Current Drug Delivery

Dr Maria Cristina Bonferoni Graduated in 1984 and got PhD in 1991 in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology. She is associate professor since 2001, at the Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia. The research interests concern pharmaceutical development of conventional and controlled release formulations. Early work involved the study of hydrophilic polymers for oral matrix tablets. Swelling/erosion and diffusion/dissolution processes occurring in hydrophilic matrices have been studied and related to polymer rheological behaviour (viscosity and viscoelasticity) under different conditions of pH and ionic strength. Other research interest involved mucoadhesion mechanisms, development of mucoadhesive dosage forms and of methods to measure mucoadhesion properties. Dr Bonferoni is author of about 140 scientific papers, 12 patents, 12 book chapters.

David Jones, Professor of Biomaterial Science at Queen’s University Belfast and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students. He holds BSc (1st class honours) in Pharmacy (1985), a PhD in Pharmaceutics (1988), in 2006, a DSc., all from Queens University of Belfast. More recently (2014) he gained a BA (1st class honours) in Mathematics and Statistics from the Open University. Since 1999 he holds a personal Chair (in Biomaterial Sciences) at the School of Pharmacy, Queens University of Belfast. His research concerns the characterisation, formulation and engineering of pharmaceutical materials/dosage forms and biomedical devices. He is the author of three textbooks, 10 patents and over 400 research papers.

Dr. Hiraku Onishi completed his M.S. degree in 1982 from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Later, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1989 from Hoshi University, Tokyo, Japan. Currently, Dr. Onishi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Drug Delivery Research at Hoshi University. His skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of Pharmacology, Toxicology, Pharmaceutics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Microbiology, etc. Dr. Onishi, as an author/co-author, has published over 110 original articles, 12 review articles, 10 books and 5 patents.

Dr. Xue Xue obtained her Ph.D at National Center for Nanoscience and Technologies, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with her mentor Dr. Xing-jie Liang. From 2012 to 2014, she studied in New York University as a visiting scholar. Then she was an assistant professor with Dr. Hong Zhang at National Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Xue is currently a principle investigator in State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology/College of Pharmacy, and lab chief of Laboratory of Theranostic Nanomedicine in Nankai University. In recent five years, she has authored over 15 SCI-indexed papers with total IF > 150.

Dr. R. Jayachandra Babu’s research area is primarily focused on formulation design and development of topical and transdermal dosage forms. Current research projects include the development of transdermal and nanoparticle dosage forms for treating infections and inflammatory disorders. His research is also focused on solubility improvement of insoluble drugs, solid state characterization of drugs and nanoparticles. His experience also includes work on the formulation development of solid dosage forms (tablets, rapid dissolve strips), liquid oral (solution and suspension) and sterile injection (solution) dosage forms. He has published over 70 peer reviewed papers and 80 research abstracts to his credit.

Dr. Ajay K Agrawal received his doctorate in Chemistry, and conducted his post- doctoral research in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada and Molecular Cell Pathology, Royal Free Hospital, London on novel targeted cancer drug delivery therapeutics and imaging systems based on pegylation. He has been in the board of directors of several biotech and pharma companies in UK, Europe and USA, including the development board of Buckingham Medical School. Dr. Agrawal has been in the editorial board of number of journals, published by Bentham Science Publishers. One of his invited review articles was cited in the “Current Awareness in Biomedicine: Drug Targeting Bulletin” after being scanned in over 2,500 journals.

Hua Ai received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2002. Following his doctoral studies, he completed his postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In June 2005, Dr. Ai joined the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, as a Professor of Biomaterials. Currently, he also holds a joint appointment at the Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University. His group focuses on the design and application of self-assembly of nanobiomaterials for tumor molecular imaging and drug delivery.

