William J. Hoekstra, Ph.D. serves as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Viamet Pharmaceuticals Inc., Durham, NC, USA. He is the inventor of the Phase 2B antifungal oteseconazole and the Phase 2 anticancer agent seviteronel. Prior to working with Viamet, Dr. Hoekstra held the position of Associate Director in Discovery Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline where he coordinated the introduction of a group of nuclear receptor modulator programs into the portfolio. From 1991 to 2000, he directed the discovery and lead optimization of NCEs such as the Phase 2B antithrombotic elarofiban in Johnson & Johnson’s Department of Drug Discovery. He has co-authored over 100 publications, holds 40 U.S. patents, and has presented several invited lectures.

Dr. Wolf-Rainer Abraham is the head of Chemical Microbiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany. He holds a Ph. D. in chemistry and has 40 years of experience in the discovery of bioactive natural products from microorganisms and plants. His focus is currently on multi-species biofilms and immune cells where he studies the impact of bioactive compounds on carbon flux in the cell using 13C-labeled compounds over time by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). He published his results in more than 230 peer-reviewed articles and 12 patents.

Pier Giovanni Baraldi became a Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1987 at Bologna University and in 1992, he had moved to Ferrara University where he is now a Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. He has published more than 400 scientific papers including about 50 patents. He has participated in more than 90 Medicinal Chemistry meetings as a plenary speaker. His research interests have been focused on the design and synthesis of minor groove alkylating agents, combretastatin analogs, ligands for Adenosine Receptors, Cannabinoid Receptors, and Transient Receptor Potential channel modulators. He has several scientific collaborations with national and international pharmaceutical companies.

Salvatore Cuzzocrea is full Professor of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Messina. He completed his graduation in Pharmacy and Medicine and became an Honorary Professor of Pharmacology in the University of Manchester (UK). Prof. Cuzzocrea has received a doctorate (PhD) in “Experimental Medicine” School of Medicine University of Messina.

He has authored of more than 600 publications including articles in peer reviewed international journals and scientific books. He has served as an Editor and referee for several international journals. He encompasses research activities with specific competences at international levels in the field of autoimmunity, inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders as well as drug development.

Dr. Ferroni obtained a Doctorate degree in Medicine and the Oncology Residency from the Sapienza University of Rome. She also holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from the same University. Currently, Dr. Ferroni is a Professor of Physiology and senior researcher at the San Raffaele Roma Open University, Italy. Her major scientific interest is in translational research and biospecimen sciences, with a particular focus on human cancer and the use and construction of innovative informatics platforms to improve health care organization and efficiency. Dr. Ferroni has authored more than 200 scientific publications.

Dr. Oreste Gualillo is Ph.D in Pharmacology. Since 2001, he is a SERGAS Researcher and the Head of the NEIRID (Neuroendocrine Interactions in Rheumatology and Inflammatory Diseases) group of IDIS (Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago) at Santiago University Clinical Hospital . Dr. Gualillo’s primary research was focussed on cartilage pathophysiology and pharmacology. He contributed in defining the molecular signals triggered by adipokines in rheumatic diseases and in the inflammatory response. Dr. Gualillo’s track record of professional achievement is supported by more than 150 primary peer-reviewed publications. He has served as an editorial board member for several scientific journals and committes.

Dr. Kotra is an academic entrepreneur with expertise in drug discovery and development. He is a senior scientist at University Health Network, and an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at University of Toronto. Dr. Kotra received his Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Georgia and postdoctoral training at Wayne State University. Dr. Kotra authored/co-authored 117 original research manuscripts, review articles and book chapters and several patents. Dr. Kotra has contributed to a number of drug discovery and drug delivery projects including anti-HIV drugs, antibacterials, insulin, interferon mimetics, protein-drug conjugates (cancer), antimalarials, drugs targeting multiple sclerosis and thrombocytopenia.

Dr. Li obtained his PhD in chemistry from Columbia University, and currently he is a Professor and the Faculty Director of Shared Instrument Faculty in College of Pharmacy, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He has close to 20 years of experience in small molecule drug discovery for cancer and inflammation. Dr. Li has published more than 120 papers, is an inventor of four issued US patents, and is a frequent grant reviewer for NIH and other government agencies.

