Current Medicinal Chemistry

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.

Massimiliano Peana is assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy, where he teaches Inorganic and General Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry and Sciences Applied to Cultural Heritage. His current research interests are focused on metal interactions with biological targets and molecular mechanisms of metal toxicity, carcinogenesis, neurodegeneration, chelating agents for toxic metals and role of microelements in health and diseases.

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.

Prof. Marcus Tullius Scotti studied Chemical Engineering at Universidade de São Paulo (USP - São Paulo University) and finished his degree in 1999. He further started to study specialization in Industrial Administration and in 2003 he completed his post-graduation in Organic Chemistry. He obtained a Master degree in 2005 and PhD in 2008. He started working as Professor of Organic Chemistry at Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil. He is presently serving as an Associate Professor of the Chemistry Department of the Universidade Federal da Paraíba. Prof. Marcus research interests are in the area of chemistry of the natural products, acting on the following subjects: Databases, Virtual Screening, QSAR, and chemotaxonomy using cheminformatics methods. Published 142 papers, 17 chapters book and 157 abstracts in conferences.

Dr. Walter F. de Azevedo, Jr. has been ranked among the most influential researchers in the world according to a database created by Plos Biology (10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918). Dr. Azevedo is Frontiers Section Editor of the Current Drug Targets, and section editor of the Current Medicinal Chemistry, and editor of Docking Screens for Drug Discovery (Methods of Molecular Biology)(Springer Nature). He graduated in Physics (BSc in Physics) from the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1990. He completed a Master's Degree in Applied Physics also from the USP (1992). During his Ph.D., he worked under the supervision of Prof. Sung-Hou Kim (University of California, Berkeley), on a split Ph.D. program with a fellowship from Brazilian Research Council (CNPq)(1993-1996). His Ph.D. was about the crystallographic structure of CDK2 (doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.7.2735). He published over 200 scientific papers about protein structures and computer models to assess intermolecular interactions (H-index: 42, RG Index > 42.0). These publications have over 6000 citations in the Web of Science (Publons h-index: 42), more than 6000 citations in the Scopus (h-index: 42), and over 7700 citations in the Google Scholar (h-index: 46).

Stefano Bruno graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and technology cum laude in 1998 from the University of Parma. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemical Sciences from the University of Torino. He was a research fellow at Oxford University from 2001 to 2004. He became a Researcher at the University of Parma in 2004 and Associate Professor in 2015. He has taken part in projects funded by the Italian Ministry for Research (MIUR), by the National Antarctic Research Program, by the US National Institute of Health and by the European Union.

Dr. Buehler is a pharmacologist and toxicologist in the Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He has more than 15 years of experience as a regulatory researcher in the US FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. An important aspect of Dr. Buehler’s work is to identify ways to slow, reverse or prevent the effects of intra- and extravascular hemolysis induced pathobiology using plasma and recombinant constructs of haptoglobin, hemopexin and transferrin as well as identifying methods to upregulate these proteins in states of acute and chronic depletion.

Dr. Monica Cantile received her Ph.D. from Federico II University of Naples in 2004. She completed a specialization degree in Clinical Pathologist with honors in 2015. She is working as a senior researcher at INT G. Pascale Foundation. Her role is mainly focused on diagnostic pathology of melanoma, gastro-intestinal, breast cancer and sarcomas. She supervised the Molecular Pathology laboratory of the Pathology Unit in INT-IRCCS Fondazione Pascale Hospital. Scientific interest in the field of cancer pathology has been mainly related to better define the role of tumor microenvironment but also of several biomarkers (as non coding RNA) in tumor development and progression.

M. Cristina Caroleo received her Medical Doctor ́s degree in 1986 and Medical Specialization in Pharmacology in 1990. She received a PhD Degree in Neuroimmunopharmacology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata – Italy in 1995. Since 1994, she has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Calabria-Italy. From 1998 – 2004, she was P.I. at the Nobel Prize Rita Levi Montalcini Laboratory- Institute of Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine -CNR -Rome. Since 2010, she has been the Director of the Laboratory of Growth Factors and Nutrients-Food Chemistry at UNICAL-Italy. She has published more than 90 papers in international scientific journals, reviews and chapters of books.

Dr. Wei Chen received his Ph.D. from Inner Mongolia University, P.R. China in 2010. Currently, he is a full time Professor of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. His researches focused on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers in SCI-indexed journals, and serving as Deputy Editor of Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids and reviewer of scientific journals such as Nucleic Acids Research, Bioinformatics, Briefings in Bioinformatics, etc . His publications have been cited over 7,600 times with H-index of 46 in Google Scholar (update in August 2019).

Prof/Dr Cheorl-Ho Kim received his MS and PhD from The University of Tokyo during the period of 1985-1990. Since 2006, he is a professor and chair of Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, Sungkyunkwan University and Samsung Advanced Institute of Health Science and Technology (SAIHST), Korea. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities as Genome Program Head, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology in 1990-1996 and Chairman, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Oriental Medicine, Dongguk University during 1996-2006. His research included the molecular biology of gene expression, ER-Golgi glycosyltransferases, oncogenesis, cancer metastasis and angiogenesis. He has authored 368 research articles/books with H-index 66. He is a member of International Scientific Advisory Board Member, International Symposium for Glycosyltransferases (GlycoT 2006), IUBMB symposium, Tsukuba and International Symposium for Glycosyltransferases (GlycoT 2008), Emory University, GA, USA, 2010 Tokai University GlycoResearch Center and 2015 Visiting Professor of The Ohio State University.

Rafael Coveñas Rodríguez is an associate professor at the University of Salamanca (Spain). His research is performed at the Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla and León (INCYL) and involved the peptides in cancer. He studied the involvement of the substance P/neurokinin-1 receptor system in the development of tumors and how neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists exert an antitumor activity. He has published more than 230 articles in international journals and written 38 book chapters and 4 books. He serves as an editorial board member for scientific journals, such as Cancers, Receptors, and Anatomia, and the guest editor and referee of more than 30 journals.

Dr. 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 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. Giovanni Di Bonaventura received a Biology Degree from University of Bologna. He Specialized in Clinical Microbiology and Virology from University TorVergata, Rome, Italy. He received his PhD in Clinical Microbiology from G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology at G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti. He is an Ad-hoc reviewer and guest editor for several scientific journals in the field of clinical and applied microbiology. Dr. Giovanni is also a member of several national and international scientific societies. Scientific research mainly focused on the characterization of biofilms formed by bacterial pathogens in cystic fibrosis patients, and the evaluation of natural and synthetic compounds with antibacterial activity.

