Current Pharmaceutical Design

Andrew V. Schally, Ph.D., M.D.h.c., received his training in England, Canada, Sweden, and USA. In the years 1954-1977 he worked in the field of neuroendocrinology. Dr. Schally’s group isolated and elucidated the structure of hypothalamic LHRH. Dr. Schally was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1977 for his work on hypothalamic peptides. Dr. Schally switched then to cancer research. He is a world leader in research on hormone-related cancers and treatment of prostate and other cancers. Various classes of anticancer peptides were developed in his laboratory. Dr. Schally is the Professor of Pathology and Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Chief of the Endocrine, Polypeptide Cancer Institute at the VA Medical Center, Miami, Florida and Distinguished Medical Research Scientist. He has more than 2500 publications to his credit.

Dr. Gao graduated from Jilin University (BSc, MSc, Ph.D). He worked as a postdoc at Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces from 1996-1998. He then was employed as a group leader from 1998 to 2001 by University of Munich. Dr. Gao took his current position upon a "Hundred-talent Program" of CAS in 2001. He received the “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars” from NSFC in 2002. With a cumulative IF points of 1000+, he has published 140 peer-reviewed articles and holds 16 patents. Dr. Gao is currently a full professor in Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also a Chair Professor and Director of a Center for Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine at Soochow University.

Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is credited in unraveling how functional alterations in brain immunity induce metabolic changes and ultimately lead to neural cell damage for a broad range of infectious and neurodegenerative disorders. These discoveries have led to novel therapeutics aimed at reversing neural maladies. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences and Russian Studies from Muhlenberg College and his M.D. from the Pennsylvania State University where he was the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus.

Emilio Jirillo is full professor of Immunology at University of Bari Medical School (Bari, Italy) since 1986.His current fields of interest are: mucosal immunity, microbial immunity and immunonutrition.Especially in this last field, he has recently published in vitro and in vivo studies on the anti inflammatory effects of polyphenols . He is author of more than 560 papers(326 scientific papers are listed in PUBMED), even including books and chapters of books. He is editor-in-chief- of the following Bentham journals:1. Endocrine Metabolic Immune Disorders-Drug Targets ; 2.Clinical Immunology Endocrine Metabolic Drugs.

Abba J. Kastin was born in Ohio and educated at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. After starting his work on neuropeptides as a Clinical Associate at NIH, he went to Louisiana where he now holds an endowed chair at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In recognition of the concepts he introduced into the field of biologically active peptides, Dr. Kastin has been made an honorary member of 9 foreign medical societies, has received 2 honorary professorships and 3 honorary doctorates (the last one from Uppsala University), and has won several national and international awards. Author of more than 900 papers cited more than 34,500 times (H index 87), he has been listed among the 100 researchers most cited in the scientific literature. He is president of The International Neuropeptide Society/Society for Biologically Active Peptides and was founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Peptides for 35 years.

Dimitri Mikhailidis graduated from the University of London (BSc, MSc, MB,BS and MD) and is Academic Head, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Free Hospital campus, University College London Medical School. He is also a Visiting Professor, Univ. of Belgrade, Serbia and at two universities in Saudi Arabia. His research interests are dyslipidaemias and thrombosis. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath), Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FFPM) and American College of Clinical Pharmacology (FCP). He has 22,118 citations on the ISI index, Core Collection (H-factor 64).

Dr. Reddy obtained a doctorate (Ph. D.) in Computational Chemistry from the Central University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. Dr. Reddy is a founder of Rational Labs and is highly accomplished computational Chemist with a proven track record in drug discovery and CADD software development. Dr. Reddy has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery working in several Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies such as Agouron Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer), Gensia Pharmaceuticals, Metabasis Therapeutics and Rational Labs. Dr. Reddy’s drug discovery efforts have resulted in one marketed drug for AIDS and several clinical compounds for cancer and diabetes. Dr. Reddy is an author of over 100 publications and patents.