Dr. Mehran F. Moghaddam obtained his PhD in medicinal chemistry at the Oregon State University-School of Pharmacy and investigated novel lipid metabolism at the University of California-Davis as a postdoctoral researcher. He also completed executive MBA at the University of Southern California. He started his industrial career by joining DuPont in 1995. Subsequently, he worked in Pfizer and Celgene. He is currently the head of Discovery Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at Celgene, a global biopharmaceutical company with marketed blockbuster drugs in oncology and anti-inflammatory spaces.

Dr. Moghaddam is a co-inventor more than 5 patents. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 manuscripts on a variety of subject matters. He is on the editorial board of Drug Metabolism Letters and DARU. Additionally, he is a Section Editor of Current Medicinal Chemistry .

Dr. Ling Peng is a Research Director at the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS) and a group leader at the Interdisciplinary Center on Nanoscience in Marseille (CINaM). She is working actively in developing multifunctional dendrimers as intelligent nanomaterials for drug and gene delivery, molecular probes for exploring biological events and drug discovery. Dr. Ling Peng has co-authored more than 100 scientific papers, 5 patents and 15 book chapters.

James Adams received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of California San Francisco. He has been a Professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy for 28 years, where he teaches Pharmacy, Medical and Graduate Students. He has over 250 publications in journals and books. His current area of interest is California medicinal plants. Dr. Adams was trained in Chumash Indian Healing for 14 years by a recognized Chumash Healer. Since 2012, he has become a Healer to the Chumash people of the San Fernando Valley. He has written a book and several articles on Chumash Healing. He continues to teach Chumash Healing to healthcare students and the public.

Giorgio Ascoli is a University Professor at the George Mason University (Virginia, USA) and founding director of the Center for Neural Informatics. Dr. Ascoli received a Ph.D in Chemistry from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, studying proteins involved in learning and neurodegeneration. He won the European Phillips Young Investigator Award in 1989 for synthesizing a new organic molecule and moved to NIH in 1994. Ascoli is internationally recognized in computational neuroanatomy and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuroinformatics. He created and curates NeuroMorpho.Org (collection of digitally reconstructed neurons), and Hippocampome.Org (knowledge based on hippocampal neuron types). His book “Trees of the Brain, Roots of the Mind” has been published by MIT Press in 2015.

Dr Baell is a research-only Professor in Medicinal Chemistry at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. He is also a Director of the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility. He is an Australian National Award-winning medicinal chemist with a battery of medicinal discoveries with 40 granted patents and more than 100 publications inclusive of Nature, Nature Chemical Biology and frequently in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. His research interests include high throughput screening library design, hit-to-lead medicinal chemistry, infectious and neglected diseases, epigenetic modifiers, and peptidomimetic design and synthesis. He was the principal architect for Australia’s 370,000 small molecule HTS library. As of 2016, his 2010 PAINS publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry has already been cited more than 500 times. Dr Baell is also the co-Senior Editor of Future Medicinal Chemistry and Editorial Advisory Board member for Biology as well as Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and Review Editor for Frontiers in Chemical Biology. He is a founding Director of the International Chemical Biology Society, and currently he is the Secretary. He is a Scientific Advisory Board member for TopoGEN Inc. (Colorado) and Regen Biopharma Inc. (San Diego).

Daniela Barlocco earned her degree in Pharmacy (1969) and in Chemistry (1977) from the University of Pavia (Italy). She became Researcher at the University of Milan, faculty of Pharmacy, in 1980 and Associate Professor at the University of Modena in 1992. She got the title of full Professor at the University of Milan in 2000.

Her main research interests are the designing of small molecules as enzyme inhibitors and the comprehension of the protein-protein interactions.

She has published about 150 scientific papers and several patents. She is on the Advisory Board of several journals.

Dr. Beretta is an Assistant Researcher at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan. Dr. Beretta obtained a degree in Biology at the University of Milan, a Ph.D in Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry, and a Master in Oncology Pharmacy and Pharmacology. Among the fields of interest of Dr. Beretta are the molecular and biochemical pharmacology of antitumor agents and the strategies to overcome drug resistance. Dr. Beretta has experience in preclinical and translational studies and has participated in the development of novel antitumor drugs and of nanovectors for nucleic acids delivery. Dr. Beretta has authored 71 papers and book chapters.

A Graduate Research Professor Emeritus (active) at the University of Florida, Dr. Bodor has published more than 520 research articles and holds over 250 patents. The soft steroid Loteprednol Etabonate, designed by Dr. Bodor based on his retrometabolic concepts, is on the worldwide market. He is elected fellow of AAPS, APhA, AAAS and AACP, other honors include election to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; the Volwiler Award and the AAPS Distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist Award. He is a member of the American Chemical Society’s Hall of Fame, and founded Bodor Laboratories in 2006 in order to further develop his drug design strategies.