Dr. Roberta Fusco completed the bachelor degree in chemistry and pharmaceutical technologies from the University of Naples Federico II in 2014. Dr. Roberta Fusco completed PhD in Applied Biology and Experimental Medicine in the year 2019 by University of Messina. Additionally, she worked at Yale University School of Medicine. She worked as a researcher for studies on preclinical pharmacology activities (in vitro primary cultures and in vivo experimental models), for the Epitech Group, biological pharmacology company. Now she is a Researcher at the University of Messina. She has published more than 70 articles in reputed journals about biochemistry, oxidative stress and pharmacology. Dr. Roberta Fusco has knowledge about animal research, biochemical and molecular biology and immunohistochemical analysis.

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.

Prof. Jian Huang received his doctor degree in Immunology in 2001 from Sichuan University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Bioinformatics Center, Kyoto University from 2005 to 2007. Now, he is a full professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests are bioinformatics and translational medicine. He has published more than 90 papers and served as one of the editorial board members of International Journal of Biological Sciences, Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, etc.

Christina Karavasili is a pharmacist and holds a master and a PhD degree (self-assembling peptides) in Pharmaceutical Technology from the School of Pharmacy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. She has contributed to 30 publications in refereed journals and books and she is a member of the Pharmaceutics Topic Editor board. Her areas of research expertise cover mucosal drug delivery, self- assembling peptide biomaterials, poorly soluble drugs and pediatric drug delivery (3D printing).

Dr. Giuseppe Lanza is a Senior Academic Researcher and Assistant Professor at the University of Catania, Italy. After graduation with honors in Medicine, he trained at the School of Neurology and got an international PhD. As Clinical Research Fellow, he further trained in Clinical Neurophysiology at Newcastle University, UK. He obtained the Master of Science in Clinical Research and the National Scientific Qualification as a Full Professor. From 2013 to 2018 he worked as a Consultant Neurologist at Oasi Research Institute–IRCCS in Troina, Italy, a WHO Collaborating Center. He authored more than 100 scientific publications and serves as Editor and Reviewer of several Journals.

Mafalda Laranjo is an investigator at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra. She is associated with the Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR)/Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB). Her main scientific interest is Photodynamic therapy (PDT) applied to cancer treatment. In this field, she has developed and patented new compounds and has demonstrated its selective cytotoxicity in several cancer types, both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, Dr. Laranjo has been working in multidisciplinary teams focusing on oncology, dentistry, and other medical specialties.

Dr. Giovanni Lentini studied Medicinal Chemistry and Technologies at the University of Bari where he graduated with maximum vote and honour. During his PhD, he was a visiting scientist at the Neurochemistry Centre of the Scientific National Research Centre, Strasbourg. There he got his Diploma in Advanced Studies in Pharmacology/ Medicinal Chemistry. He got his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Italy. He was appointed as a Researcher and then became an Associate Professor at the University of Bari. His research work is focused on chiral drugs and relevant results are reported in 106 scientific papers of ISI journals.

Dr. Yu Ligen is a Manager (Bibliometrics Analysis) in TRACS Office at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China in 1996. He worked as an Associate Professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and then as a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University till 2012. His research is focused on Bibliometrics Analysis, Scientometrics, Integrated Digestive-Immune System, Microbiology, Nutrition and health, Luigi Cornaro Diet, Starvation-Induced Autophagy, Spark plasma sintering, High energy laser surface modification, Powder metallurgy, Surface coating technology, Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, and X-ray diffraction.

Wonbong Lim is professor at Medical school, Chosun University in Gwang-Ju, South Korea. His research area is basic medical science for orthopaedic application. Recently, he carried out the basic research for treatment of osteoporosis and bone metastatic cancer using RANKL variants. In addition, he is the convener of JG70(Optimized medical data) and JWG1(Additive manufacturing for Surgical Implant application) in ISO standardization group for clinical application of patient-specific 3D printing implant.

Professor Huanxiang Liu received her PhD degree from Lanzhou University in 2005. She is a professor of medicinal chemistry at Lanzhou University. Her research interests mainly include the misfolding and aggregation mechanism of amyloid-related proteins, drug resistance mechanism, structure-based drug design, etc. She has published more than 180 SCI papers in the relevant fields.

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. 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.

Prof. Giuseppe Alessandro Scardina was born in Palermo on August 26, 1971. He received his degree in Degree in Dentistry and Dental Prosthesis in 1995. He has done his Ph.D. in Periodontology. He’s Associate Professor of the Department of Surgical, Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines at the University of Study of Palermo (Italy). Since 1996, he is involved in clinical and scientific activities, integrating didactic activities, clinics and research. His main responsibilities include; patients' screening of the neoplastic risk of the oral cavity, monitoring of neoplastic patients submitted to treatments combined physician-surgical, evaluation of the oral vascular pattern of subjects smokers with the purpose to appraise the effects of this risk factor on the microcirculation for the pathologies pre and neoplastic of the oral mucosa.

Dr. Zhongmin Tang received Ph.D. in Materials Physics and Chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019). He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) from August 2019 to July 2021, and currently holds a Research Associate position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has so far published >40 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Reviews Materials, Chemical Reviews, PNAS, Nature communications, Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Matter, Chem, Chemical Society Review, Nano Today, Advanced Science, Nano Letters, Materials Horizons etc.

Dr. Giovanni Tarantino, MD, was Born in Avellino (Italy) on September 23, 1946. He received his degree from the Medical School of Naples in 1970. He is a specialist in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. He served as a Past Chief of the outpatients clinic of the Department of Medicine for liver diseases at the Medical School of Federico II University, Naples, Past Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine and currently, he is affiliated to the Department of Clinical Medicine of Federico II University as expert in the field of Hepatology and performs senior investigation in the area of NAFLD.

Dr. Andrés Trostchansky obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay in 2007. Since 2010 he has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the Facultad de Medicina. He is Co-PI of the Laboratory of Oxidative Lipid Biochemistry and a member of the Centro de Investigaciones Biomedicas (CEINBIO). Dr. Trostchanksy’s main research is focused in lipid metabolism, lipidomics studies in health and disease, nitro-fatty acids and their biological roles in arachidonic acid metabolism (COX and LOX) and reactive oxygen species (NOX and PDI). He served as a mentor for Ph.D. students in Uruguay and Brazil. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 manuscripts and book chapters on a variety of subject matters. He is among the editorial board of Frontiers of Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery, Current Drug Target, and also a Section Editor of Current Medicinal Chemistry.