Prof. Dr. Esra Küpeli Akkol was born in Turkey. She got her Bachelor of Science degree in Faculty of Pharmacy, Gazi University, Turkey and got her Ph.D. degree in Pharmacognosy Department from the University of Gazi. She is currently Professor in the Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacognosy. Sheserved in manycapacities in her field including service on several editorial boards and numerous review committees for journals such as Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Journal of Pharmacy Sciences, The Internet Journal of Herbaland Plant Medicine, International Journal of Genuine Traditional Medicine, Advances in Pharmacological Sciences, Evidence Based Complementary Alternative Medicineand. The Open Pain Journal. She has conducted 41 projects and 11 thesis in Gazi University. She has 158 published articles in SCI International Journals, 13 articles in National Journals and 10 chapters in International books.

Professor Raid Alany’s academic journey spans three continents; namely, Asia, Oceania and Europe. He received his PhD in ocular drug delivery from the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand in 2001; was appointed as a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, in 2001. He joined Kingston University London as Professor (Chair) of Pharmaceutics in January 2011 and was appointed as Research Director for the School of Pharmacy and Chemistry in December 2013. Dr. Raid is an author on over 200 scientific research publications (papers and abstracts), a book and seven book chapters; he has attracted over $NZ 2M (£GBP 1M) in contestable research and enterprise funding.

Per Artursson is a professor in Dosage Form Design at the Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, Sweden where he heads the Drug Delivery research team. He is also Director for the Uppsala University drug optimization and pharmaceutical profiling platform within Science for Life Laboratories. His research aims at understanding drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) at the molecular and cellular level in order to deliver drugs more effectively via the oral route. He also investigates the effects of drug transporting proteins on drug disposition and drug interactions. He has published over 200 research articles and reviews, is highly cited and has received several international awards for his research.

Prof. Sanjula Baboota presently working at the Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (SPER), Jamia Hamdard. She has a total experience of about 23 years in teaching and research.She has a list of over 200 publications in high impact factor refereed journals. She has guided several students both at the at the postgraduate and doctorate level. She has more than 7000 citations and has an h-index of 41 and i10 index of 116 (Source: Google Scholar).

Dr. Kiran V. Barar is Senior Professor and HOD-Pharmacology at S.P.Medical College (SPMC), Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. She is also serving as Honorary Professor at “Albert Schiwtzer International University”(ASIU), Geneva, Switzerland since 2000. She has remained posted at RUHS-College of Medical Sciences, Jaipur (Newly recognized by MCI) for last Two years as an OSD & HOD to ESTABLISH the Dept. of Pharmacology. Dr.Kiran has been a Meritorious (Gold Medalist) throughout and Winner of various “Distinctions, Awards and Prizes” during her whole academic career. She has published about “80” papers including theses and has been an Editor, Reviewer and Writer/Columnist.

Dr. Heather A.E. Benson leads the Skin Delivery Research Group and has an international reputation for her research in the area of skin biology and drug/peptide delivery. She has published over 100 peer reviewed publications related to drug delivery. Dr. Benson obtained her Pharmacy degree and PhD (Skin Drug Delivery) from Queen's University, Belfast and has held research and academic positions at the University of Queensland and University of Manitoba before joining Curtin University in 2001. Dr. Benson's current research areas are in drug targeting to the skin using physical, chemical and formulation enhancement techniques; delivery of therapeutic peptides by novel formulations/delivery systems including nanosystems.

She is interested towards the study of bioactive molecules from plant matrices. One other focus of her research includes the improvement of bioavailability and technological features of drugs and natural products extracts, by using conventional and innovative drug delivery systems. She has a deep knowledge in the analytics and pharmaceutical technology of herbal drugs, herbal drug preparations and herbal medicinal products. The purpose of its studies is to increase the solubility and/or the chemical stability of various natural plant extracts or compounds to improve their bioavailability profile and consequently the effectiveness.

Associate Professor Joanne Blanchfield completed her PhD at The University of Queensland in 1996 and then embarked on a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore working with Prof. Craig Townsend on the discovery of new biosynthetic pathways to β lactam antibiotics. She then worked at the Australian National University with Prof. Lew Mander on the synthesis of novel Gibberellin structures and finally moved to the School of Pharmacy at UQ working with Prof. IstvanToth on drug development and delivery research. She was appointed to the SCMB academic staff in 2003.