Dr. Qing Yang has been a full professor of Biochemistry at the Dalian University of Technology (DUT, China) since 2007. Dr. Yang obtained her PhD degree in biochemical engineering at DUT in 2003. She did a postdoc at Howard Medical School in 2005-2006 and worked as a research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in 2006-2008. In 2014, Dr. Yang was awarded “The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars”. The major interest of her lab is to discover novel targets for plant protection and disease treatment, especially enzymes involved in the synthesis and degradation of chitin, the structural polysaccharide of insect cuticles and fungi cell walls. Her lab has been the first to report the crystal structures of several important insect chitinolytic enzymes.

He is currently Professor, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Vice-Rector of Research and Innovation, Mendel University in Brno. He has obtained Ph.D. In the field of Cellular and Molecular Biology at Masaryk University. He has acted as a principal for more than a dozen of national projects, one project of the 7th Framework Program and three H2020 projects including ERC Starting Grant. He is chairman of the editorial board of Acta Universitatis Agriculturaeet Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis. From scientometry perspective, he has authored more than 500 ISI indexed documents with over 9000 citations and h-Index 47.

Dr. Yochai Birnbaum received his medical education from Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1974. He received post graduate training from various institutions including Research fellowship at University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California in 1996. Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Texas Medical Branch, Texas.

Dr. Butterfield earned his Ph.D. at Duke University in physical chemistry followed by a NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in neuroscience at the Duke University School of Medicine. In 1975, Dr. Butterfield joined the faculty of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky and rose to Full Professor in 1983. Prof. Butterfield is the UK Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Biological Chemistry and Associate Vice President for Research at UK. He is a faculty member of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. Prof. Butterfield has over 620 refereed scientific publications, mostly on oxidative stress in brain in subjects with Alzheimer disease and its earlier stages. Dr. Butterfield pioneered the field of redox proteomics, by which oxidatively modified proteins can be identified. He has edited five books, and published over 150 abstracts, most of which were refereed. His work has been continuously funded at the University of Kentucky by federal grants from NIH, NSF, and DoD as well as foundation grants. He has trained over 60 Ph.D and M.S. students and over 25 postdoctoral scholars and visiting scientists. He has received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring from President Clinton at the White House, and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Maine. Prof. Butterfield was named the 39th most cited and influential researcher on Alzheimer disease in the world as cited in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease. He is on the editorial boards of 14 journals, including Current Pharmaceutical Design.

Prof. Fei Chen did Medicine from Nantong Medical College, P.R. China in 1982 and PhD in Immunology, Peking University Health Science Center, P.R. China in 1994. He is currently a Professor at Department of Oncology, Karmanos Cancer Center, Wayne State University, MI. He has numerous honors/awards for his contributions to science overall.

Giuseppe Cirillo received his degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology cum laude in 2005 and the PhD in Methodologies for the Development of Molecules of Pharmaceutical Interest in 2008 from University of Calabria. He was visiting researcher at Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Germany), establishing scientific cooperation with research groups from Germany, Spain, Australia and Italy, in a multidisciplinary consortium working on biomedical applications of polymer therapeutics, and hybrid nanocarriers. He authored more than 110 publications, including research articles, review articles and invited book chapters. He was invited speaker at different international conferences/meetings.

Prof. Magali Cucchiarini is a Sciencetific Dr. of Life sciences (or biology doctor of natural sciences). In which she has done a PHD from the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France, also been part of Laboratory of Virology. She is a Group Leader at Center of Experimental Orthopaedics, Saarland University. Her particular scientific and research interests are the understanding and treatment of human degenerative diseases by gene-, cell-, and tissue engineering-based translational approaches with a particular focus on disorders that affect the musculoskeletal system. Her Scientific Collaborations at an International level with Prof. Dr. L. Lebeau, Prof. Dr. F. Pons and Prof. Dr. M. Garcia-Fuentes. Dr. Cucchiarini has 81 original publications, 41 reviews, and has reviewed for Academic Positions in 2017 as the Member of Jury of Evaluation of Research Center, University of Strasbourg, France.