Marco Tutone received his Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 2006. From 2006 to 2008, he was a Post-doc research fellow at the University of Palermo. In October 2019, he became an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Palermo. The scientific activity was oriented to computational medicinal chemistry. In recent years, his activity has been also oriented to the study of natural substances. He was also involved in the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of dopaminergic modulators. Since 2014, he has been involved in the study of TRIDs and he is owner of an international patent.

Professor Mustafa Yilmaz (Professor of Organic Chemistry) is a head of nanotechnology department, University of Selcuk, Turkey. His principal areas of expertise are synthesis of supramolecules, ion transport, catalyst, biocatalyst and the use of supramolecules in anticancer studies. He has published more than 250 articles in international journals and written several books and book chapters on different areas of chemistry. Dr. Yilmaz has been serving as an editorial board member of some reputed journals and is also involved in peer review activities. He had participated in more than 50 projects and carried out 6 international projects. He serves as an editorial board member, Referee and Reviewer of many scientific international journals.

Dr. Bin Yu is currently a professor of medicinal chemistry at Zhengzhou University (China). His research interests are mainly focused on new drug discovery. To date, he has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and co-edited two book chapters for Elsevier and Springer Nature. He currently serves as the section editor for Current Med Chem, associate editor for Front Drug Discov, review editor of Front Chem, editorial board member of Acta Pharm Sin B, Chin Chem Lett, Chin J Nat Med and Pharm Front and managing guest editor of Eur J Med Chem, Pharmacol Res, Curr Topic Med Chem and Chem Biol & Drug Des.

Prof. Rosa Amoroso completed her Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (CTF) at the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1989. She received her Ph.D. at the Department of Chemistry in Bologna, carrying out a study on asymmetric synthesis of amino acids. In 1994, she was appointed as a Research Associate and since 2001 she is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy of the University G. d’Annunzio, Chieti, Italy. Prof. Amoroso has consolidated experience in the synthesis of molecules of pharmaceutical interest, with knowledge of the various synthetic and analytical approaches aimed at obtaining high purity products. Her main research interests are inhibitors of Nitric Oxide Synthases and modulators of the PPARs receptors.

Dr. Firoz Anwar did his Bachelors of Pharmacy from Luqman College of Pharmacy, Gulbarga, Karnataka, India in 1996. He then completed his Ph.D. in Pharmacy from Jadavpur University, India in 2002. Since 2015, he has been serving as a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah.

Dr. Giorgio Ascoli is a Professor at the George Mason University (Virginia, USA) and founding director of the Center for Neural Informatics. Dr. Ascoli received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, where he mainly studied neurodegeneration. He won the European Phillips Young Investigator Award in 1989 for synthesizing a new organic molecule. Dr. Ascoli is internationally recognized in computational neuroanatomy and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuroinformatics. He is the founder of NeuroMorpho.Org, a collection of digitally reconstructed neurons, and Hippocampal.Org, a portal for information of hippocampal neuron types. His book “Trees of the Brain, Roots of the Mind” has been published by the 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.

Dr. Bharate obtained B.Pharm. from the University of Pune, and then he received M.S.Pharm and PhD degree from NIPER-Mohali (India). He has industrial experience (Dr. Reddy's Lab, Piramal Life Sciences) and has done postdoctoral studies at University of Montana (USA) in the area of neuroscience. Presently, he is working as a Principal Scientist in the Medicinal Chemistry Division of CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine. His current research interests are in the field of medicinal chemistry of natural products to discover new therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. He is recipient of several innocentive awards, and three young scientist awards (NASI, CSIR, OPPI). He is a reviewer for various international journals. He has published 136 papers and has 17 patents on his credit.

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.

Przemyslaw Bozko received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Chemistry, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland. He is the Lab head of the Dept. Internal Medicine at Tübingen University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany since 2012. His research interests include interactions between tumor suppressors and oncogenes, during both tumor, formation and anticancer therapy and infection biology. Besides, he has published several articles in well-reputed journals.

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.

Dr. Gaetano Caramori, MD, PhD, is a Full Professor in Respiratory Medicine, at the Dipartimento di Scienze BIOMORF, University of Messina, Italy. He is serving as Head of the Pulmonology Unit at the University Hospital Gaetano Martino, and also Head of the Specialization School in Respiratory Diseases at the University of Messina, Italy. Dr. Gaetano Caramori is an honorary staff member at the Airway Disease Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College of London, UK, since 2001. He has published about 160 articles in International Scientific peer-reviewed Journals, including all the major Journals of the Respiratory System. His research interests have focused on DNA damage repair in the lungs, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr. Alessia Carocci studied Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology, Summa Cum Laude, at the University of Bari, Italy, in 1992. She received her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the same University in 1998. A post-doctoral position and a research grant in Medicinal Chemistry were held by Dr. Alessia between 1999 and 2001. Since 2017, she is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the department of Pharmacy-Drug Sciences of the University of Bari. She is the author of more than 65 papers in high IF international journals and 6 chapters in books. She serves as a reviewer for several international scientific journals. Her research interests regard the synthesis of biologically active compounds in antimitotic, antiarrhythmic, antitumor, antibacterial and melatonergic drugs.

Alessia Catalano graduated in Pharmacy (University of Bari), with maximum vote and honor in 1994 and received her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 1998. She became researcher in 2002 and Associate Professor in 2017. She is author of more than 60 papers published in leading international peer-review journals, in addition to book chapters and poster and oral presentations. She is a peer reviewer for international journals. Her main research interests are the synthesis and evaluation of structure-activity relationships of biologically active compounds: antiarrhythmics, antimyotonics, antihypertensives, antimicrobials and antitumor agents. She is member of the Teaching Committee for Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

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. E. Cichero obtained the degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies in 2005 at the University of Genoa while in 2009 she received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences. From 2014 she is Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Genoa. From more than ten years she has expertise in molecular modeling and computational chemistry strategies applied to medicinal chemistry. Her research topics include the development of compounds targeting GPCRs, such as cannabinoid receptors and trace-amine associated receptors as well as of drug-like molecules for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. She has authored 60 papers and numerous poster communications.