Prof. G. Caracciolo is Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. In 2007, he joined the Faculty of Medicine of Sapienza as an Assistant Professor of Applied Physics in 2007 and promoted to an Associate Professor in 2010. Dr. Caracciolo specific research interest is controlling nano-bio interfaces to develop new nanotechnologies for detection/treatment of cancer and other diseases. He has a productive track record of extensive multidisciplinary collaborations, so far yielding over 120 publications in high profile journals (e.g., JACS, ACS Nano, Nanoscale, and Trends in Biotechnology) with more than 2,300 citations.

Graduated in Pharmacy in 2004 at the University ‘‘Magna Græcia’’ of Catanzaro. In 2008, graduated as Pharm.D., and residence in Hospital Pharmacy at the University ‘‘Magna Græcia’’ of Catanzaro. In 2012, Dr. Celia received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science. Since 2017, Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology. Main research fields are focused on design, synthesis and physical-chemical characterization of vesicular and supramolecular carriers for systemic and topical drug delivery. Dr. Christian Celia carried out his research activity in Department of Pharmacy, University of Chieti - Pescara “G. d’Annunzio”.

Meiwan Chen received her PhD from Sun Yat-Sen University, China and was a visiting scholar from 2009 to 2010 at University of Mississippi. At present, she is an Associate Professor at Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau and specializes in biomaterial and nanomedicine, especially the development of targeted drug delivery systems for cancer therapy. The research ranges from design and synthesis of novel lipidic and polymeric carriers to mechanistic understanding of delivery barriers and to in vivo studies of relevant tumor models. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in SCI journals.

Daniela Chirio is assistant professor at University of Turin, UNITO, Department of Drug Science and Technology. Her research work is in the pharmaceutical field, regarding the development and characterization of colloidal systems such as emulsions, liposomes, lipid micro- and nanoparticles to be proposed for drug administration through different routes. She has focused her research on the formulation of solid lipid nanoparticles as potential drug delivery systems, produced with different techniques. She has contributed in the publication of over 30 research papers.

Francesco Cilurzo is associate professor in drug delivery and regulatory affairs at University of Milan, UNIMI, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (DISFARM), Milano. He is promoting partner and administrator of Pharmafilm Spin-Off of the University of Milan working on the development of transdermal patches and orodispersible films. His research work and fields of interest is based on Drug delivery, Transdemal patches, Bioadhesive dosage forms, PLGA, Permeation Enhancer. He has contributed in the publication of over 104 Research papers.

Nunzio Denora is assistant professor and research scientist in Pharmaceutical Technology at University of Bari, UNIBA, Department of Pharmacy - Drug Sciences. Since 2016, he is heading the Inter-University Consortium CIRCSMB research group of Bari (> 30 scientists) with the aim to develop "Inorganic-based Nano Drug Delivery Systems". His main interests include drug delivery and targeting, nanomedicine, multifunctional pharmaceutical nanocarriers. He has a productive track record of extensive multidisciplinary collaborations, yielding over 100 publications in high profile journals.

Dr. Michael Doschak is an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He received his Ph.D. (2004) in the Medical Sciences with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary, where his research centered on the mineral binding effects of the bisphosphonate drug family during the pathogenesis of Osteoarthritis. He completed his initial Postdoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery under the supervision of Prof. Hasan Uludag at the University of Alberta, followed by an Industrial Fellowship with the Canadian biotech company Millenium Biologix Corporation Biologics Division labs in Mississauga.

Dr. Harish Dureja studied Master in Pharmacy in Pharmaceutics from Punjabi University, Patiala. He earned Ph. D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. He is presently working as a Professor in Pharmaceutics and IQAC Officer, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, M. D. University, Rohtak. He is also holding the position of Director IPR Cell and Director, Professional Consultancy Services at M.D. University, Rohtak. Dr. Dureja has numerous honors, awards and international publications to his credit.

