Dr. Ignacio Anegon did his postdoctoral work in the Immunology Department of the University Hospital of Barcelona between 1982 and 1985. His research was on the generation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against human leukocytes as well as application of cytofluorimetry and monoclonal antibodies for typing human leukemias and lymphomas. He is now Director of Research at the INSERM, Director of the INSERM unit 1064 and scientific director of the Nantes Rat Transgenesis ImmunoPhenomic platform. He has published more than 222 papers, edited 3 books and is Editor-in-chief of the journal Current Gene Therapy.

Dr. Lewin received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and received postdoctoral training at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Since 1994, he has worked on gene therapy for treatment for retinitis pigmentosa. He is also developing gene and drug therapies for age-related macular degeneration. Currently, Dr. Lewin is Shaler-Richardson Professor of Ophthalmic Sciences and is Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida. He was awarded the Board of Directors Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness and received the Elisabeth Anderson Macular Degeneration Research Award from the BrightFocus Foundation.

Cristina Fillat obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain and did a postdoctoral stage at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in N.Y. USA. Currently Dr. Fillat leads a research group in Gene Therapy and Cancer at IDIBAPS, Barcelona. She has contributed with scientific papers with more than 90 publications. She was among the team members that promote the constitution of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and served as Scientific Secretary.

Antonia Follenzi: She is an Associate professor of Histology at the University of Piemonte Orientale “A. Avogadro”, Novara (Italy). She has extensive expertise in lentiviral vector technology, liver research, bone marrow (BM) cell transplantation and gene transfer. She has applied her expertise to the functional characterization and the role of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells and BM cells to correct the bleeding phenotype in a mouse model of hemophilia A. She is an expert on transcriptional regulation of transgenes in lentiviral vectors using cell specific promoters.

Carine Giovannangeli graduated in Physics from Ecole Normale Supérieure (Lyon) and got her PhD in Biophysics (University Paris VI, Paris) in 1992 on biophysical and biological characterization of unusual nucleic acid structures under the supervision of Claude Hélène. Afterwards she was hired by CNRS in 1992 and spent some years at the Institut Pasteur working on HIV and inhibitory strategies based on nucleic acids targeting the viral genome. During the last few years at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris) she focused on optimizing genome editing methods using TALE proteins and CRISPR/Cas9 system by characterizing the DNA repair mechanisms associated with nuclease driven genome modifications and providing resources in the field (TACGENE Facility).

Prof. Haisma earned his Ph.D. in 1987 at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He worked as scientist for the biotech company Centocor Inc. Malvern PA, USA (1985-1986), Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston MA, USA (1986-1987), and as instructor at Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA (1986-1987). From 1987-1997. He is a professor at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Haisma is member of the board of the Dutch Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and a former member of the board of the European Society for Gene- and Cell Therapy. In addition, he is member of the Gene and Cell Doping Expert Group of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Dr. Yu-Chen Hu received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University (1992) and earned his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland (USA) in 1999. Dr. Hu’s main research interests include vaccine development, gene therapy, tissue engineering, cancer therapy and synthetic biology. Dr. Hu has won the Asia Research Award, Outstanding Research Award, BEST Biochemical Engineering Achievement Award, Wu Ta-You Memorial Award (NSC), Outstanding Academia-Industry Research Award and Outstanding Young Investigator Award in Taiwan. He is inducted as a fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and is elected the Member of the Tissue Engineering International & Regenerative Medicine Society-Asia Pacific (TERMIS-AP) Council and the Vice President of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Society of Taiwan.

Dr Pitard received his Ph.D from Paris University for his work on membrane protein reconstitution into liposomes in CEA Saclay and Institut Curie. He started his career in 1995 at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi) on the Gene Therapy program. Then, he worked at Sanofi-Pasteur on the DNA vaccine program.

He is Scientific Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS)/Univerity of Nantes (France).

He has invented new concepts for the intracellular delivery of complex drugs including nucleic acids and proteins. He has contributed to more than 80 publications and 17 patents on nucleic acids and protein formulations and is Associate Editor of the journal “Current Gene Therapy” published by Bentham science Publishers. He has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the French cystic fibrosis foundation “Vaincre La Mucoviscidose” (Paris, France), He created and launched with a Nobel Laureate the Biopharmaceutical company InCellArt.

Dr. Liang Qiao is currently a principal research fellow and an Associate Professor in the Storr Liver Centre at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, the University of Sydney. Dr. Qiao also serves as an editor for other international journals (Cancer Letters, World J Gastroenterol, Abdomen, Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, Anal Cell Pathol, etc.). He regularly reviews manuscripts for several international journals (Oncotarget, Int J Nanomed, J Hepatol, Stem Cell Dev, J Gastroenterol Hepatol, Liver International, etc). He is a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), a member of the Australian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR).

