Current Molecular Medicine

Jianjun Chen, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor in Medical School, the expert in Project of Young 1000 Talent Program, Investigator in Shanghai Tenth Hospital, and the Head of Department of Medical Genetics, Tongji University School of Medicine. Dr. Chen obtained his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Genetics from the Anhui Medical University. He has nearly 17 years of experience in the research of genetics in human diseases and their roles in pathogenesis. Dr. Chen has published over 50 journal articles.

László Hajba holds a PhD in analytical and environmental chemistry from University of Pannonia, awarded in 2008. Later he carried out research in the field of biospectroscopy and chemometrics at the same university. In 2010 he joined the biotechnology research group at Research Institute of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Pannonia. In 2013 he started his work in the field of microfluidics and bioseparations at the Translational Glycomics Research Group.

Claudio Hetz was originally trained as Biotechnology Engineer at the University of Chile and performed a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Serono Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Switzerland. Then he did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University. He joined the University of Chile during 2007 and is currently Full Professor at Faculty of Medicine and adjunct Professor at Harvard. He is also currently the Co-Director of the Biomedical Neuroscience Institute. His research focused on understanding the molecular basis of protein folding stress, its relationship to pathological conditions affecting the nervous system involving protein aggregation (ALS, Parkinson, Huntington and Alzheimer), and the development of prototypic strategies to prevent neuronal damage. He has received important recognitions including the KIA International Award, TWAS-ROLAC Young Scientist Prize as outstanding young scientist in Latin America, he was finalist in the Eppendorf and Science Award in Neurobiology, and also awarded with the Cell Biology Society and Bios-Chile prize as the best young scientist of Chile.

Dr. Husain is a tenured Staff Scientist at the Tumor Vaccine and Biotechnology Branch, Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration for the past 20 years. Dr. Husain is a scientific expert on regulatory product issues related to the clinical use of tumor vaccines, immunotherapeutic products and plasmid gene transfer for cancer therapy. Dr. Husain’s research program involves the understanding of tumor biology and identification of potential tumor-associated cell surface proteins that can be used to establish identity and potency of tumor vaccines. Dr. Husain is also actively engaged in outreach activity to assist stakeholders bring investigational products to the market.

Dr. Kleiman is a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and directs the Master’s degree programs in in Radiological Sciences and Toxicology. He is a technical cooperation expert for the International Atomic Energy and has served on committees of the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). His research focuses on ocular risks of environmental exposures such as radiation and arsenic. He received a PhD degree in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University and completed postdoctoral training in ophthalmic research at Columbia University.

Dr. Po Sing LEUNG is the Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His major research interest is to focus on pancreatic islet cell biology in health and disease. He has published more than 180 scientific publications. Currently, he serves as associate editors and editorial boards for over 10 international journals in the field of endocrinology and metabolism.

Dr. Min Li is full Professor and Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Treatment. He is the Director of GI Cancer Research, Department of Medicine, and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Surgery, at The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is a leading expert on pancreatic cancer (PC). His research mainly focuses on studying PC pathogenesis and developing new therapies. Dr. Li’s group has published more than 140 papers, and obtained both federal (3 active NIH R01 grants) and private foundation grants to support his research. He is also a member of many NIH study sections.

Dr. Lin obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Lin also received an extensive postdoctoral training in Cell Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. Currently Dr. Lin is a tenured Associate Professor in Baylor College of Medicine. She has published more than 60 scientific publications in the field of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Dr. Lin is currently an Associate Editor of this journal (Current Molecular Medicine), published by Bentham Science Publishers.

Gang Liu received his MD degree from North Sichuan Medical College (China) in 2002 and PhD degree from Sichuan University (China) in 2009. Subsequently, he focused his training on nanomedicine and molecular imaging at the National Institutes of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health. In 2012, he joined the Center for Molecular Imaging and Translational Medicine, Xiamen University. Currently, he is a Full Professor of Biomedical and Bioengineering and his research interests include biomaterials, theranostics, and molecular imaging.

Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. Degree in Cell Biology from the University of Maryland, and did his postdoctoral trainings in Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and California Institute of Technology. Dr. Liu was selected as the Distinguished National Endowed Professor by “The Recruitment Program of Global Experts” in 2008. Currently Dr. Liu is the Dean of School of Life Sciences, and the founding director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, East China Normal University, Shanghai China. He also holds a joint professor position in the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University in Houston, Texas, USA. Dr. Liu has published more than 200 articles in leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, and PNAS etc.

Dr. Liu obtained MD and Ph.D in Ophthalmology from Sun Yat-sen University, China. Dr. Liu is a Director and Professor of Ophthalmology at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, also Director of State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology. He is a standing committee member of Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO), Vice-President of the Chinese Ophthalmological Society (COS). Dr. Liu has published or co-authored more than 150 peer reviewed manuscripts in journals including Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Lancet、BMJ and PNAS. He is recognized as one of the pioneer ophthalmologists in China who perform phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation. He has carried out approximately 200,000 surgical operations for cataract patients. He is serving as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Vision, Associate Editor of Current Molecular Medicine.

Kun Ping Lu, MD, PhD, is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Division of Translational Therapeutics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He discovers a unique phosphorylation-specific proline isomerase, Pin1 that helps protect against Alzheimer’s disease and whose aberrant activation helps promote the development of cancer. Based on these discoveries, his laboratory is working to develop an antibody therapy for the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury, and Pin1 chemical inhibitors to overcome drug resistance in cancer treatments.

Dr. Mancuso is the Head of the Centre of Neurogenetics and expertise for mitochondrial diseases and rare diseases at the Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital of Pisa (Orphanet Center EUGTIT247621), and the head of the Stroke Unit of the same Institute. Scientific and research activity of Dr. Michelangelo Mancuso has mainly been conducted in the field of mitochondrial diseases, neurogenetics and stroke. As a whole results, his research activity have been presented in national and international congresses and published for a number of more than 150 full papers on peer-reviewed Life Science/Current Contents cited scientific journals.

Dr. Jingxuan Pan received Ph.D. from Sun Yat-Sen University in 2000. During 1998 to 2006, he worked in The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, USA. Since 2006, he has joined Sun Yat-sen University as Professor of Medicine, leading a group that synthesized small molecule compounds which are active against the imatinib-resistant leukemia cells caused by “gate-keeper” mutations (e.g., T315I Bcr-Abl). Dr. Pan has recently identified novel druggable targets (e.g., PRMT5, AXL) in cancer stem cells. Dr. Pan was awarded grant from National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars of China. He has authored over 70 articles in international journals including JCI and Cancer Res. He also serves as Associate Editor for Molecular Cancer.

Dr. Quest obtained his doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Natural Sciences from the Eidgenoessische Technische Hochscule (ETH), Zuerich, Switzerland, and holds a Masters degree in Biochemistry from the same University. He did his first post-doctoral training period (1988-1990) at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA initially funded by a post-doctoral training award from the Swiss National Science Foundation and then by NIH. He then went on to do a second post-doctoral training period (1991-1994) funded by NIH at Duke University, Durham (North Carolina, US). In 1994 Dr. Quest took up a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland. He then moved in 1999 as Associate professor to the Cell and Molecular Biology Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile. Since 2005 he is Full Professor at the same institution. Dr. Quest has more than 100 publications in international journals and is a member of the Editorial board of Cell Biology and Function (2013), Current Molecular Medicine (2014) and Biochemical Journal (2015).

Dr. Rodgers is the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)--one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rodgers received his undergraduate (ScB), graduate (MMSc) and medical (MD) degrees from Brown University. In addition to his medical and research training, he earned an MBA, with a focus on the business of medicine/science, from the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. He has published over 200 original research articles, reviews, and book chapters, has edited four books and monographs, and hold 3 patents.

Shao-Cong Sun received his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from Stockholm University and pursued postdoctoral training at The Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of California at San Francisco. He is a professor and endowed chair in Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also serves as the director of Center for Inflammation and Cancer. His major contributions include demonstration of IκBα degradation in NF-κB activation, discovery of noncanonical NF-κB pathway, and seminal findings of in vivo functions of ubiquitination in regulating T-cell activation and tolerance. He has published more than 150 scientific papers.