Dr Valerie Ferro is currently working as Lecturer at Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow, Scotland. Prof. Val Ferro graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Aberdeen (BSc Hons 1985) and carried out postgraduate research into Tumour Biology at the University of St. Andrews. (PhD, 1989). She moved to the University of Strathclyde in 1989 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, managing commercially-funded projects on vaccine development. She became a lecturer in 2006.

Prof. Marianna Foldvari is PhD. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from (Dalhousie University). She is currently working as an Associate Editor, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine (2006 – Present). Dr. Foldvari's research focuses on the development of intelligent delivery systems and biomolecular devices with the goal of developing new, non-invasive technologies to deliver and target therapeutic agents into the body and to diseased tissues, as well as investigating the fundamental properties of these delivery technologies and the cells they target.

Dr. Ge received his Ph.D degree in biochemical engineering in 2009 from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). After eight-year working at CAS, Dr. Ge joined in Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a full professor in 2017. Curently, his research interests inlcude 1) development of novel strategies or techniques for evaluating and improving the drug-like properties; 2) drug disposition and drug-drug interactions. He has published more than 150 articles in SCI international journals, with the H-index of 29. He has also applied for more than 80 patents including 10 international patents, and 30 of them have been authorized.

Khaled Greish is Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, and head of the Nano-research unit, at Princes Al-Jawhara Centre, Arabian Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of Utah, USA. He Published > 70 peer reviewed papers, and 10 book chapters in the field of targeted anticancer drug delivery. Controlled Release Society (CRS) awarded him the CRS Postdoctoral Achievement award in 2008 and in 2010; he was elected as member of the CRC College of Fellows. in 2014 University of Otago.

Prof. Bin He is PhD. in Polymer Chemistry & Physics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 2003.Dr. HE is currently Professor at National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, China. Dr. He was serving as Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University in 2004. His fields of expertise are Biodegradable Polymers, Drug/Gene Delivery, Supramolecular Self-assembly. He was also awarded by National Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars, NSFC in 2012.

Ramón C. Hermida is Professor and founder and director of the Laboratory of Bioengineering and Chronobiology at the University of Vigo. He was a researcher granted by the Spanish Association Against Cancer in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Minnesota (USA) for six years, obtaining the Master's degrees in Pathology. , Cronobiology and Applied Statistics, as well as his PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He is currently President of the International Society for Chronobiology and President of the Spanish Society of Chronobiology, Chronotherapy and Vascular Risk. Prof. Hermida is the author of 80 book chapters and 260 articles in scientific journals.

Dr. Hosseinkhani has broad experience in the area of life sciences and is an expert in nanotechnology, biomaterials, drug delivery, 3D in vitro systems, bioreactor technology, and bioengineering stem cells technology. His working experience is mainly attributed to academia and industry of biomedical engineering research and development (which includes several years of basic science research experience in a number of premier institutions related to the structure and function of biomaterials, and in polymer-based and mineral-based medical implants development in the medical device industry).

Dr. Toshiyuki Inazu, PhD. is currently working as Laboratory Head at Tokai University, Department of Applied Chemistry, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Dr. Inazu’s Skills and Expertise involve Synthesis, Proteins, Organic Synthesis, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Enzymes, Peptides, Peptide , Chemistry, Carbohydrate Chemistry, Amino Acids, Glycosylation, and Glycobiology. He has been contributed in 123 Research publication so far. He worked as a senior researcher at Noguchi Institute Tokyo, Japan form 1982 till 2003.

Dr. Iyer is the Director of Use-inspired Biomaterials and Integrated Nano Delivery (U-BiND) Systems Laboratory and an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Dr. Iyer received his PhD in 2008, in Polymer Engineering. Dr. Iyer has authored close to 100 publications in peer reviewed International Journals and books of high repute. He has more than 150 scientific presentations and invited talks at International Conferences and Workshops.