Gerardino D’Erricois associate professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II. His scientific research is aimed at the spectroscopic characterization of the supramolecular aggregates formed by natural lipids and of their interactions with peptides and proteins. In this framework, he is currently investigating relevant biological processes involving biomembranes, such as the viral fusion and the b-Amyloid self-aggregation. Besides the fundamental understanding, he is investigating the mechanism of action of pharmaceutical actives, aiming at the design optimization. Gerardino D’Errico is author of about 130 scientific publications on international journals.

Dr. Jianxun Ding is an associated professor in Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He received his B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2007 and then obtained his Ph.D. degree from CIAC, CAS in 2013. He was awarded the 2012 President's Excellence Award from CAS among more than 10 other awards. He has published over 150 academic papers in high-impact journals and has applied for over 60 Chinese patents. His research interests focus on synthesis of functional biodegradable polymers for drug delivery, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Efird received his PhD from Stanford University. He is currently Director, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His areas of interest include catecholamines, monoamine oxidase-B, GSH-peroxidase, inotropes, nitrates, PDE-3 inhibitors, and antiplatelet agents.

Professor Daiming Fan is the member and past vice president of Chinese Academy of Engineering, foreign associate of the USA National Academy of Medicine, president of Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, and vice president of Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology, past president of Fourth Military Medical University, past president of Chinese Society of Gastroenterology, director of Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases and State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology. As the congress president, he successfully organized the GASTRO2013 (WCOG/APDW) in Shanghai. As the first or corresponding author he has published more than six hundred papers on the international journals, such as Nat Med, Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol, Nat Clin Pract Oncol, Lancet, Gut, etc.

Dr. Ferrante obtained his Medical degree from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Rome, Italy) in 2001. He is specialized in Cardiovascular Disease with honors at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Rome, Italy) in 2006 and got his Ph.D. in Cellular and molecular Cardiology from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Rome, Italy) in 2010. He is currently senior interventional cardiologist at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Humanitas Research hospital (Rozzano, Italy), and adjunct Professor at Humanitas University (Pieve Emanuele, Italy). His main research interests are the mechanisms of acute coronary syndromes, drug-eluting stents, antiplatelet therapy and evidence based medicine. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Prof. Stefano Fiorucci, is professor of Gastroenterology at University of Perugia, is the author of over 350 full papers.He is the director of gastroenterology unit of the Department of Surgical and Biomedical sciences.

I am currently Full Professor and Chair of Human Anatomy at the University of Pisa, and Team Leader of Neurobiology of Movement Disorders at IRCCS Neuromed. I had been trained at University of Pisa, Italy, Georgetown University, Washington (D.C.),University of Washington, Seattle (WA). At the University of Pisa I completed my M.D. course and I received a Ph.D degree in Medical sciences at SSSUP S. Anna. I worked as Post Doctoral Fellow while finishing the residency in Clinical Pharmacology. My expertise in neurodegeneration, witnessed by over 200 peer-reviewed publications, encompasses alteration of autophagy in motor neuron disease.

Prof. Eleonore Fröhlich obtained her Medical degree and her Diploma in Biochemistry from the Universities Tübingen and Heidelberg (Germany) and specialized in Anatomy, Histology, and Embryology. Since 2007 she is Director of the Core Facility Imaging at the Medical University of Graz (Austria). She is also associate professor at the Institute of Anatomy (Tübingen) and Key Researcher at the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering (Graz). Eleonore Fröhlich acts as reviewer for 100+ scientific international journals and is Editorial Board Member of 5 peer-reviewed journals. She has published 120+ scientific papers (H-index: 33).

Nigel H. Greig (Ph.D. Pharmacology, University of London, England) heads the Drug Design & Development Section within the Translational Gerontology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Located in Baltimore, MD, USA, his program combines cellular, molecular and in vivo pharmacology with medicinal chemistry to design and development novel experimental drugs against rate-limiting steps involved in the pathophysiology of diseases associated with aging, with an emphasis on the nervous system. Nigel, together with his exceptional collaborators and research group have successfully moved multiple experimental drugs from concept through preclinical studies and into human clinical trials.