Dr. Toris received her doctorate degree in physiology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Currently she is a Professor and Director of Translational Research at Case Western Reserve University. She also holds an appointment at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She runs research labs at both Institutes. She has more than 25 years of experience conducting translational research related to glaucoma and has published more than 100 scientific articles on this topic.

Dr. Wong qualified in medicine (MBBS) and later obtained a doctorate (PhD) in Immunology of Diabetes at Kings College Hospital in London, UK. She is currently Professor of Experimental Diabetes and Metabolism at Cardiff School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK, and honorary consultant physician in diabetes. Her research focuses on the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and she has published more than 150 scientific papers and review articles.

Zhi Xie obtained a medical degree at Chongqing University of Medical Science, China, and his doctoral degree in Computational Systems Biology at Lincoln University, New Zealand. He is currently a Professor at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, China. He also holds an appointment as Director of Big Data Center for Biomedicine, Sun Yat-sen University. His research fields are bioinformatics and genomics.

Prof. Peizeng Yang is working at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. He is mainly engaging in the study on the diagnosis and treatment of uveitis and the mechanisms involved in this disease. Supported by more than 30 research grants, his team is becoming one of the most productive uveitis study groups. He has 169 peer-reviewed papers in international journels. He is an international council representative of International Ocular Inflammation Society, founding executive member of Asia-Pacific Intraocular Inflammation Study Group, member of the International Uveitis Study Group, council member of International Society for Behcet’s Disease.

Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Ophthalmology, Chief of Ophthalmic Genetics, and co-Director of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Center at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Zhang obtained his M.D. with Magna Cum Laude honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT joint MD program, and his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. Dr. Zhang has published or co-authored over 180 peer reviewed manuscripts in top journals, including Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Cell, and PNAS, that cover a wide range of topics in genetics, molecular biology, stem cells, and clinical trials in ophthalmology.

Dr. Zheng is Professor of Pharmacology/Experimental Neuroscience, Pathology/Microbiology and Family Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). He also serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at UNMC. Dr. Zheng received his medical and graduate training at Xuzhou Medical College, Nanjing Medical University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (Previously Shanghai Second Medical University) in China. He joined UNMC in 1993 after he had been a visiting scholar at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has authored more than 125 publications.

Dr. Yubin Zhou is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology. He is also a Joint Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Physiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Zhou obtained his doctoral degree in chemistry from Georgia State University. He has nearly 15 years of experience in the research aimed to develop novel therapeutics by targeting aberrant calcium signaling and DNA modification pathways. Dr. Zhou holds two patents and has published over 45 journal articles and 4 book chapters. He was also the recipient of a Special Fellow Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Dr. Hossam M. Ashour is currently Endowed Associate Professor of Premedical Sciences at University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. Dr. Ashour completed his Ph.D. (in 2006) in Immunology from University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA. His skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of Microbiology and Immunology. He is currently interested in the study of immune tolerance and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Ashour, as an author/co-author, has published more than 35 articles in various journals, having over 620 total citations.

Peter Barnes is Margaret-Turner Warwick Professor of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Head of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK. He qualified at Cambridge and Oxford Universities (first class) and appointed to his present post in 1987. He has published >1000 peer-review papers on asthma, COPD and related topics (h-index 154) and has written or edited over 50 books. He is in the top 20 most highly cited researchers in the world and the most highly cited respiratory researcher in the world over the last 20 years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007 and was President of the ERS in 2013/2014.

Dr. Matteo Becatti is a Senior Researcher at the Biochemistry Unit, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences "Mario Serio", University of Firenze (Italy). Dr. Becatti is a scientific expert on oxidative stress-mediated dysfunctions in cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Becatti’s research interests involve the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms of inflammation-induced thrombosis and the development of new targeted therapies.