Dr. Sunliang Cui is a professor in College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University. He got the Ph.D degree in Zhejiang University, and then worked as postdoc in Colorado University and University of South Florida. He started his independent research in 2012. He has 15 years of experience in the research of organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. He has authored more than 40 manuscripts and 10 patents, and currently he is focusing on the drug discovery of antineoplastics and antiepileptics.

Dr. Russell Dahl is the CEO and founder of Neurodon Corporation, a pharmaceutical company developing novel small molecules for diabetes and neurodegeneration. He previously led all small molecule research at Celladon Corp., where he was responsible for progressing a diverse pipeline into the clinic. He started his career in industry at Agouron Pharmaceuticals and progressed through positions of increasing responsibility at DuPont Pharmaceuticals, BMS, Vertex, and Kemia. Russell has been involved in many successful biotech startups and regularly serves as an advisor and consultant. His experience spans all phases of drug discovery and development and he has contributed to several IND filings, clinical candidates, and regulatory approvals. Russell has co- authored over 90 scientific publications and is an inventor on over 50 patents and applications. He is a former Professor of Neuroscience and Medicinal Chemistry. Russell received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, San Diego as a DuPont Fellow, and he has additional training in molecular pharmacology from Stanford 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.

Dr. Nageswara Rao Desaboini completed his Ph.D. degree in 2016 from CSIR-IIIM, Jammu in Organic Synthesis. He then joined the Piramal Discovery Solutions in Ahmedabad, India as a Research Scientist. From Jan 2018 to Dec 2019, he worked in the Schiffer Lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher at UMass Medical School, USA. He is currently a Senior Level Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. Stephen Miller at the same institute. His research interest includes antiviral drug discovery with avoiding drug resistance (HCV, HIV-1, DENV, and ZIKV protease inhibitors). Development of novel class of fluorescent probes for bioimaging studies in chemical biology applications.

Dr. Roberto Di Santo is Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, School Pharmacy and Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome Italy, and Vice-President of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society. He holds Master degrees in Chemistry and in Pharmacy at “Sapienza” University of Rome. Prof. Di Santo research is focused primarily on drug design and synthesis of new molecular entities endowed with biological activities. He devoted particular efforts in the discovery of antimicrobial and antitumor agents. Most part of scientific activity is focused on compounds active against HIV targets like integrase, ribonuclease H and polymerase functions of the reverse transcriptase, and protease. He is an author or co-author of books and over 130 publications and patents. Prof. Di Santo is an active member of EFMC and SCI.

Dr. Sergey A. Dyshlovoy, Ph.D., D.Sc., trained in Chemistry, Biochemistry and molecular biology in Russia and Germany. In 2012, he completed his PhD in Chemistry, focusing on elucidation of structure and small-molecule marine bioactive compounds showing anticancer activity, from the G.B. Elyakov Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (PIBOC), Russia. He was a senior scientist in both PIBOC and in the Far Eastern Federal University (2012) and currently a senior scientist in the Laboratory of Pharmacology, A.V. Zhirmunski National Scientific Center of Marine Biology. Since 2013, he has been working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Oncology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. He has been a member of the Commission of Experts of the Russian Scientific Foundation since 2014.

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 .

Mostafa El-Sheekh is a Professor of Psychology at Tanta University, Egypt. He has nearly 38 years of experience in the research and teaching in the field of algae, microbiology and its applications. Dr. El- Sheekh served as the Vice Dean and Dean Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Egypt and Cultural counselor in the Egyptian Embassy in Yemen and Uzbekistan. He also served as Vice president of Tanta University for postgraduate studies and research. He holds a Ph.D. in Phycology from Tanta University and Göttingen University, Germany as Chanel System fellowship. He is the recipient of fellowships in Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Japan. He is the author of more than 215 papers and, 13 Book chapters, and 4 books. He also serves as editorial member and reviewer for more than 92 peer reviewed Journals. He published several papers on the production of biodiesel, ethanol and hydrogen from algae. He was included in one of the World’s Top 2% of Scientists List published by Stanford University in 2020 and 2021.

Dr. Roberta Ettari is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Messina. She is working in the field of protease inhibitors as antiparasitic or anticancer agents. In 2007, she received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Messina. She had various experiences as a postdoctoral researcher: Galway University (2008), Messina University (2010-2011), Milan University (2012-2014). In 2011, she received the “Farmindustria Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry Research. She also spent some research periods as a guest scientist at Merck Research Laboratories (Pomezia), Instituto Grifols (Barcelona), Würzburg and Mainz Universities (Germany).

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.

Stephanie Federico is an Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste. Her main research interests are focused on design, synthesis and characterization of heterocyclic compounds as ligands for specific target proteins. In particular, she has experience in the development of antagonists for adenosine receptors as also inhibitors of enzymes such as nucleotidases and kinases.

Dr. Fiore is a researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Italian National Research Council IBBC- CNR. He graduated in Natural Sciences and in Biological Sciences from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He received his PhD in Medical Sciences from the Psychiatric Department of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Dr. Fiore Potentiated his professional experience at the Institute of Zoology, Oxford University, UK and at the Department of Physiology and Behavior, the University of California at Davis, CA-USA.

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. Clara Grosso earned her degree in Plant Biology from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (2004) and a PhD degree in Biotechnology from the School of Engineering, University of Lisbon (2010). Since 2015, she has been an assistant researcher at REQUIMTE/ LAQV/Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto. Her field of research focuses on natural products, regarding aspects like extraction and identification of secondary metabolites and assessment of in vitro bioactivities with emphasis for oxidative stress and enzymes related with Alzheimer’s disease and depression. She is also interested in strategies to deliver drugs into the brain She is a reviewer for scientific journals and author of several papers and chapters in the areas of natural products, nanomedicine and neurosciences. She is also the editor of a book published by Springer, entitled "Herbal Medicine in Depression: Traditional Medicine to Innovative Drug Delivery” (2016).

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.

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. Seyed Jalal Hosseinimehr obtained PhD in Radiopharmacy in 2002 from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He is presently serving as a Professor at the Department of Radiopharmacy in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. His Research experiences include Radiation Biology, Radio protective study in animal, Tumor bearing mice, Radiopharmaceuticals and cell culture. He has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Prize for top PhD student, Prize for top researcher, and others. He has contributed more than 170 publications, having citations around 2,958.