Dr. Rehan Khan is working as a Scientist at Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, India. Currently his area of research is Drug delivery. His main research interest is to develop novel drug delivery system for targeted cancer therapy as well as arthritis and colitis. During his postdoctoral training, by using yeast/drosophila datasets, he was working on to develop synthetic lethal interactors of homologous recombination repair (HRR)-deficient cancer cells for selective killing of cancer cells while sparing normal cells.

Dr. Tae-il Kim is associate professor at Department of Biosystems & Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University (Republic of Korea). He obtained his Ph.D. in Department of Chemistry in 2006 from Seoul National University. He was a post doctor in Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah, prior to joining Seoul National University in 2010. His research is focused on the development of drug/gene delivery systems, nanomedicine, and biopolymers for biomedical applications.

Dr. Hae-Won Kim received his PhD from the Soul National University, South Korea, in 2002. He was a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, 2000), and a Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London (UCL) Eastman Dental Institute (2003-2004) and Seoul National University Advanced Materials Research Institute (2004-2005). His research interests include tissue engineering, stem cell engineering, biointerface control and therapeutic scaffolds for muscle, nerve, blood vessel, bone and tooth structures. He is currently a Director of the Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), and leads BK21+ Nanobiomedical Science Department. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Tissue Engineering. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed papers.

Prof. Jindřich Henry Kopeček, received his Ph.D. in Macromolecular Chemistry from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and D.Sc. in Chemistry from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering (2011). His research interests are focused on biorecognition of macromolecules, bioconjugate chemistry, drug delivery systems, self-assembled biomaterials, and drug-free macromolecular therapeutics. Kopeček is a coauthor of more than 430 scientific papers; his Hirsch index is 85 and his publications have been cited 25,400 times.

Dr. Majella Lane PhD. has completed her post doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. She is Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at School of Pharmacy, University of London, United Kingdom. Dr. Lane's areas of expertise include membrane transport, biophysical approaches towards the elucidation of drug-drug, drug-excipient and drug-membrane interactions, mechanisms of drug absorption, transdermal drug delivery, topical drug delivery, percutaneous absorption, peptide and protein formulation, ungual drug absorption, buccal drug absorption. Dr Lane's major research interests are in the development of optimal drug formulations for effective delivery of therapeutics, with special reference to skin, nail and to mucus membranes.

Prof. Jun Li completed his PhD. from Osaka University, Japan in 1995. He is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Dr. li has completed his M.Sc., from Osaka University, Japan in 1992. His Research interests involves Design of Novel Biodegradable Polymers and Hydrogels, Self-assembly and Nano-Structures of Novel Macromolecular Systems, Applications of Novel Biomaterials for Drug/Gene Delivery and Tissue Engineering. Dr. Li has published over 149 scientific papers.

Sam T. Mathew is an experienced pharmaceutical research professional who is currently working as a Global Head: Clinical eSubmission and Technical Compliance Delivery at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines. Also worked with Accenture Pharmaceutical services, Bangalore, India as Process Lead in Medical/Publication/Scientific writing. Prior to this worked with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Hyderabad, India as Senior Publication Writer/Senior Scientific Writer. Previously, worked as Scientist-Formulation development in managerial grade at Viziphar biosciences, Bangalore, India. He is a doctorate in pharmacy (Pharmaceutics), has the credit of the academic research >25 scientific research/review articles are published in peer reviewed international journals. Presented papers at 3 international and 9 national conferences.

Torben Moos, MD and PhD has a yearlong track in neurobiological research. His research involves preclinical models of the blood-brain barrier and experimental models of metal-toxicity and neurodegeneration. His main research interest derives from structural and physiological studies of metals and metal-binding proteins in the normal brain, drug delivery studies to the brain using targeted delivery to metal transporters, and the roles of metals in neurodegeneration.

Dr. Amit Kumar Nayak, PhD., is currently working as Associate Professor at Seemanta Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Odisha, India. Dr. Nayak’s skills and expertise involve in the field of pharmaceutics, especially in the development and characterization of polymeric composites, hydrogels, novel and nanostructured drug delivery systems. Till date, he has authored over 120 publications in various high impact peer-reviewed journals and 34 book chapters to his credit. He has also edited 2 books. He is a life member of Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI).