Dr. Rols obtained a Ph.D. in Cellular Biophysics in 1989 from the University of Toulouse, France.

Her research interests lie in the fields of molecules electrotransfer in cells and tissues. She is involved in different aspects including the mechanisms of membrane electropermeabilization, DNA electrotransfer, as well as biomedical applications for cancer treatment and gene therapy. She has published more than 120 scientific publications.

She is currently Director of Research at the CNRS and Group leader at the Institute for Biophysics and Structural Biology, Toulouse, France.

Dr. Rols is the secretary of the French Society for Nanomedicine and Board Member of the International Society for Electroporation-Based Technologies and Treatments (ISEBTT).

Mark is a Principal Investigator at the Cork Cancer Research Centre at University College Cork, Ireland His interests include the development of tumour-specific delivery technology utilising bacteria and the study of the relationships between bacteria and cancer. He is a council member of several gene therapy and cancer-related international and national societies, and a member of the editorial board of several international journals.

Mark is an associate editor of Current Gene Therapy.

Dr. Yao is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. He did his post.doc training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. He is the sole inventor of 6 issued Patent Applications, including the tetracycline gene switch technology, trademarked as T-REx by Invitrogen/Life Technologies, which has has been used and cited in more than 4,000 publications and hundreds of patent applications. Using this gene switch technology, Dr. Yao has established several unique approaches for genetic engineering novel recombinant viruses for clinical applications in the fields of infectious diseases, cancers, and neural regeneration.

Dr. Fujiwara graduated from Okayama University Medical School (M. D.) and obtained a doctorate (Ph. D.) in Gastroenterological Surgery from Okayama University. Dr. Fujiwara is currently a Professor and Chairman of Department of Gastroenterological Surgery in Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is also a Vice Director in Okayama University Hospital. He is a leading proponent of minimally invasive surgical approaches to upper gastrointestinal cancer. He has completed the first p53 gene therapy trial for cancer in Japan. He is currently developing telomerase-specific oncolytic adenoviruses for the diagnostic and therapeutic application.

Dr. Zhi-Yao obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from Sichuan University and did his postdoctoral training on cancer gene therapy using non-viral vectors at Sichuan University. Meanwhile, he was also a visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania for AAV gene therapy of genetic diseases during his postdoctoral. Dr. Zhi-Yao research interest is in the area of gene therapy (using different technologies and gene delivery using viral or non-viral vectors). Dr. Zhi-Yao has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles so far.

My expertise is in translational research, as well basic science development of gene transfer technologies. I have spent my career critically evaluating the latter, and their potential for use in multiple genetic diseases, as well infectious diseases and cancers. I have served as PI on multiple projects (funded by NIH, private foundations, and corporate entities) ranging from basic investigations, preclinical studies, as well I have co-led human clinical trials that eventuated in FDA approved biologic therapies. Viral vector based gene transfer technologies developed in our laboratories are currently in multiple clinical trials. My expertise as both a scientist and as a fully licensed physician, assists in my role as a reviewer for CGT.

Assumpció Bosch obtained a PhD in Biosciences at the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB) and did her postdoctoral training on gene therapy strategies using viral vectors at the University of Iowa (IA, USA) and at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France). Currently she is as Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and group leader at the Neuroscience Institute (UAB) mainly focused on gene therapy strategies for diseases affecting the nervous system, both central and peripheral. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, leaded national and European research projects and co-founded two biotech companies on the gene therapy field.

Giuseppina Carbone obtained MD degree and completed her clinical residency at the University of Naples Medical School. In 1988 she moved to the USA and trained in basic research at Wake Forest University Medical Center (Winston-Salem, NC) in the Department of Physiology Pharmacology. From 1994 she was senior fellow at the Hollings Cancer Center in the Department of Experimental Oncology of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. In 2001 she was appointed as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. In July 2003 she joined the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Bellinzona as Group Leader for the Prostate Cancer Biology unit.

Chemical Engineer, 1971, Univ. Porto; Master of Sciences (1975) and PhD in (1979) Environmental Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, U. London; Habilitation in, Biochemical Engineering (1991), NOVA-Univ. Nova de Lisboa. Full Professor, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, NOVA- Univ. Nova de Lisboa (1995-present). Founder (1988), earlier president and CEO (currently vice –president) of iBET – Institute for Experimental and Technological Biology (www.ibet.pt). Published over 230 papers in refereed international journals; Associate-Editor of Journal of Biotechnology, member of the editorial board of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Current Gene Therapy and Biotechnology Letters; referee of Biotechnology Progress, Cytotechnology, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Enzyme and Microbial Biotechnology.