Dr. Bonni is Edison Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. He also is Director of the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at Washington University and Adjunct Professor in Neurology at Queen’s University. Dr. Bonni received his MD at Queen’s University and completed residency in neurology at McGill University. He received his PhD from Harvard University and performed postdoctoral studies at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Bonni is an international leader in molecular neuroscience who has discovered fundamental transcriptional, epigenetic, and ubiquitin-signaling networks that orchestrate neuronal connectivity in the brain.

Dr. Claudio Cabello-Verrugio is a Biochemist who received his Ph.D. degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Catholic University, Chile. He is a Full Professor and researcher at Universidad Andres Bello in Chile and his research is focused on studying the mechanism involved in skeletal muscle diseases. In the last 10 years, Dr. Cabello-Verrugio has published more than 40 manuscripts in the field of skeletal muscle biology and physiology. Specifically, the emphasis of his research is to elucidate the effect of managing the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) on skeletal muscle atrophy produced by diverse causes, such as aging, disuse, sepsis and chronic diseases, and also to find new strategies for managing the muscle mass.

Dr. Alessandro Capuano is Consultant Neurologist and Head of Movement Disorder Clinic at Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy. Dr. Capuano received his M.D. degree and completed his residency in Neurology at Catholic University, Rome, Italy. Later on, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from Institute of Pharmacology at Catholic University. Dr. Capuano is an experienced researcher in Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Genetics. In particular, his main field of interest involves genetics of movement disorders and other rare diseases in children. Dr. Capuano, as an author/co-author, has published more than 55 articles in various journals, having over 855 total citations.

Dr. Dvir holds a BSc, Summa Cum Laude, in Biochemistry and Food Sciences from the Hebrew University. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry and X-ray Crystallography from the Weizmann Institute. After his postdoctoral training in Biophysics of Membrane Proteins at the Salk Institute, Dr. Dvir was appointed as an Instructor at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology to focus on Lipid-antigen presentation and Lipoproteins Metabolism. In 2011, Dr. Dvir established the Technion Center for Structural Biology. He is a principal author on numerous high-profile publications including in EMBO J, EMBO Rep and recently in PNAS and Nature Microbiology.

Dr. Luca Filippi, M.D., works as Nuclear Medicine Consultant in the Nuclear Medicine Department of “Santa Maria Goretti” Hospital in Latina (Italy). He is also adjunct professor of Technology in Medical Science at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Dr. Filippi's main field of interest is the clinical and translational application of imaging with PET/SPECT probes for the identification of pathology (tumors and neurodegenerative disorders) at a molecular level. Dr. Filippi serves as reviewer for numerous international journals and has written/co-written over 80 scientific contributions.

Dr. Pedro Fonte is currently Assistant Professor at Universidade Lusófona, and Principal Investigator at the Development of Delivery Systems Group of CBIOS, both at Lisbon, Portugal. He is also Research Associate in UCIBIO, REQUIMTE, Department of Chemical Sciences (Applied Chemistry Lab of Faculty of Pharmacy), University of Porto, Portugal. Dr. Fonte obtained his Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Specialty: Nanotechnologies) in 2016 from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Portugal, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He also obtained an M.B.A. degree in 2012 from Lusíada University, Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Fonte, as an author/co-author, has published more than 30 articles in various journals, having over 700 total citations.

Elena Grossini is Editorial Board Member of Journal of Cardiology and Therapy and Frontiers in Physiology and reviewer of many international journals in the fields of Physiology, Cardiology, Endocrinology and Pharmacology. Elena Grossini is author of 93 publications on international journals.

Professor Jenny Gunton is Director of the Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and is Chair of Medicine at Westmead Hospital, University of Sydney, Australia. Prof. Gunton received her Ph.D. from the University of Sydney and completed her post-doctoral fellowship in Ron Kahn’s lab at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. Additionally, she is a past-President of the Australian Diabetes Society.