Prof. Dr. Jamshed Iqbal (Tamgha-i-Imtiaz), FRSC is the Head of Pakistan’s finest drug research center CADR at COMSATS University, Abbottabad Campus since 2013. He has completed his early education from Pakistan, while his MS and PhD degree was from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and University of Bonn, Germany, respectively. After doing 2 Postdocs from Germany and China, he opted to serve Pakistan and joined Department of Pharmacy, CUI, Abbottabad Campus. He has innovatory contributions in Pharmaceutical/Chemical sciences. Prof. Iqbal has more than 190 publications (Impact factor >550) in several top international journals and 2 international patents. In 2017, Prof. Iqbal has been awarded PAS-Gold Medal by Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

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.

Prof. Guoyin Kai obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China (2005). He worked as a visiting scholar in Brookhaven National Laboratory in USA (2012-2013). He currently working as Professor, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, China. Previously worked as associate Professor (2005-2012) and Professor (2012-2017) in Shanghai Normal University, China (2005-2017). Prof. Dr. Kai had more than 100 scientific publications including Metab Eng, Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, Trends Food Sci Tech, Food Chem, J Agr Food Chem, Food Chem Toxicol, J Exp Bot and PNAS etc. His research mainly focused on phytomedicine, natural product and functional food.

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.

Enza Lacivita obtained her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 2001 at the University of Bari Aldo Moro. She was appointed as Associate Professor in Medicinal Chemistry in 2017 (Department of Pharmacy – Drug Science) at the same University. Her research activities have been focused on the study of structure-activity relationships of “drug-like” ligands for GPCRs involved in neuropsychiatric disorders, such serotonin and dopamine receptors, and in neuroinflammatory processes. Enza Lacivita is co-author of more than 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals and co- inventor of four patent applications. She has been Principal Investigator of several national and international research projects.

His scientific career started in 1996 as Lecturer in medicinal chemistry at University of Palermo. In the first years, he worked on synthesis of heterocyclic compounds with antiproliferative activity. After the experience in USA, where he worked in the research group of Prof A.R. Katritzky, his interests were driven to molecular modelling. He is co-author of 96 papers published on ISI recognized international journals, with H-index 27. He has been involved in several research projects and he has actively participated in the elaboration of several of them. He is expert evaluator for HORIZON2020."

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.

Marcello Leopoldo obtained the degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies (honors) at the University of Bari in 1991. At the same University, he was appointed Research Associate in Medicinal Chemistry (1992) and then Associate Professor (2001). He has received the Habilitation as Full Professor in 2015. He has published 115 papers focused on the development of selective ligands for dopamine, serotonin and formyl peptide receptors. Various selective 5-HT7 receptor agonists have been identified in his lab, including LP-211 which has been extensively used to explore the therapeutic potential of 5-HT7 receptor activation. He is inventor of eight patent applications.

Dr. Hao Lin is a Professor of the Center for Informational Biology at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He received his Ph.D. from Inner Mongolia University, P.R. China in 2007. His researches focused on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers in SCI-indexed journals.

Vincenzo Lionetti is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Institute of Life Sciences of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy) since 2014. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Bari (Italy) in 1999 and received the Specialization in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Turin (Italy) in 2003. He received the PhD in Innovative Strategies in Biomedical Research at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa in 2007. He is a member of the panel of experts of the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

Dr. Tian Liu is a professor at Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China. He received his Bachelor and PhD from DUT in 2003 and 2009, respectively. His research interest is focused on the insect cuticle. He studied the component and formation process of insect cuticle to find new targets and technologies for pest control, to find new inspiration to design biomaterials, and to develop new biocatalysts for the utilization of biological resources. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed international journals.

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.

Liang Ma received B. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees from Chemistry College of Sichuan University. I now focus on the study of medicinal chemistry for kidney diseases and the involved mechanisms. Now I am an associate Professor of Nephrology at the Kidney research lab, Division of nephrology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University. I have authored 80 publications in international journals including J Med Chem, Eur J Med Chem, and Curr Med Chem, so on. I served as an official reviewer for more than 10 international journals. I have received several national funds to support his work in the fields of Nephrology, Medicinal chemistry and Pharmacology.

Dr. Clementina Manera received her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Pisa, Italy. Currently she is an Associate Professor in Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy of the same University. She has authored over 90 publications on peer-reviewed pharmaceutical chemistry journals of international repute. She has over 20 years of experience in research and development of drug candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and anticancer. In recent years, she has focused on the design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of modulators of endocannabinoid system and on the development of new analytical methods for the determination of biologically active small organic molecules.

Dr. Mangalagiu is a Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Vice-Rector of research at Alexandru Loan Cuza, University of Lasi, Romania. Dr. Mangalagiu is the former Dean, Vice-Dean and Head of Organic Chemistry Department at Faculty of Chemistry. He has nearly 30 years of experience in research, focusing in the area of Heterocyclic Compounds. He has over 160 publications, 13 patents and 3 chapters of international books. He was Visiting Professor and guest speaker in prestigious foreign universities such as Ludwig Maximilianus University (Germany), University of Florence (Italy), Universite D’Angers (France) while also being the recipient of numerous prizes and honors such as DAAD and NATO award, Costin D. Nenitescu Medal and Special Award of Croatian Association of Inventors.

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.

Prof. Dr. Nahum Mendez-Sanchez is a Doctor of Medicine and also specialized in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is a Professor of both Master’s and PhD programs at the School of Medicine National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). After obtaining his Medical Degree at UNAM, Mexico, in 1984 and becoming board certified in Gastroenterology in 1990, he became the Doctor of Medicine with specialization in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He also obtained Academic Masters and PhD degree in Medical Science from the UNAM School of Medicine UNAM and Post-doctorate from the Brigham & Women’s Hospital & Harvard University, USA. He is a Past-President of both Mexican Association of Hepatology and Latin American Association for the Study of Liver, Founding Editor of Annals of Hepatology (2002–2018) and editorial board member of Hepatology (the official journal of AASLD) and American Journal of Gastroenterology (official journal of the ACG). He is a member of several International and National Associations such as the American Association for Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD), European Association for Study of the Liver, American Association of Gastroenterology (AGAF), etc. He received several awards such as the "Gabino Barreda Medal" and first place in medical works of the National Academy of Medicine. Professor Mendez-Sanchez has a long-lasting research interest in gastroenterology and hepatology, his research lines include: Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, bilirubin metabolism, bile acids physiology, obesity and metabolic disorders. He is the author of 18 published books, co-author of 180 chapters in the national and international books and 329 articles in PubMed.