Emeritus Professor John Bremner holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Australian National University, Canberra. He was a former Professor of Organic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. His research interests cover heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry, including the design and development of new anti-bacterial agents. He has more than 220 scientific publications, and served as an Editorial Board member of a number of journals.

Jean Michel Brunel was graduated from the School of Chemistry of Marseille (France) in 1991. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1994 from Université Aix Marseille in the field of asymmetric organophosphorus chemistry. In 1994, he joined the group of Pr. H. B. Kagan (Université Paris Sud) as a postdoctoral fellow working on the enantioselective catalytic oxidation of sulfides. In 1997, he joined the CNRS as Chargé de Recherche and is now working at the Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille. His research program is focused on the development of novel classes of antimicrobial and anticancer agents.

Terrence Burke received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington (Seattle) and has spent most of his professional career within the Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is currently a Senior Investigator at the Chemical Biology Laboratory (National Cancer Institute). He has published more than 300 scientific publications and is a co-inventor of 20 issued U.S. patents.

Loredana Cappellacci is Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, University of Camerino, since 2007. In 1998, she spent one year as Visiting Scientist at Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She is author of more than 90 papers published in leading international peer-review journals, 2 International Patents and 2 book chapters. Her main research interests are on design, synthesis and characterization of small molecules as: a) enzyme inhibitors (as anticancer, antibacterial, antiparasitic, and antiviral agents), b) adenosine receptor ligands. More recently, a topic of research is also the characterization and biological evaluation of essential oils and extracts from plants from different countries.

Guido Cavaletti graduated in Medicine at the University of Milan in 1984, and specialized in Neurology in 1989. In 1990, he obtained a clinical position at the Department of Neurology of the S. Gerardo Hospital in Monza. Since 2001, he is a Professor of Human Anatomy at the School of Medicine of the University of Milan-Bicocca, where he is the coordinator of the PhD program in Neuroscience and head of the Experimental Neurology Unit. He is a member of the Italian Society of Neurology, of the Peripheral Nerve Society, of the Italian Society for neuro-Immunology and past-president of the Italian Peripheral Nerve Association. He coordinates the activity of the European/US/Australia CI-PeriNomS group on the standardization of outcome measures in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neurotoxicity. He authored more than 230 papers in the international peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Chiba is a professor, senior scientist and lecturer at the Medical University of Vienna. He is a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Vienna and conducted research at the Universities of South Florida and Nijmegen (The Netherlands) as a Fulbright scholar and post-doctoral associate.

His research focuses on the functional biology of ABC transporters and their role in drug disposition and in the etiology of human diseases. He authored more than 100 manuscripts and co-edited “Transporters as drug carriers”. Dr. Chiba recently initiated an academic program dedicated to the development of antiparasitic drugs.

Prof. Costantino became a researcher of the Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche of Modena and RE University (Italy) in 1983, and associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1998. He has authored more than 100 articles, three patents and several book chapters dealing with Medicinal Chemistry. Recently, his research activity addressed the synthesis of new antiparasitic (protozoa, Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and antitumor compounds, as well as the design of targeted nanoparticles as drug carriers for CNS and for alveolar macrophages. Prof. Costantino is a member of the council of the PhD School “Clinical and Experimental Medicine” at Modena University.

Dr. De Filippis is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Padua, Italy, and has received the National Academic Qualification as Full Professor in General Biochemistry. His main scientific projects entail the development of novel anticoagulants and the study of the molecular mechanisms linking inflammation, oxidative stress and sepsis to thrombotic diseases. Dr. De Filippis authored more than 80 publication in peer reviewed Journals (total IF: 300; H-index: 24) and three international patents. Dr. De Filippis is also the Vice-Chair of the Degree Course in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies, University of Padua.

Professor Dr. Prof. h. c. mult. Thomas Efferth is chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.

He is honorary professor at the Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, and at the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China. Moreover, he is visiting professor at the Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, China.

Thomas Efferth has published >450 papers (Hirsch-factor: 60; citation rate: >15,000. His research topics are n tumor pharmacology and pharmacogenomics with a special focus on chemical entities from natural sources .