Dr. Hussain is Head of the Pancreatic Cancer Unit at the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. Dr. Hussain received his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and post-doctoral training at the Swiss Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne, Switzerland and NCI, NIH. Dr. Hussain’s research is focused on identifying novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for patients’ stratification in pancreatic cancer, which is one of the most lethal malignancies. Dr. Hussain has authored more than 80 manuscripts and is one of the leading experts in the role of inflammatory mediators in pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Antonio Ieni has obtained PhD in 2012 at University of Messina and postdoctoral studies from Messina University School of Medicine. He is presently serving as an assistant professor of Pathology at University of Messina. He has contributed more than 100 papers in reputed international journals and has also been serving as an editorial board member of Journal inflammation, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology and Journal of Analytical Oncology. His fields of expertise include Neoplastic and non-neoplastic gastrointestinal Pathology, Breast cancer, Molecular predictive markers in human pathology.

Dr. Krammer obtained a doctorate (M.D) in Medicine from the University of Freiburg (Germany), and has studied in St.Louis (USA) and Lausanne (Switzerland). Dr. Krammer has been a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology and was a Visiting Professor at the Dept. of Microbiology, University of Texas, Health Science Center at Dallas. He has more than 40 years of experience in the basic and translational investigation of apoptosis, the role of apoptosis in the immune system, in cancer and in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Dr. Krammer has authored more than 450 scientific publications and is a named inventor of various international patents.

Dr. Kreitman received his M.D. from Ohio State University in 1985 and training in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center from 1985 to 1988. He completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Institutes of Health, where he has remained working in the development of new recombinant biologic therapies for Cancer. He now is Chief of the Clinical Immunotherapy Section of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the National Cancer Institute. He directs both clinical and laboratory research teams testing and developing recombinant immunotoxins for hematologic malignancies. He also studies the biology of hairy cell leukemia, which is particularly sensitive to immunotoxins, and directs clinical trials of these and other agents for hairy cell leukemia, in both newly diagnosed and relapsed disease.

Dr. Leyton obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biological Sciences from the University of Chile, Santiago (Faculty of Basic Sciences), and holds a Masters in Biochemistry as well as a Biochemistry degree from the Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the same University. She did her Ph.D. thesis bench work at Duke University, Durham (North Carolina, US), and her first Postdoctoral training period at the same institution supported by The Rotary Foundation of The Rotary International, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dr. Leyton then went on to do a second Postdoctoral training period at the University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland supported by a Federation of European Biochemical Societies long-term fellowship. She is currently a Full Professor at the University of Chile and part of the Cell and Molecular Biology Program of the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Leyton has more than 60 publications in international journals and is a member of the Editorial board of Biological Research (2010) and currently of this journal (Current Molecular Medicine), published by Bentham Science Publishers.

M. Malkovsky, MD, PhD, FRCPath is Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He obtained his doctoral degrees from the Charles University in Prague and previously (1981-1989) worked at the Clinical Research Center and Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, England. He has published more than 170 papers in peer-reviewed journals, authored 3 patents (US5256641, US5639852 and US6331388) and served as a member of numerous NIH and other Study Sections. Dr. Malkovsky’s research interests include gamma/delta T lymphocytes, immunoregulation, immunotherapies, HIV/SIV and heat-shock proteins.

Dr. Mycielska graduated from Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland). She continued her work at Imperial College London UK in the flied of prostate cancer, with special emphasis on involvement of plasma membrane ion channels and metabolic transporters in tumor progression as well as citrate transport and metabolism in healthy gland and prostate cancer. At present she is a project leader at the University Hospital in Regensburg with the main focus on extracellular citrate uptake on cancer metabolism.

Dr. Gyorgy Nagy MD, PhD is presently serving as a professor of medicine, rheumatology and immunology at Semmelweis University, Budapest. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the department of Rheumatology at State University of New York, Syracuse USA. His research interests focus on the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, with a special interest in the role of extracellular vesicles. He also studies treatment resistant rheumatid arthritis. He has more than 100 scientific publications. He is editorial member of several national and international scientific journals.

Dr. B. Narayana obtained his Ph.D. degree (in 1989) in Chemistry from Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri, India. Dr. Narayana is currently Professor of Chemistry at Mangalore University. His main research areas of interest include Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Radioactivity, Organic Synthesis and Structural Studies. Dr. Narayana, as an author/co-author, has published more than 730 articles in various journals, having a considerable number of total citations, i.e. over 3,925.