Francesco Peri is Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. his research focused on the rational design and synthesis of new molecules (mainly glycolipids) capable to interact with innate immunity receptors MD-2 and CD14, thus interfering with the molecular processes of TLR4 activation and signaling. Several generation of TLR4 antagonists were patented and some of these compounds (IAXO molecules, Adipogen) are now commercially available as selective TLR4 blockers. He coordinates the Marie Curie ETN EU project 642157 (2015-2019)– TOLLerant (Toll-Like Receptor 4 activation and function in diseases: an integrated chemical-biology approach), network consists of 8 academic and 2 industrial full partners representing 5 countries all across Europe and 3 associate partners, 2 from Europe and one from USA.

Dr. Yvonne Perrie is Chair Person in Drug Delivery within the University of Strathclyde. In 1998, she gained her PhD from the University of London investigating the role of liposomes for drug delivery. Dr. Perrie is an internationally recognised researcher with a strong track-record of high impact publications; with approximately 100 peer reviewed manuscripts and 5 textbooks. Her research is multi-disciplinary and is focused on the development of drug delivery systems to facilitate the delivery of drugs and vaccines, thus providing practical solutions for current healthcare problems.

R. Polt has embraced several relatively diverse scientific disciplines in his career, often running counter to the prevailing wisdom and advice. He studied Chemistry at IUPUI under the direction of Prof. Martin J. O’Donnell, where he was involved in the enantioselective alkylation of masked glycine anion and cation equivalents to produce the first of the “O’Donnell Schiff Bases.” (Ph2C=O + H2NCH2CO2CH2CH3 → Ph2C=NCH2CO2CH2CH3) An NSF Fellowship that took him to Columbia University where he studied with Prof. Gilbert J. Stork where he earned his Ph.D. in 1986, and then on to Prof. Dieter Seebach’s group in Zürich where he studied the alkylation of peptides in addition to glycine equivalents. Robin shifted his interests toward the synthesis and evaluation of glycopeptide drugs at the University of Arizona starting in 1988. His glycosylated neuropeptides showed excellent biological activity, extended stability in vitro and in vivo, and also cross the blood-brain barrier to produce central effects. Presently, Robin is involved in the study of glycolipid surfactants as drug delivery vehicles in addition to the glycopeptide drugs, which also possess surface activity, which is key to their distribution in vivo.

Dr. Laszlo Prokai is the UNT Health Science Center’s first Chair in Biochemistry endowed by the Houston-based Welch Foundation, one of the United States' oldest and largest private funding sources for chemical research. Dr. Prokai has maintained an actively funded research program supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is recognized nationally and internationally for his work on discovery, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology of central nervous system agents, the chemical biology of neuropeptides and proteomics, as well as mass spectrometry. He also serves as Courtesy Professor in the Departments of Medicinal Chemistry and Anesthesiology at the University of Florida.

Jianping Qi is currently an associate professor of pharmaceutics at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. His research focuses on fabrication of highly efficient oral drug delivery systems and elucidation of in vivo fate of nanoparticles. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious international journals. He also served as editorial board member of Chinese Chemical Letters, and Committee member of bioparticles of China Particuology Society and committee member of Nanobiotechnology of China Medicinal Biotech Association.

Dr. Michael A. Repka the Chair of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, also Director of the Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology, he is Professor of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery at School of Pharmacy, THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI , MS, USA. His research interests are “trans” systems, including transmucosal, trans-nail and transdermal drug delivery systems. Many of these systems are directed toward the delivery of poorly soluble drugs via hot-melt extrusion techniques. Polymeric drug delivery design and stabilization of conventional and novel drug delivery systems for natural product compounds such as THC, is a continued focus of research.