Dr. Eichmüller holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Free University of Berlin. After his Habilitation (venia legendi) at the Medical Faculty Mannheim he became adjunct professor at the University of Heidelberg, teaching tumor immunology. Dr. Eichmüller is the head of the GMP & T Cell Therapy Unit at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. He has more than 20 years of experience in research on tumor immunology and, more recently, miRNA. He has published more than 80 papers in high ranking journals. Moreover, Dr. Eichmüller is the head of a GMP facility at DKFZ and serves as a Qualified Professional for the production of autologous, tumor-specific T cells for the treatment of cancer patients.

Dr. Eritja is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) leading the Nucleic Acids Chemistry Research Group at the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC). He has more than 30 years of experience in research on DNA and RNA synthesis. Previously, he was group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Barcelona and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) at Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Eritja holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, specializing in peptide chemistry. Dr. Eritja is coauthor of more than 300 papers, 15 patents and several book chapters.

Since 1991, Prof. Caterina Faggio is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences-University of Messina, Italy.

Her research topics encompass different research fields: effects of environmental contaminants and food additives on salt transports in teleost intestine; cell volume regulation and cytotoxicity in fish intestine, hepatocytes and digestive cell of mussels by the videometric method; mechanisms responsible for the eryptosis (apoptosis of human red blood cells); haematological and serological parameters in seawater teleosts that dwell in different habitats: lake, sea and fish farm; oxidative stress markers and health status in non-target aquatic organisms. She has numerous publications in prestigious international journals. Moreover, she is the President of Messina Section (SIBS), Italian Society of Experimental Biology. She performs referee activity for prestigious international journals.

Prof. Dr. Galanski received a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He holds the position of Associate Professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Vienna, Austria. Dr. Galanski has (co)authored more than 150 publications in the field of bioinorganic chemistry with focus on the development of platinum-based anticancer drugs.

Prof. Grassi is Associate professor in Clinical Biochemistry in the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste, Italy; in 2014 he has became full professor. Prof Grassi has 25-years of experience in molecular biology and drug release. He authored 100 papers, 11 books/book chapters and 3 patents. He has been a Visiting Fellow in N.I.H, USA and Scientist Assistant in the University of Tuebingen, Germany. At present, he teaches “Clinical Biochemistry” in the Medical degree course and “Molecular Diagnostic” in the Medical Biotechnology degree course of the University of Trieste. He has also been president of the Master degree in Medical Biotechnology, University of Trieste.

Cesare Gridelli, MD, is currently Chief of Division of Medical Oncology and Director of Department of Hematology-Oncology at the “S.G. Moscati” Hospital, Avellino (Italy). His areas of expertise are lung cancer and cancer in the elderly. He is deeply involved in the clinical development of new anticancer targeted therapies and immunotherapy. He is the President of the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT). He is the author or co-author of more than 750 papers, of which more than 370 extended papers published in international indexed journals, and as several book chapters. His papers have about 16.378 citations on international indexed journals. Dr. Gridelli has an h-index of 62. On November 2013 the American agency Expertscape (Palo Alto, California) appointed Dr. Gridelli as the top most world experts on lung cancer.

Dr. Guerrero received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. He has been serving at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona and is currently the Professor of Research and leader of the Chemical Ecology Unit. He has also served as the Head of the Department of Biological Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (CSIC), and as the Councilor of the International Society of Chemical Ecology. He has published more than 180 papers, and is the author or coauthor of 7 patents. He has been serving as a reviewer for a number of national and international funding agencies.

Isabel Haro is a Research Scientist of CSIC working at the Institute of Advanced Chemistry in Catalonia. She obtained her Chemistry Degree from the University of Barcelona in 1982 and completed her Masters in Science at the Department of Biochemistry from the same University. In 1985 she moved to the Peptides’ Laboratory of CSIC and completed her PhD in 1988. After a post-doctoral training of two years spent between the CSIC in Barcelona and the Royal Free Hospital in London, she gained a permanent position in the CSIC, in 1990. Since then, she has been working on the use of synthetic peptides in the field of Biomedicine and has published more than 170 articles, 8 reviews, 30 chapters of books and 8 patents. However, she has been the Principal Researcher of 15 research projects and 3 contracts with the industry and has also supervised 12 doctoral theses.