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.

Dr. Narasimhan is a Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand University, India. His key areas of research includes synthesis, QSAR, anticancer and antimicrobial screening of medicinal compounds. Dr. Narasimhan has 160 publications (140 International and 20 National) in SCI indexed journals. He also serves as an Editorial Board Member and Reviewer in a number of national and international journals. Dr. Narasimhan is the recipient of APTI-Best Pharmaceutical Scientist Award (2015) and APP-Young Pharmaceutical Scientist Award (2015).

Dr. Orazio Nicolotti received his Ph.D. in Drug Sciences in 2001 from the University of Bari (Italy).. He then completed his post-doctorate at the University of Sheffield (UK). He was appointed as Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2016 at the University of Bari (Italy), where he currently serves as head of the molecular and data modeling laboratory. His research interests are in molecular and data modelling, drug design, QSAR, predictive toxicology, combinatorial library design, evolutionary algorithms, docking and molecular dynamics. He has authored about 90 publications, 4 book chapters and 1 international patent. He is the Principal investigator of several research funded projects and industrial agreements for technology transfer.

Dr. Milan M. Obradovic is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Radiobiology and Molecular Genetics at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinca, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Endocrinology from the University of Belgrade. His research interest is in the roles of different hormones in normal cardiovascular biology and in pathophysiological conditions such as obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Milan serves as a member of editorial board and as a reviewer in a numerous scientific and medical journals.

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.

Dr. Manuela Rodriquez has attained a degree of Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry sciences. She is presently serving as an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno (Italy), where she teaches Medicinal Chemistry to undergraduate students. She has contributed more than 57 publications, having citations around 991. Dr. Manuela’s research focuses on regulation of epigenetic post-transcriptional chemical modification, molecular diversity oriented synthesis, microwave-assisted synthesis and total synthesis of pharmacological active natural products as lead compound for drug optimization, and as chemical tools to study dynamic biological processes.

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.

Mikhail Soloviev received an MSc in Molecular Biology in and Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1996. He conducted his research in the MRC Molecular Neurobiology Unit, Cambridge and since 1993 at the Royal Free Hospital London. In 1997 he joined MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit Oxford, to work on the biology of metabotropic glutamate receptors. In 2001 he joined Oxford Glycosciences Ltd, as Head of Protein Assays, to develop affinity proteomics technologies and to enhance cancer biomarker discovery platform. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway University of London. His main research interests include (i) Rational engineering of therapeutic and stimuli-responsive proteins and (ii) Molecular biomarkers of cancer. Analytical Biochemistry and Nanobiotechnology have been long-term research passion.

Tatjana Stanojković was born in Belgrade on June 26, 1966. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade, Department of Molecular Biology and Physiology. She has been employed at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia since 1997, since July 2014, as head of the Department of Biological Response Laboratory, Department of Experimental Oncology. Field of expertise: Experimental oncology, Medicinal Chemistry, in vitro investigation of the anticancer activity of novel synthesized compounds, natural product and marine organisms. Member of the Editorial Board, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine since 2012.

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.

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.

Michele Tonelli is Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Pharmacy, University of Genoa (Italy), since 2020. He graduated in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology (2003) and received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 2007. For over ten years, he has gained experience in the synthesis of heterocycle compounds endowed with different biological activities. He has authored more than 50 papers published in reputed international peer-review journals, in addition to several poster and oral presentations. His main research interests are in the field of antiviral, antiprotozoal and anticancer agents, TAAR ligands and MTDLs for Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Petri Turhanen, Ph.D, is university researcher at University of Eastern Finland (UEF), School of Pharmacy. He received M.Sc. in organic chemistry at University of Jyväskylä in 1997 and Ph.D. in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry at University of Kuopio in 2003. His scientific interests are focused on synthetic chemistry with green chemistry aspect; mainly on organophosphorus chemistry (like bisphosphonates and ATP analogues) and novel applications of prepared compounds. Dr. Turhanen has authored more than 50 publications and conference presentations being a main author in most of them, he also has 2 patents.

Dr. Dolores Viña is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2003 at the same University. She did postdoctoral training in nucleoside chemistry at the Rega Institute KU Leuven, Belgium. She was appointed as Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (2005) at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her research activities are currently focused on combining the study of cellular and molecular pharmacology and medical chemistry in order to design and develop new drugs against neurodegenerative disorders, with emphasis on those in which oxidative stress plays a fundamental role such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Dr. Viña is co-author of more than 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals and co-inventor of two patent applications.

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. Pavlos Zarogoulidis, M.D, Ph. D Director of Pulmonary Department, Bioclinic Private Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece has a MS.c in "drug, design, development and therapy" and his Ph. D is regarding inhaled chemotherapy for lung cancer. He is a member of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), American Thoracic Society (ATS), European Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (EABIP), and more. He is an editor in "Journal of Thoracic Disease", editor in "Translational Lung Cancer Research", editor in "Journal of Nanomedicine and Biotherapeutic Discovery" and many more. He has more than 369 publications. He is a junior lecturer of pulmonary oncology for the past four years in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.

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.

Ning Zhang graduated from Nankai University, China, and received his Ph.D. degree in bioinformatics in 2010. He worked as a post-doctor in Nankai University from 2011 to 2012, and as a visiting scholar in Griffith University, Australia from 2016 to 2017. Now he is an associate professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University. His interests include bioinformatics, computational biology, system biology, biomedical imaging analysis, database, and software design. He has published over 60 research papers in outstanding journals, and was evaluated as "Top 1%" highest cited Chinese author in Biology field by Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, in 2015.

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.

Ebrahim Mostafavi is currently at Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford School of Medicine. His research interests revolve around the use of cardiac iPS cells to design and develop in vitro models for cardiovascular disease modeling and drug screening as well as CRISPR/Cas gene-editing for cardiovascular diseases. During his PhD, he also received training at both Harvard Medical School & Northeastern universities on engineering and development of (nano)biomaterials and 3D scaffolds to create biologically complex tissues and organs for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and translational applications. His scholarly work consists of more than 70 publications with an H-index of 22 (i10-index= 35) on Google Scholar Profile. He currently serves as the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Nanomedicine (IF=6.4, Q1) at Dove Medical Press/T&F, and an Editorial Board Member of several biomedical and materials engineering journals, including, Nature Scientific Reports (IF=4.379), Springer Nature Journal of Nanostructure in Chemistry (IF=6.39, Q1), MDPI Functional Biomaterials (CiteScore=9.4, Q1), BMC Biotechnology (IF=2.563, Q1), Frontiers in Oncology & Frontiers in Pharmacology, etc. He also contributed to more than 15 book chapters and was selected as the editor of several books.