Michael (Mike) S. Roberts PhD DSc is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Professor of Therapeutics & Pharmaceutical Science at the University of South Australia; Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics at The University of Queensland and is Director of the Therapeutics Research Centre (TRC), based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (Brisbane) and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Adelaide). His research outputs include: 7 books, more than 450 peer reviewed research publications, >50 book chapters; > 200 invited international talks and a leader of research teams funded by Australian and International Research bodies. He has recently been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Science.

Prof. Paolo Rovero, graduated in organic chemistry with the University of Florence in 1983 and specialized in peptide chemistry with the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, in 1985. Since 1985, his research interests are related to the design, synthesis, conformational analysis and biological characterization of peptides of pharmaceutical interest. 180 scientific publications on international journals and 20+ patents of pharmaceutical relevance. He is a member of the Italian Chemical Society, of the European Peptide Society and of the American Peptide Society (charter member). Currently he is the Associate professor of medicinal chemistry. Since 1985, my skills and expertise are related to the design, synthesis, conformational analysis and biological characterization of peptides of pharmaceutical and diagnostic interest.

Dr. Faiyaz Shakeel received a Master degree (M. Pharm) and a PhD in Pharmaceutics from Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University, New Delhi, India). At Jamia Hamdard. In 2011, he was awarded Young Scientist Award from the Association of Pharmacy Professionals (APP). In March 2016, he has been promoted to Associate Professor at King Saud University. At King Saud University, He also had very good expertise in solubilization of drug molecules using cosolvency models. His research interest lies in the general area of Pharmaceutics and more recently in the development of nanoemulsions and self-nanoemulsifying formulations for therapeutic applications. He is author of over 180 journal articles and book chapter.

Shaobing Zhou received his B.S. degree in polymer chemistry from SichuanUniversity and Ph.D. degree in Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was promoted to Full Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University. He was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists of China. His research interests include drug controlled release system and tissue engineering scaffold. He is the author or coauthor of morthan 120 refereed articles, 1 book chapter and 20 Chinese patents/patent applications. He has been cited over 5500 times and has an h-index of 44.

Dr Pavla Simerská is an early career researcher with experience in the field of peptide and carbohydrate chemistry, enzymatic glycosylation and vaccine/drug delivery. She received her Master degree in Biochemistry and Biomedicine from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, Czech Republic in 2002. She was awarded 3 Votoček Fellowships while working on enzymatic glycosylations at the Czech Academy of Science. Pavla defended her PhD in 2006 and since then, she has been working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof Istvan Toth at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB), UQ. In 2010 she was awarded the Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship from the ARC.

Dr M. Skwarczynski received a Master degree in biotechnology and a PhD in chemistry from Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland). In 2004 he was awarded Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a grant to conduct research on paclitaxel.His research interest lies in the general area of medicinal chemistry and more recently in the development of nanomaterials for biomedical applications, vaccine delivery strategies, including design, chemoselective synthesis, conformational studies, and immunological properties of lipopeptide and polymer assembled multivalent vaccine candidates. He is author of over 70 journal articles and book chapters.

Professor Dr. Pornsak Sriamornsak is currently a Senior Professor (Pharmaceutics) at Silpakorn University (Thailand), Secretary General and Executive Board Member of Thai Industrial Pharmacist Association, and Associate Fellow at Academy of Science, Royal Society of Thailand. He serves as editorial board member of several journals such as Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Current Drug Delivery, Journal of Pharmaceutics, etc. He received many research awards, e.g., Nagai Award Thailand for Research, Young Scientist Award Thailand, TRF-CHE-Scopus Researcher Award, FAPA Ishidate Award for Pharmaceutical Research, Thailand Distinguished Polymer Scientist, National Distinguished Researcher Award 2013, Outstanding Pharmacist, etc. His researches focus on drug delivery system and dosage form design, application of biopolymer in pharmaceutics, and pharmaceutical nanotechnology. He published over 160 peer-reviewed publications and has h-index of 36 (Google Scholar) and 32 (Scopus). He actively participated in grant review for a number of funding agencies, and review of papers for many journals.