After his PhD (1995), Dr Heymann successively was appointed as technician, engineer at the Nantes Hospital (FR), Associate-Professor (2001) and Professor of Histology and Embryology at the University of Nantes (2009). He heads an Inserm research laboratory studying the pathogenesis of bone sarcomas. He has authored more than 220 peer-reviewed publications. Since September 2015, He was the personal Chair of Bone Oncology at the University of Sheffield (UK) where he serves as head of a European Associated Laboratory (Sarcoma Research Unit) Inserm/Univ. Sheffield/Univ. Nantes.

Prof. Hoffmann was born in Salzburg (Austria) and received his academic degrees from the University of Innsbruck (major: chemistry; doctoral thesis at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences). He was postdoctoral fellow at ZymoGenetics Inc. (Seattle, WA) and later on junior group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry (Martinsried, Germany). In 1993, he accepted a call as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Head of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (Medical Faculty). Prof. Hoffmann has authored more than 100 publications. His current scientific interests focus on protection, regeneration and repair mechanisms of mucous epithelia and their glands with special emphasis on the role of TFF peptides. Further topics are TFF peptides in the immune and central nervous systems.

Dr. Honek is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Canada. He received his B.Sc. /Ph.D. degrees at the McGill University. His Ph.D. research (supervisor: Dr. Bernard Belleau), focused on the design and synthesis of sulfur-based heterocyclic analogs of the anthracycline antibiotics. Postdoctoral research (MIT; supervisor: Dr. Christopher Walsh) explored the enzyme mechanisms involved in microbial methane production. Dr. Honek’s research is focused on the biological chemistry of the carbon-sulfur bond and on protein structure and function.

He is the author of numerous publications including a recent textbook (Biochemical Pharmacology by Palmer, Chan, Dieckmann & Honek, (2012) Wiley-VCH). He is the recipient of the Canadian Society for Chemistry Bernard Belleau Award (2014) for distinguished contributions to the field of medicinal chemistry.

Dr. Jelkmann is the Director of the Institute of Physiology at the University of Luebeck (http://www.physio.uni-luebeck.de/). He received his medical degree in Hannover, Germany. After fellowships in Regensburg, New Orleans (Tulane) and Luebeck, he became a Professor of Physiology in Bonn before he moved to Luebeck in 1995. His research has focused on erythropoietin and other hematopoietic growth factors. He has authored more than150 original publications more than 130 review articles/book chapters and has edited 5 books.

Dr. Kalász is a Senior Scientific Adviser in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Previously, he worked at Yale University and was a Visiting Professor in University of Cincinnati and United Arab Emirates University.

He earned his PhD at the Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen, Hungary; he was awarded the title of doctor of chemical sciences by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and obtained his medical habilitation in pharmacology at Semmelweis University.

He has authored over 250 papers. His activity covers analytical and preparative scale separations, distribution of drugs in the body and development of novel instrumentation.

Professor Matthew Kiernan is the Co-Director of the Brain and Mind Centre - Discovery and Translation. His role is to foster multidisciplinary research across the clinical neurosciences, to improve research outcomes and facilitate the translation of research innovations directly into clinical practice for the benefit of patients and the community

Professor Matthew Kiernan is the Bushell Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney. He is a Professor of Neurology and Staff Specialist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He is also a Senior Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia.

Dr. Kratz is a medicinal chemist with more than 25 years of pertinent experience in the preclinical development of anticancer prodrugs and protein conjugation chemistry. He has successfully transferred aldoxorubicin, CytRx clinical lead compound, from bench to bedside that is based on an innovative drug delivery platform exploiting circulating albumin as an endogenous drug carrier. He serves as an Editorial Board member for Bioconjugate Chemistry, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Current Bioactive Compounds, and Pharmacology & Pharmacy and has authored approximately 265 scientific publications, book articles and proceedings, and 20 patents/patents applications.

Dr. Kyle is the Vice President, Discovery Research of Purdue Pharma L.P. He has 30 years of experience in the areas of CNS, pain and inflammation. Previously, Dr. Kyle served as Director in Discovery Research at Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation and Scios, Inc. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Texas Tech University. Dr. Kyle is an inventor of more than 60 issued US patents and has published nearly 200 manuscripts, review articles and abstracts. He serves on the editorial advisory board of multiple journals for chemistry and pharmacology and is a member of the Dean’s CSLA advisory board at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Antonio Lavecchia is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and the Head of Drug Discovery Laboratory at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Napoli Federico II. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1999 from the University of Catania, Italy. During his doctoral studies, he conducted research in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota (USA). His research has combined computational chemistry with drug discovery, focusing on cancer, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS diseases. Notably, Prof. Lavecchia is author of more than 120 scientific articles, 3 PCT patents, and 1 book chapter. In 2006 he was awarded the Farmindustria Prize for Pharmaceutical Research.