Anja Ehrhardt studied biology at the Universities Göttingen and Hamburg in Germany and received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Hannover in Germany. From 1999 to 2005 she was a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Stanford University where she started to work on gene therapeutic approaches for genetic diseases. She established her own research group at the LMU Munich in Germany in 2005 and became a full professor in 2011 at the Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. Her current research focus is on adenovirus based gene therapeutic approaches to combat genetic and infectious diseases.

Alberto L. Epstein, born in Buenos Aires in 1947, is director of research emeritus of CNRS. ALE is a molecular virologist with wide expertise in genetics of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and development of HSV-1-based vectors for gene transfer and gene therapy. He is currently working at University of Versailles Saint Quentin in Yvelines, France, where he is a holder of the HandiMedEx chair of excellence, whose mission is to generate and evaluate neurotropic vectors for gene therapy of peripheral neuron-associated disorders.

Roland W. Herzog, PhD, is a Professor of Pediatrics, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida (UF). He received a PhD in Microbiology from Auburn University in 1996, followed by postdoctoral training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Herzog joined the UF gene therapy program in 2005. He has been appointed treasurer of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, editor-in-chief of Molecular Therapy Methods & Clinical Development, and UF Research Foundation Professor. Dr. Herzog’s research focuses on gene therapy for hemophilia, AAV vectors, and immune tolerance.

Yue-Wern Huang studied biology at National Taiwan Normal University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Michigan State Universityfor two years. He established his own research at Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2000 and became a full professor in 2012. His current research focuses on investigation of toxicity of pharmaceuticals and environmental chemicals and development of nanocarrier platforms to deliver biologically active molecules in vitro and in vivo.

Zoltán Ivics received his PhD in molecular biology from University of Minnesota in the USA and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.He was appointed as Head of Division at the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen, Germany, in 2011. He received recognition of the “Molecule of the Year” in 2009 for developing a hyperactive Sleeping Beauty transposase that opened the door for clinical applications. He has been serving as Member of the Board of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and as a faculty member of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy of the LOEWE (Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz) program in Hessen, Germany.

Dr. Marcelo Bispo de Jesus is Group Leader of Nano-cell Interactions Lab. at University of Campinas, Brazil. He received his Ph.D. in cell biology at the University of Groningen. Dr de Jesus was granted the Young Investigators Awards FAPESP, before taking up a position at the University of Campinas. In his current position, Dr de Jesus leads a multidisciplinary team working in the field of gene delivery and nanotoxicology.

Dr. Alexis M. Kalergis. He is a Professor at the Schools of Biological Sciences and Medicine of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He obtained the Julius Marmur Award for his MSc and PhD work on Microbiology and Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He performed post-doctoral training at the Albert Einstein and The Rockefeller University, supported by the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. He is the Director of the Millennium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy. His research focuses on the molecular interactions regulating the T cell-DC synapse and their contribution to pathogen immunity and self-tolerance during autoimmunity.

Dr. Kovesdi is an accomplished scientist as well as biotechnology entrepreneur and serves as CSO of DNAtrix and President of KILA Consultants. Prior to DNAtrix, Imre served as the CEO of Vectorlogics, a biotechnology company developing virus based cancer therapies. Previously, he served as CSO with GenVec where he directing research and development. Before joining GenVec, he led projects in the development of gene expression systems at the New York-based American Cyanamid Company. Imre was a postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University, holds a PhD in molecular biology from SFU and a degree in electrical engineering from UBC. He is the holder of over 100 US and foreign patents and has authored over 130 scientific articles in the areas of virology, gene delivery and molecular biology.

Dr. Ljubimov is Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Neurosurgery, Director of Eye Program of Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and UCLA Professor of Medicine. He authored over 120 papers and is on editorial boards of 13 journals. He is an Overseas Fellow of Royal Society of Medicine (London), and Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He is working on diabetic eye disease and cancer nanotechnology. He pioneered gene therapy for diabetic corneal stem cells, and discovered angiogenic role of protein kinase CK2. He contributed to the development of Polycefins, targeted nanodelivery systems for cancer treatment.