Dr. Resar is recognized internationally for pioneering studies on the role of High Mobility Group A (HMGA) proteins in cancer. She discovered that HMGA genes function as potent oncogenes. Her laboratory also engineered the first transgenic mouse model definitively demonstrating that Hmga1 overexpression causes cancer in vivo. Dr. Resar has gone on to elucidate molecular mechanisms through which HMGA1 functions in cancer, cancer stem cells, and normal development, which is important because HMGA1 is overexpressed in most aggressive human tumors. She has authored over 80 manuscripts, 1 patent, and is a Professor of Medicine & Oncology and member of the Institute of Cellular Engineering and Pathobiology Graduate Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Chiara Sassoli graduated in Biological Sciences with summa cum laude at the University of Florence, Italy in 1999. In 2000 -2001 she was Guest Researcher at Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Gaithersburg-MD-USA. In 2005 she obtained the Ph.D. degree in Human Morphology and Morphogenesis from the University of Florence, Italy. From 2005 to 2009 she was Postdoctoral Research Fellow and from 2009 she is Assistant Professor of Human Anatomy at the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Section of Anatomy and Histology, University of Florence, Italy. Research interests: cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in tissue repair/regeneration especially at skeletal and cardiac muscle and bone tissue;effects of different factors (sphingolipids, relaxin, platelet-rich plasma), mesenchymal stromal/stem cells and photobiomodulation/Low Level Laser Therapy on tissue healing

Dr. Vivian Y. Shin is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery (Division of Breast Surgery) at University of Hong Kong. Dr. Shin obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong. She completed her post-doctoral training in the Department of Medicine at Chinese University of Hong Kong, with her focus being on molecular signaling in gastrointestinal cancers.

Dr. Shengjun Wang, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Immunology in the School of Medicine at Jiangsu University, and Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Jiangsu University Affiliated People’s Hospital, China. His research has been focused on autoimmune diseases and tumor immunology. As Principle Investigator, he has chaired and completed 10 sponsored national research projects, and won a number of provincial prizes for his academic achievements. Dr. Wang has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in leading immunology and tumor journals.

Dr. Cezary Wojcik is a physician scientist who completed his graduation from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. Dr. Wojcik has studied the molecular and cell biology of the ubiquitin and proteasome pathway at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and Indiana University School of Medicine, USA. He currently provides clinical care to patients at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, USA, focusing his research interests on the role played by different lipids and lipoproteins in development of atherosclerosis.

Dr. Zhang is s Deputy Chief Doctor in the Rehabilitation Department at the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University. He also serves as Associate professor in Hebei Medical University. Dr. Zhang received his medical and graduate training at Zhangjiakou Medical College, Shanghai Medical College (Previously Shanghai First Medical University) in China.He has taken a series of research projects, and authored more than 30 publications. The field of expertise is the mechanism exploration for interventions on ischemic stroke.

Dr. Zhang obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Miami, Coral Gable, FL. As a biomedical scientist, Dr. Zhang has been conducting basic and translational research to understand and treat neurological disorders, especially in early childhood at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. He has authored more than 70 manuscripts, 9 US and international patents, and participated in new drug development and clinical trials at the NIH.

Dr. Dawen Zhao is an Associate Professor and Wells Fargo Endowed Scholar of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Wake Forest School of Medicine, North Carolina, USA. His research is focused on multimodal molecular cancer imaging and development of cancer-targeted nanotheranostic agents for brain cancer diagnosis and therapy. Benefiting from previous training in medicine and tumor biology, Dr. Zhao has been actively involved in disease-oriented diverse fields of translational research.

Dr. Dong Wang received his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of Electronic Science and Technology, China, in 2011. Dr. Wang is a Professor in the Department of Bioinformatics (School of Basic Medical Sciences) at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. His research mainly focuses on Computational Systems Biology, Stem Cells and their Development, and Autophagy.

Dr. Yan Kong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical School of Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Dr. Kong received his Ph.D. degree in Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2010. His research mainly focuses on neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, epigenetics and noncoding RNAs.