Dr Ling is a Professor at the Department of Anatomy, National University of Singapore. He has more than 40 years of teaching experience in Human Anatomy, and was the head of the department from 1998-2008. His pioneering research was on the microglia. He first characterized the ultrastructure of microglia and demonstrated experimentally that microglia originate from the blood monocytes. His recent work focuses mainly on the roles of activated microglia in neuroinflammation. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was awarded Doctor of Science by the National University of Singapore. He was conferred an Emeritus Professorship in 2013.

Prof. Dr. Xinyong Liu received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong Medical University, in 1984 and 1991, respectively. From 1997 to 1999, he worked at Instituto de Quimica Medica (CSIC) in Spain as a senior visiting scholar. He obtained his Ph.D. from Shandong University in 2004. Presently, he is the director of Institute of Medicinal Chemistry, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University. He is currently serving as Editor of the “Journal of Chemistry” and on the editorial board of more than 20 academic journals. In his medicinal chemistry research of antiviral and cardiovascular drugs, he has published more than 300 paper and 6 monographs and granted 34 patents presently.

Mauro Maniscalco is the Director of the research laboratory on “Inflammation of Airways” at the Research Institute Fondazione S. Maugeri of Telese and Consultant of Respiratory Medicine at the Hospital of Casoria (Italy). He completed his PhD from the department of Pharmacology at Karolinska Institute of Stockholm carrying out research on exhaled Nitric Oxide. Currently, he is carrying out research on the characterization of biomolecular markers in EBC of patients with respiratory disorders. During his career he has authored more than 80 peer reviewed scientific papers and has served as reviewer for more than 50 peer reviewed medical journals.

Dr McGeary is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, and an Affiliate Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy at The University of Queensland, Australia. Dr McGeary has authored over 75 publications, as well as 3 book chapters and 11 patents. His research interests encompass the development of new synthetic methodologies, and the design and synthesis of potent inhibitors of metalloenzymes.

Prof. Méndez-Sánchez serves as the Head of Liver Research Unit at the Medica Sur Clinic & Foundation in Mexico City. He has more than 25 years of experience in research in gastrointestinal and chronic liver diseases. Prof. Méndez-Sánchez holds Master and PhD degrees in Medical Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Mexico and a postdoc from Harvard University. Prof. Méndez-Sánchez has authored more than 225 manuscripts, 2 patents and an editor of 15 text books on the Gastroenterology and Hepatology fields. Prof. Méndez-Sánchez is a faculty at the National University of Mexico where he teaches in the Master and PhD programs.

Ryuichi Morishita, M.D., Ph.D., graduated from Osaka University Medical School in 1987, and received Ph. D. from Osaka University in 1991. After postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine, he served as an Assistant Professor, at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, Osaka University Medical School from 1994 to 1998. Then, from 1998 to 2003, he was the Associate Professor, Division of Gene Therapy Science, Osaka University Medical School. Then, he became the Professor and Chairman of Division of Clinical Gene Therapy, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University Medical School from 2003.

Dr. Mozzarelli is a Full Professor in Biochemistry, University of Parma, Parma and the Vice Director of the Interdepartmental Center for Food Safety, Innovation and Technology (SITEIA.PARMA), Parma Technopole. He is serving as a Coordinator of the Protein Group of the Italian Biochemical Society. He has served more than forty years in the field of Protein Sciences. His investigations are aimed at understanding of the structure-dynamics-function-regulation relationships for heme-containing proteins and coenzyme-containing enzymes, strategies for protein encapsulation, complementary experimental and computational approaches for drug discovery, development of haemoglobin-based blood substitutes, and application of proteomics to food characterization. He has authored more than 180 papers and three patents, with an H-index of 37.

Dr. Muñoz-Torrero holds a PhD in Pharmacy (Medicinal Chemistry) from the University of Barcelona. Currently Dr. Muñoz-Torrero is Associate Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona. He has authored more than 80 papers, 9 patents, and 3 book chapters, and guest-edited 5 special issues (Current Pharmaceutical Design, Current Medicinal Chemistry and Molecules) on anti-Alzheimer and multitarget drugs and 5 E-books on recent advances in pharmaceutical sciences. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel drug candidates against Alzheimer’s disease, malaria, and trypanosomiases.