Fredric Manfredsson received his undergraduate training in microbiology and virology at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ and his PhD in Biomedical Sciences-Neuroscience from the University of Florida. He then received postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Ronald Mandel and Dr. Alfred S. Lewin during which he focused on viral vector design and gene therapy for neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Manfredsson joined the neuroscience faculty at the University of Florida as a research Assistant Professor in 2010. In the end of 2010 he was hired as an Assistant Professor at the new Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Dr. Martino received his Medical Degree in 1987 from the Univ. of Pavia where he completed his residency in Neurology in 1991. In 1990, He held the position of Research Associate at the Dept. of Neurology of the Univ. of Chicago. From 1992 to 2008, he worked first as Senior Scientist and then as Director of the Neuroimmunology Unit of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, where, from 2008, he acts as Director of the Dept. of Neuroscience. He is full professor of experimental biology at the Univ. Vita-Salute San Raffaele and honorary professor at Queen Mary Univ. of London.

Dr. Mathis received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Currently, he is Professor and Department Head of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. Having published over 100 scientific manuscripts, he has worked in the field of translational cancer research to develop multiple methods of gene and cell therapy, particularly in using adenovirus-based delivery vehicles. In particular, his laboratory has modified capsid proteins on adenovirus vectors for cancer retargeting and molecular imaging, as well as developed adenovirus-based cancer vaccines and conditionally replicating vectors for cancer therapy.

Guillermo D. Mazzolini obtained MD degree at the University of Rosario, Argentina. In 2000 obtained a PhD in gene therapy of cancer at the University of Navarra, Spain. Currently, he is the Director of Gene Therapy laboratory at Instituto de Investigaciones en Medicina Traslacional (IIMT), Universidad Austral-CONICET . In addition, he holds a position as Principal Investigator of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET), Deputy Director of the IIMT Universidad Austral-CONICET, and Director of the PhD Programe. The major research interests of Prof. Mazzolini includes molecular and cellular therapies in liver diseases, with an special focus on liver cancer. In addition, he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field.

Dr. Lalit Singh Pukhrambam obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Department Ophthalmology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit. His research interest involves cellular and molecular mechanisms of diabetes and its complications including diabetic retinopathy, oxidative stress, inflammasomes and innate immune responses, autophagy/mitophagy, mitochondrial dysfunction and retrograde nuclear signaling, epigenetics and gene and tissue engineering and therapies. He teaches Cell Biology and Histology for first year medical students and the renal system for graduate Ph.D. program.

Michele Simonato is Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical Schools of the University of Ferrara and of the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. He is Chair of a joint task force of the International League against Epilepsy and of the American Epilepsy Society, aimed at optimizing the development of new anti-epilepsy therapies. He received his MD at the University of Ferrara, and carried out his training at the University of Florence, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Duke University Medical Center. His research focuses on the development of new therapeutic approaches (in particular, gene therapy) for epilepsy.

Marcio J. Tiera received his MSc and PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), working under supervision of Miguel G. Neumann. From 1995 to 1997 he was a postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Biosciences, Humanities and Exact Sciences-UNESP (1995-1996). In 2005 he was postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Montreal University in the Françoise Winnik`s research group. In 2010 he conducted postdoctoral research at the Hôpital du Sacré Coeur de Montreal at the Orthopedic Research Group, led by Prof. Julio Cesar Fernandes. M. Tiera holds an Associate Professor position at the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences at UNESP, the São Paulo State University. His current scientific interests are related to polymers and colloids, focusing the synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles for non-viral gene therapy, antimicrobial activity of amphiphilics and self-assembly of nanosized aggregates.

Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, MD, PhD, is a pioneer and leader in cardiovascular gene therapy. He was the first in the world to apply catheter-mediated adenoviral gene transfer to human arteries in 1995. Since then he has developed a highly successful research team focusing on angiogenesis, new members of the VEGF family and their clinical applications. He is also the originator of the concept of “epigenetherapy”. He has conducted nine phase I-III clinical trials with vectors produced in his laboratory and has served as President of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (2010-2012).

Dr. Manish Mishra is pursuing his research at Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State University, Michigan. His research focus is to understand the mechanism underlying the development of diabetic retinopathy and the complications associated with it. His research group identified that reduced expression of mitochondrial DNA gene is one of the causal factors of mitochondrial dysfunction, reduced biogenesis and capillary cell death, one of target cells in the histopathology of retinopathy. His current research objective is to investigate the mechanism/s behind increased oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent cell loss in the development of diabetic retinopathy.

Francesco Porta obtained MD degree, residency in Pediatrics, and PhD in experimental Pediatrics at the University of Torino.  His clinical and research activity is mostly focused in the field of inborn errors of metabolism, including disorders of neurotransmission. Currently, he is licensed associate professor of Pediatrics and metabolic pediatrician at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Torino. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in the field of Pediatrics.