Prof. H.C. Lutz F. Tietze is professor at University of Goettingen TammannstraBe Goettingen Germany. He complted his PhD in 1968. He was also Research Associate with Prof. Dr. A.R. Battersby at the University of Cambridge, England. He got different awards and Scholarships like, 1968 Ph.D.-Award (Fonds of the Chemical Industry); 1969 Fulbright Scholarship; 1969. His Research Fields are Development of selective and efficient as well as ecologically and economically benign synthetic methods and Design of a novel approach for a selective treatment of cancer using the antibody directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) and the prodrug monotherapy (PMT) as well as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs)

Vladimir P. Torchilin, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Northeastern University, Boston, Mass. He graduated from the Moscow University with MS in Chemistry, and also obtained his Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry, Chemical Kinetics and Catalysis, and Chemistry of Physiologically Active Compounds in 1971 and 1980, respectively. His main interests include drug delivery and targeting, nanomedicine, multifunctional, stimuli-sensitive pharmaceutical nanocarriers, biomedical polymers, experimental cancer therapy, cancer immunology, novel imaging agents. He has published more than 400 original papers, more than 150 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 10 books and holds more than 40 patents.

Ijeoma Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience within the UCL School of Pharmacy. She obtained her PhD from the School of Pharmacy in 1994 and was appointed to a lectureship in Drug Delivery in 1997 within the University of Strathclyde. She became a senior lecturer in 2000 and a Professor of Drug Delivery in 2002. She then joined the School of Pharmacy as a Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience in 2006 and joined UCL in 2012. In 2010 Ijeoma became cofounder Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd, a specialty pharmaceutical company and spin out from UCL.

Dr. Bhuvaneshwar Vaidya is currently working as an Assistant professor (Research) in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy, Amarillo TX. Dr. Vaidya received his PhD from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, India. He has been investigating novel drug delivery approaches for effective delivery of bio-actives for treatment of various disorders including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. He has supervised more than 10 students for their graduate research projects and published his research work in several reputable journals. Dr. Vaidya has numerous publications and honors to his credit.

Professor R.B. Walker completed his Ph.D. degree in Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He is the former Dean and Head of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes and is currently the Professor of Pharmaceutics and also the current Chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences in South Africa. Prof. Walker has published and presented over 200 scientific outputs and serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals. Professor Walker undertakes research studies in all aspects of drug delivery and product development.

Professor Yuksel is a pharmacist with a research focus on pharmaceutical technology. After graduation, she worked as a pharmacist at Ministry of Health and Social Services, General Directorate of Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacy for one year, then she became a research assistant in Ankara University Faculty of Pharmacy. She got her M.Sc. degree in 1998 and Ph.D. degree in 1995 at the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology in Ankara University Faculty of Pharmacy. In 1998, she worked as a postdoc fellow in Industrial Pharmacy Program at the University of Cincinnati Faculty of Pharmacy for one year. She worked as an assistant professor between 1999-2005; obtained the title of Associate Professor in 2005; and she became a Professor in 2010. Her research interests include formulation approaches for enhancing solubility of poorly soluble drugs, development of modified release dosage forms: semisolid matrix into hard gelatin capsules, tablets, polymeric microspheres; and nanoparticulate drug delivery systems including niosomes, proniosomes, polymeric micelles. She has about 45 scientific articles and 35 symposium presentations. She has several research grants from Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council to support her research. She is editorial board member of the journals named “Current Drug Delivery”, “Drug Delivery Letters”, and “The Scientific World Journal”. She currently serves as a member of the advisory committee for generic drug products in Turkey Drug and Medicinal Device Agency.

Dr. Bugrahan Emsen obtained his doctorate in Biology from Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Turkey, in 2015. Currently, Dr. Emsen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University. His research works involve the natural compounds and their therapeutic activities on various cell and tissue types. His skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of genetic toxicology, biochemistry, molecular biology and herbal products. He has contributed in the publication of over 90 research papers.