her MSc in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, and subsequently completed her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Catania. Upon completion of these programs, Dr. Pittalà moved to Milan (Italy) to join Pharmacia Corporation as a research scientist. She worked as member of Combinatorial Chemistry Group (R&D) and contributed to the discovery and identification of danusertib being co-inventor of bicyclopyrazoles chemical class. Subsequently, she returned to the University of Catania as Assistant Professor where she currently conducts teaching and research activities. Dr. Pittalà is a highly motivated drug discovery scientist and research project leader with more than fifteen years’ experience and proven leadership capability, interpersonal skill, independence and efficiency in achieving given objectives. Major area of interest: heme oxygenase-1 inhibitors and inducers, antitumor, GPCR serotonergic and adrenergic ligands. Chemical modification of natural products to enhance activity and reduce side effects/toxicity. During this time, her research resulted in over 50 patents and peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals and similar number of abstracts and presentations in international congresses. She is also serving as an editorial board member of 3 other journals and reviewer of several international journals.

Yousef Rasmi received PhD degree in Clinical Biochemistry from Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran, in 2006. He performed short visiting scholar training in the Department of Pathology at the JCU, Townsville, Australia. In 2006, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UMSU), Urmia, Iran, and in 2014, he was granted the degree of Professor. During MSc course, he worked on hormonal statues of breast cancer and during PhD, he worked on evaluation of link between inflammation and esophagus cancer. Currently, he works on nanomedicine, inflammation, endothelial function, angiogenesis and signaling pathways.

Dr. Margherita Ruoppolo is currently the Head of the laboratory screening of inborn errors of metabolism, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital, University of Naples "Federico II". Since 2007, she is Full professor of Biochemistry at Dipartimento di Biochimica eBiotecnologie Mediche, University of Naples, Federico II. In the year 1997, she obtained a PhD (Chemical Sciences) from University of Naples Federico II.

Marvin A Soriano-Ursúa completed his PhD from Escuela Superior de Medicina del Instituto Politénico Nacional, México. He is a member of the National System of Researchers, and he is Head of the Physiology Laboratory. He has focused on the rational drug design having boron-containing compounds as main moiety, as well as, the different effects of these compounds on human physiology, particularly on G-Protein coupled receptors. He has authored more than 50 publications, and he has been serving as an Editorial Board Member and Reviewer of reputed scientific journals.

Pr. V. Sorrenti is Associated Professor of Biochemistry in University of Catania where she teaches Biochemitry, Nutritional Biochemistry, Biology. During her career Pr. Sorrenti obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biology and Medical Biochemistry. Research fields of Pr. V. Sorrenti are: Oxygen and nitric oxide toxicity and cellular defences in various pathophysiological conditions; Pathway ADMA/DDAH/NOS in various pathophysiological conditions; Evaluation of activity of natural drugs and new synthetic compounds. Pr. V.Sorrenti has published 80 scientific publications, co-authored 2 books (“Aspetti molecolari dell’apoptosi e ruolo fisiopatologico” and “Flessibilmente: un modello sistemico di approccio al tema della flessibilità”: Flessibilità e biologia-Organismi viventi come esseri flessibili”) and co-edited “Recent Research Developments in Chemistry and Biology of Nitric Oxide-

Derek S. Tan received his BS in Chemistry from Stanford in 1995, with Prof. Dale G. Drueckhammer, and his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard in 2000, with Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber. After postdoctoral training with Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he began his independent career at MSK in 2002. He is currently a tenured Member and Chairman of the Chemical Biology Program at MSK, a Tri-Institutional Professor at Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine, and Director of the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology. His research focuses on diversity-oriented synthesis and rational drug design.

Damiano Tanini received his PhD in Chemistry in 2015 from the University of Florence. He carried out part of his doctoral research at the University of Bristol, working with Prof. V. K. Aggarwal. D. Tanini is currently a researcher in Organic Chemistry at the University of Florence. His research activity mainly focuses on organic synthesis, ranging from the development of novel methodologies towards chalcogen-containing molecules to the study of their application in organic synthesis and in biology. D. Tanini is co-author of more than 50 scientific papers and is referee of several journals in chemical and biochemical area. He was awarded in 2019 with the Prize for Research in Methodological Aspects of Organic Chemistry from the Italian Chemical Society.

Emmanuel A. Theodorakis received his B.Sc. Degree in Chemistry from the University of Athens, Greece, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degree in Organic Chemistry from Paris XI University, France. His M.Sc. studies were performed at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Products (ICSN-CNRS) under the direction of Professor H.-P. Husson, while his Ph.D. studies were performed at Texas A&M University under the direction of Sir Derek H. R. Barton. Following a postdoctoral appointment at TSRI with Professor K. C. Nicolaou, in 1995 he joined the faculty at UCSD where he is currently a Professor and the T.G. Traylor Scholar at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research focuses on the synthesis and biological studies of natural products and development of small molecules as probes in imaging and sensing.

Valentin Wittmann obtained a PhD from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). Subsequently, he carried out postdoctoral research at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt (Germany) and at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California (USA). In 1997 he returned to Frankfurt to start independent research. Since 2003 he is professor of organic/bioorganic chemistry at the University of Konstanz (Germany). From 2006 until 2011 he was Dean of Studies and since 2016 he is head of the Department of Chemistry. His main research area is the chemical biology of carbohydrates including metabolic glycoengineering, investigation of multivalent carbohydrate-protein interactions, and RNA-targeting antibiotics.

Alcindo A. Dos Santos received the PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Federal University of Paraná (Brazil) under the supervision of prof. Alfredo R. M. de Oliveira. Currently, he is prof. of Organic Chemistry and leads the research group, Sulfur, Selenium and Tellurium Synthesis Laboratory (LabSSeTe) in the University of São Paulo. His research interest is focused in the field of organic synthetic chemistry of S-, Se- and Te-containing bioactive compounds and fluorophores for the detection of biomolecules and endogenous oxidant species/radical generators like organoperoxides and hypochlorite.

Dr Emerson Andre Casali graduated in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1997) and received his Doctorate in Biological Sciences (Biochemistry) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2002). He was a Research Professor at the Centro Universitário Metodista IPA where he taught subjects related to Morphological Sciences, Biochemistry and Biophysics. He is a collaborating researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at UFRGS. He conducts his scientific research in the areas of Morphological Sciences (cell culture and cytohistological techniques), Biochemistry (purinergic system, enzymology, oxidative stress and metabolism), Biophysics (radiation and electrostimulation) with emphasis on hormonal, vitamin, metabolic and physiotherapy resources in pathological and physiological conditions of different tissues, and is currently also dedicated to environmental monitoring. Currently, he is a Prof. Deputy IV of the Department of Morphological Sciences and is the Advisor of the Department of Biochemistry at ICBS, UFRGS.

Satya P. Gupta is presently a Professor Emeritus at Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET), Meerut, India. He earlier served various prestigious Educational Institutes like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani; MIET, Meerut; and National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), Bhopal. For the excellence of his research work in Drug Design, he has bagged several honors and awards. In addition to his excellent publications, Gupta also has acted Editor-in-Chief of a few journals of Bentham Science and authored/edited many books for various reputed publishers such as Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg Germany; CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, USA; Nova Science Publishers, USA; and Elsevier (Academic Press), USA. His scientific activity has brought him on the forefront of scientific community of the world.