Dr. Mirjana B. Čolović, a research associate, employed at University of Belgrade, Serbia, from 2005. Her research activities are in the field of enzymology, toxicology, biosensors, physiologically active compounds and their interaction with biomolecules. She has published 36 papers in impacted international journals, 4 chapters in books, 3 articles in national scientific journals, and over 60 abstracts in international and national scientific meetings. She served as a reviewer in over 20 international journals and 9 international projects.

Dr. Pankaj Attri is an Associate Professor at the Center of Plasma Nano-Interface Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan. Dr. Attri obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, India, in 2013. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Department of Electrical and Biological Physics and in Plasma Bioscience research center, Kwangwoon University, Korea, from 2013-2017. Dr. Attri has received many honors such as long term fellowship at Kyushu University, Japan, in 2016. Dr. Attri is the author of more than 90 publications and 8 book chapters of reputed publishers and has earned 4 Patents. Dr. Attri is currently working as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports Journal in Chemical Physics panel.

Professor Sergey Bachurin received the Ph.D. degree in 1980 and Doctor of science degree in 1994 in Moscow State University. Since 1981, he is working at the Institute of Physiologically Active Compounds Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Chernogolovka city. From 2006 till 2018 he remained the Director of the Institute. Since January 2019, he is a scientific supervisor of IPAC RAS and Head of the Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry. In 2003, he was elected as a member of Russian Academy of Sciences. His research activity related to the discovery of novel agents for neurodegenerative diseases treatment, in particular for Alzheimer’s disease. He is the main author of the investigative drug for Alzheimer’s disease Dimebon, which successfully passed Phase 2 clinical trials on AD patients (Lancet 2008,372(9634):207-15) and number of novel neuroprotective agents that have passed preclinical trials (Mol Neurobiol. 2018,55(1):335; Sci Rep. 2015, 2017, 2019). He is the author of more than 250 articles in peer-reviewing journals and about 40 patents. His h-index is 29 in WoS datebase. Bachurin was an invited lecturer at the University of California (San Francisco), and at the Tufts University (Boston). He is the Chairman of Scientific Council of RAS on “Medicinal Chemistry”, Head of Moscow Chemical Society and Council member of European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry.

Simone Brogi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Pisa, Italy. He graduated in 2005 in Biological Sciences from the University of Siena, where he also received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2010. From 2011 to 2019 he has directed the Molecular Modeling Unit at the Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy (University of Siena) in the research group of Prof. Giuseppe Campiani. Dr Brogi has sound knowledge of various computational methodologies: Pharmacophore modeling, Virtual Screening, High throughput Docking, High throughput QM-Polarized Ligand Docking, Molecular Docking, Homology Modeling, 3D-QSAR and 3D-QSSR models, Molecular Dynamics, QM/MM calculations, in silico prediction of ADME+T Properties. Furthermore, Dr Brogi possesses expertise in GPU calculation by means of CUDA technology applied to Molecular Dynamics software. His research activity, described in over 100 papers (full list of publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simone_Brogi), is focused on computational approaches for the discovery and optimization of small-molecules with therapeutic potential for treating cancer and pain, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and parasitic diseases. Moreover, the mentioned research interest also comprises innovative in silico strategies to establish the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics profile of potential drug candidates. Dr Brogi is the head of in silico Pharmacology and Toxicology Unit at University of Pisa in the research group of Prof. Vincenzo Calderone.

Dr. Rodrigo Valenzuela Báez is an Associate Professor at the University of Chile. He completed his PhD at the Department of Nutrition, University of Toronto, Canada. His research interests include lipids in foods, diet induced obesity and liver steatosis models, cytoprotective effect of bioactive compounds, clinical trials related with fatty acid metabolism and dairy products in human nutrition. Dr. Rodrigo Valenzuela has authored over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and in 15 books of diverse topics.

Dr. Gaetano Caramori, MD, PhD, is a Full Professor in Respiratory Medicine, at the Dipartimento di Scienze BIOMORF, University of Messina, Italy. He is serving as Head of the Pulmonology Unit at the University Hospital Gaetano Martino, and also Head of the Specialization School in Respiratory Diseases at the University of Messina, Italy. Dr. Gaetano Caramori is an honorary staff member at the Airway Disease Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College of London, UK, since 2001. He has published about 160 articles in International Scientific peer-reviewed Journals, including all the major Journals of the Respiratory System. His research interests have focused on DNA damage repair in the lungs, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr. Rosanna Chianese got her master’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, in 2004. She completed her PhD studies in Comparative Endocrinology from the University of Padova, Italy during 2005-2008. During 2009-2011, she obtained a research fellowship entitled “Mesothelioma and biomarkers”, from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. She also obtained the National Scientific Qualification to work as Associate Professor. She is a member of the teaching staff of PhD School in “Biochemical and Biotechnological Sciences”. She has a wide experience as reviewer for international journals and she has been the Editor of Special Issues and e-book. She has national and international collaborations; she has been involved in numerous research projects. She has published over 70 papers in various peer-reviewed international journals, books, proceedings and abstract books. She was an invited speaker at national and international conferences. She is an expert in biology of reproduction, sperm quality and epigenetic transgenerational inheritance. She has firstly identified circular RNAs in human and mouse spermatozoa.

Dr. Guido Crisponi is a Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Cagliari University, Italy. The majority of Dr. Crisponi works deal with analytical studies on the distribution of toxic elements in various human tissues, solution equilibria studies on the interaction between metal ions and bio-molecules by potentiometric, spectrophotometric and NMR techniques. In the last twenty years, his research group has been mainly involved in studies concerning chelation therapy to treat the toxic effects of metal ions in humans. He is a member of the Editorial Board of various international journals and is the author of more than 170 publications.