Prof. Jens Pietzsch (Ph.D., M.D.) is the Head of the Department of Radiopharmaceutical and Chemical Biology at the Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany. He is also a Professor of Pathological Biochemistry at the School of Science, Technische Universität Dresden. He has more than 20 years of experience in research, now focusing on preclinical molecular imaging of cancer and cancer-associated inflammation. His main topic of interest is targeted radionuclide-based theranostics of malignant melanoma and pheochromocytoma. He has authored of more than 160 articles, reviews, and book chapters. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Chemistry, and as Editorial Board Member of Current Medicinal Chemistry, Amino Acids, Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, and Journal of Cellular Biotechnology.

Tadeusz Robak, MD, PhD, is Professor of Hematology at the Medical University of Lodz , and Head of the Department of Hematology at Copernicus Memorial Hospital in Lodz, Poland. He is Chair of the chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) subgroup of the Polish Adult Leukemia Study Group and President of the Polish Society of Hematology. His special interests are in CLL and lymphoma, with particular emphasis on the use of purine analogues and targeted drugs. Professor Robak has been selected by the World Scientists Forum of the International Research Promotion Council for the “Eminent Scientist of the Year 2010” award in haematology-oncology.

Vincenzo Russo, MD PhD MMSc, is an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at School of Medicine - University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at Monaldi Hospital in Naples, Italy. His research interest are in the areas of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Cardiac Rhythm Disorders, Cardiac Pacing, Clinical Electrophysiology, Syncope, Neuromuscular Disorders, Sudden Death, and Hematological Disorders.

Professor Satyajit Sarker is the Director of School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University. He is a Professor of Pharmacy and leads the Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products Research Group. He has years of experience in research on various aspects of bioactive natural products. He has authored over 400 publications, including popular books like, Natural Products Isolation, and Chemistry for Pharmacy Students, the latter is also translated into Greek, Japanese and Portuguese languages. He is the Vice-President of the Phytochemical Society of Europe, and the Editor-in-Chief of Phytochemical Analysis. He serves in the Editorial Boards of several journals.

Dr. Schmidhammer is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has more than 35 years of experience in drug discovery and development of medications aimed to treat neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g. pain, addicition, depression, anxiety, epilepsy) and immunological diseases. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA and other research institutions worldwide. Dr. Schmidhammer has authored more than 130 original research articles, 9 book chapters and 21 patents. The scientific achievements of Dr. Schmidhammer have been recognized by many grants, several honors and awards.

Alessandro Serretti MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Bologna University, Italy. He is a Coordinator of a research unit active in genetic and clinical studies of major psychoses. Alessandro Serretti has authored more than 480 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals with an H-Index of 66. He has served as a reviewer and editorial board member of 170 journals and funding agencies.

Professor Sexton is the Head of the Drug Discovery Biology Theme at Monash University. He is an internationally recognised leader of the study of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), biased agonism, on allosteric interactions between GPCRs and other proteins, and GPCRs small molecule ligands. He has particular expertise in the study of GPCR structure-function, biased agonism and the structure-function of Class B GPCRs. He is a current Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher. He has authored over 250 publications: including 175 original researches, over 50 reviews and 2 patents. Prof. Sexton is an adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Fudan University.

Gabriele Stocco is Assistant Professor in Pharmacology at the University of Trieste since 2012. His research interest focuses on translational studies on pharmacogenetics and therapy personalization of antimetabolites and biologics used in chronic and oncologic pediatric diseases. Gabriele Stocco has received a degree in Medicinal Chemistry with honors from the University of Trieste, a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Trieste and a doctoral and post-doctoral training from St.Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, USA, where he attended in 2003 and from 2006 to 2011 the laboratory of prof. William Evans. His scientific effort has been witnessed by more than 50 scientific publications.

Dr. Stockert has received a Physician degree and MD degrees (Buenos Aires, UBA, and Autonomous University of Madrid). He was awarded with doctorates Honoris causa (University of Río Cuarto and UBA), and research fellowships from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung.

Dr. Stockert belongs to the Editorial Board of Acta Histochemica, Biotechnic and Histochemistry, Current Medicinal Chemistry, and Internacional Journal of Biomedical Science. His principal research lines are fluorescence histochemistry, organelle labeling, and photodynamic therapy. He has published 323 papers on the above fields, and supervised 12 doctoral thesis.