Dr. Xianting Ding is a Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering and is the Deputy Director of Institute for Personalized Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, USA. His research interests are single cell protein analysis, personalized medicine with trace clinical specimens and portable bio-sensors with microfluidics. He participated in the early development of 3 multi-million-USD international research centers. He is part of the Editorial Board for Scientific Reports and SLAS Technology (JALA) and is the reviewer for 20 SCI journals. Dr. Xianting Ding is the author of 90 peer-reviewed SCI papers and has filed 30 national and international patents.

Dr. Hao Lin is a Professor of the Center for Informational Biology at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He received his Ph.D. from Inner Mongolia University, P.R. China in 2007. His researches focused on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers in SCI-indexed journals.

Dr. Kuen-Song Lin is a Senior Professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan. He is also the Director of Environmental Technology Research Centre (ETRC) and the Dean of Research and Development (R&D office) in Yuan Ze University. His research topics include waste reutilization, on-site soil and water pollution remediation, environmental and photocatalytic catalyst preparation technologies, hydrogen storage, carbon capture and sustainable energy generation. Dr. Lin has published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Cristina Maccallini received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2002 from the University of Chieti, where she is currently assistant professor at the Department of Pharmacy. Her main research interests is focused on the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of small molecules targeting proteins involved in inflammation and cancer development, such as the inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase, the Carbonic Anhydrases, the Aromatase and PPARs. She is author of over 60 publications in the Medicinal Chemistry field and 1 book chapter. She is a member of the Editorial Board of various international journals and member of the Italian Chemistry Society.

Dr. Jelena Popović-Djordjević is a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. She graduated from the University of Belgrade, where she received her B.A. degree in Applied Chemistry and her Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry in 2010. She is the author of more than 150 publications in leading international peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters and 40 papers on the international and national conferences. Her main research is related to Natural Products, Biological activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds, Food Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry. She is a member of the Serbian Chemical Society, the Serbian Water Protection Society and the Editorial board member of Ecological Safety and Balanced Use of Resources.

Dr. Christos Savopoulos received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He currently serves as a Professor of Internal Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and also as the Head of the first Medical Propaedeutic Department of Internal Medicine at AHEPA University Hospital. He was one of the principal establishers of a Stroke Unit in the University Hospital of AHEPA, Thessaloniki, Greece, and thereafter the Head of this Stroke Unit. He is a member of 17 Greek and International Medical Scientific Societies, Associations and Working Groups. Dr. Christos Savopoulos has authored about 140 publications in international journals and 27 book chapters.

Dr. Xinhua Shu is an Associate Professor at Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. He received his PhD in Pathobiology from the Hunan Medical University, China, in 1999. He received the honor of Fellowship at the University of Glasgow (1999-2001), Scotland, where he worked on the Human Pathogen Paracoccidioides Brasiliensis. In 2001, he was appointed at MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, Scotland, to work as an Investigator Scientist for five years and then Senior Investigator Scientist. His research interests are Diabetic Retinopathy, Retinal diseases, the Disease Mechanisms of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and age related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. Shu has about 110 publications.

Tatjana Stanojković was born in Belgrade on June 26, 1966. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade, Department of Molecular Biology and Physiology. She has been employed at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia since 1997, since July 2014, as head of the Department of Biological Response Laboratory, Department of Experimental Oncology. Field of expertise: Experimental oncology, Medicinal Chemistry, in vitro investigation of the anticancer activity of novel synthesized compounds, natural product and marine organisms. Member of the Editorial Board, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine since 2012.

Dr. Jacopo Troisi is Adjunct Professor for Ph.D programme in translational medicine at Salerno University (Italy). He is a research scientist and COO at the European Biomedical Research Institute of Salerno (EBRIS), co-founded by the Harvard University and the Salerno Medical School. He is also co-founder and CEO at Theoreo srl, a spin-off company of the University of Salerno. Dr. Troisi research is related to metabolomics. In particular, he is studying the metabolomic fingerprint of several human disease as a diagnostic tool and as a mechanistic hypothesis generator. He got several international patents and awards for diagnostic tests based on metabolomic profiling.”

Dr. Chi-Meng Tzeng is a Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Xiamen University, China. He served the Chinese military as an MD Captain in Tri-Service General Hospital (1993-1995). He then received graduated training in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology from Stanford University Medical School, USA, (1995-2000). Dr. Tzeng was appointed as principal Investigator in Medical R&D and industrialization at Academic Sinica (Taiwan) and at National Taiwan University Hospital (2000-2005). His research interests include Translational Medicine among Liquid Biopsy, Microbiota, Neoantigen, Immune-Cell Therapy, AI-Big Data, Herbal Medicine and Combination Theranostics. Dr. Tzeng has authored over 60 SCIs, 4 book chapters, and 13 patents and is also responsible for 14 commercial products, IVDs, supplements and medication.

Dr. Wu’s current research interests focus on the development of functional polymeric materials for pharmaceutical applications in terms of controllable drug delivery or gene delivery, with over 70 publications on Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Nano, Adv. Mater., Small, Adv. Healthcare Mater., Biomacromolecules etc and personal H-index of 25 (Google Scholar).

Dr. Kang Xu received his M.M. degree from Hubei University of Chinese Medicine and his Ph.D. degree from Chongqing University, China. He studied Stem Cell Engineering and Molecular Therapy as a researcher in University of California, USA. Currently, he is serving as an Associate Professor at the Hubei University of Chinese Medicine. His research interests are Chemical Based Therapeutic Mechanism on Cardiovascular Diseases, Anti-Inflammation Activity on Arthritis of Natural Synthesized Compounds, Wound Repair and Regeneration. Dr. Kang Xu is the author of over 30 publications on Phytotherapy research, Frontiers in Pharmacology, Cell Proliferation, Wound Repair, Regeneration and Pharmaceutical Biology.

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.

Prof. Kun Zhang is a Research Fellow and a PhD advisor who comes from Shanghai Tenth Peoples’ Hospital. Nowadays, he is the Deputy Director of Ultrasound Research and Education Institute, Tongji University, School of Medicine. He has published 18 SCI papers as the first author or corresponding author in different journals. He has been chosen as the reviewer of some top journals including Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials Advanced Sciences, Biomaterials, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and Theranostics. He is also elected as the members or committee members of several academic organizations. He is engaged in molecular imaging and corresponding probe design involving MRI, fluorescence imaging and ultrasound imaging as well as multi-modal imaging, and he is also an expert in immunotherapy, gene editing, tumour microenvironment modulation & monitoring, regenerative medicine, nanomedicine and interdisciplinary research.