CLAUDIU T. SUPURAN is the Professor of medicinal chemistry at the Neurofarba Department, Section of Pharmaceutical and Nutriceutical Sciences, University of Florence, Italy. He has published more than 1250 papers, his Hirsch factor is h = 110; the number of citations since 1995 > 49800. His main research interest is on enzyme inhibitors, and especially carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, of which he discovered several new classes in the last years. One of the sulfonamides discovered in his group entered Phase I clinical trials in 2014 for the treatment of advanced, metastatic solid tumors. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, Current Enzyme Inhibition, etc. For the last 25 years the main interest of his research was focused on metallo-enzymes and their modulators of activity. In 2013, he was rated as the most cited scientists in Pharmacology & Toxicology by LabTimes (LabTimes 2013, 5, 38).

Nikos Tagmatarchis is a Deputy Director in the Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, in Athens, Greece. He has studied chemistry and received his PhD from the Chemistry Department, University of Crete, Greece (1997). Dr. Tagmatarchis accomplishments are reflected in over 180 scientific peer-reviewed research articles, while his work has been cited more than 8200 times associated with an h-index of 37. He has been the recipient of the European Young Investigator Award (2004), Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011-2012) and Invited Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in Japan (2013-2014).

Dr. Igor V. Tetko obtained his MSc degree (with honor) from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (USSR), received his PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and Habilitation in Chemoinformatics from the University of Strasbourg. He is group leader of Chemoinformatics at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany where he coordinates Horizon2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) “Big Data in Chemistry”. Dr. Tetko is also the CEO of BIGCHEM GmbH, which develops and licenses software technologies for big data analysis in chemistry and life sciences. Dr. Tetko is on the list of The Most Cited Researchers in Computer Sci. & Eng.

Steven M. Weinreb, Russell and Mildred Marker Professor of Natural Products Chemistry at Penn State, obtained a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and received his doctorate from the University of Rochester with Marshall Gates in 1967. He had NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University with Gilbert Stork and at MIT with George Buchi. He began his independent scientific career at Fordham University in 1970 and joined the faculty at Penn State in 1978. He was named Marker Professor in 1987. Professor Weinreb’s research is on the total synthesis of natural products and the development of synthetic methods.

Dr. Xu is a Professor & Founding Director of Research Center for Drug Discovery at the Sun Yat-Sen University. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, practicing medicinal chemistry, chemoinformatics and computer-aided drug design in the fields of discovering anti-infectious, and anti-metabolic syndrome agents. Previously, Dr. Xu served as the Director of CADD at DPI/Biofocus, Principal scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., R&D director at BIO-RAD Sadtler Division. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Science & Technology of China. He has authored more than 80 publications and 10 patents. Dr. Xu is also an adjunct Professor of University of Pittsburgh and Melboune RMIT University. With nearly 50 scientists, his labs are facilitated for herbal medicine studies, structure biology, pharmacology, and high performance computing.

Dr. Peng Zhan is currently working as Associate Professor in Shandong University. In 2012, he was appointed as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow in Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan. His research area involves discovery of novel antiviral anticancer and neurodegenerative diseases-related agents based on the rational drug design approaches. So far, he has published more than 100I academic papers, more than 20 patents as co-inventor, and received the first prize of Shandong Province Science (2010), CPA-Servier Young Investigator Awards in Medicinal Chemistry (2016), and and many other honors and awards.

Professor Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in 2000, and completed Postdoctoral research from Georgetown University and Harvard Medical School during 2002-2004. He was promoted to Instructor of Harvard Medical School in 2004 and received Alfred Pope Young Investigator and Adam Corneel Young Investigator awards. In 2006, he received the Hundred Talent Project award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and became the Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM). In 2011, he was awarded the Distinguished Young Investigator award from the Chinese Natural Science Foundation. He has authored or co-authored over 110 publications and 40 patents. Several drug candidates from his research group are now under clinical or preclinical studies.

Professor Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in 2000, and completed Postdoctoral research from Georgetown University and Harvard Medical School during 2002-2004. He was promoted to Instructor of Harvard Medical School in 2004 and received Alfred Pope Young Investigator and Adam Corneel Young Investigator awards. In 2006, he received the Hundred Talent Project award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and became the Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM). In 2011, he was awarded the Distinguished Young Investigator award from the Chinese Natural Science Foundation. He has authored or co-authored over 110 publications and 40 patents. Several drug candidates from his research group are now under clinical or preclinical studies.