Dominique Heymann is Professor of Histology and Embryology at the University of Nantes (France). From 2004 to 2016He was the head of a joint research unit recognized by INSERM and the University of Nantesdedicated to the pathogenesis of bone sarcomas. From 2015, Hehas joined the Department of Oncology and Metabolism at the University of Sheffield (UK). Since 2017, Dominique Heymann is now Professor at the Integrated Cancer Centre (Nantes, FR) and honorary-Professor at the University of Sheffield. He has authored more than 240 publications in peer-reviewed journals mainly in the field of bone cancer and osteoclast differentiation.

Dr. Emilio Hirsch is Full Professor of Biology at the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, University of Turin. He is author of 227 publications, and his contributions have received around 15000 citations and he has an h-index (Google Scholar) of 70. Dr. Hirsch has numerous awards/honors and internationally recognized scientific publications to his credit.

Dr. Hou obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Computational Chemistry from Peking University in 2002 and is currently the professor for College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. His research focuses on development of new methods for computer-aided drug design (CADD) and design of potential lead compounds for important drug targets. He has published more than 260 peer reviewed papers in international prestigious SCI-cited journals, 4 book chapters and 1 multimedia courseware.

Dr. Richard A. Houghten, Ph.D., is the Founder, President and CEO of Torrey Pines Institute of Molecular Studies, Port St. Lucie, FL, USA. Over the past 30 years, he has focused his scientific efforts toward the development and use of a series of interlocking and powerful hit/lead/probe discovery platform techniques (parallel synthesis techniques and combinatorial chemistry). His strengths are in inventing and developing novel and far/wide ranging approaches for use in existing discovery problems. As an author/co-author, Dr. Houghten has more than 475 publications to his credit (having a very significant number of total citations, i.e. over 23,980), 75 issued US patents and 45 issued foreign patents.

Prof. R. Jayakumar is working at Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine (ACNSMM), Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi-682041, specializing in the area of Biomaterials for Healthcare Applications. Dr. R. Jayakumar joined ACNSMM in November 2007. He received his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from Anna University, Chennai, India (2002). Dr. Jayakumar's research laboratory at Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine is mainly interested in the development of biodegradable polymeric nanofibers, nanogels, nanoparticles, nanocomposite scaffolds and injectable hydrogels for Tissue engineering, Drug Delivery and Wound Dressing applications.

Dr. Xiqun Jiang is currently a professor of Department of Polymer Science & Engineering in College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering at Nanjing University, P. R. China. He received his B.S. degree and MS degree in Polymer Chemistry at Nanjing University and got Ph. D at Nanjing University as a co-training Ph. D. student of Kyushu University, Japan and Nanjing University. His Post-Doctoral work was done at University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research interest is focused on nanomedicine, drug delivery systems, macromolecular drug and polymer-based imaging probes. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, with 15 patents.

Keith W. Kelley is a Professor Emeritus of Immunophysiology at the University of Illinois. Dr. Kelley earned his Ph.D. in 1976, a time when the immune system was considered only to protect against infectious diseases. He helped reshape that view by bringing physiology to immunology. It is now accepted that there is an active dialogue between the immune system and brain, and these discoveries are improving human and animal health. Professor Kelley has been honored with 10 university and national awards, published more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as 70 book chapters, is well cited with an h-index of 68, been funded for 50 years as the Principal Investigator of NIH grants and served on four dozen NIH study sections. He is currently a Full Member of the Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology, Rhythms and Sleep Study Section. Dr. Kelley is a Past-President and Secretary-Treasurer of the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity since 2003. The latest impact factor of the journal is 5.9, ranking it in the top 14% of all immunology journals and 11% of neuroscience journals.

Dr. Alexander Kornienko did B.S in Chemical Engineering from Mendeleev University, Moscow, Russia in 1994 and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Tufts University, Boston, USA in 1999. Since 2012, he has been associated with Texas State University and became a Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2016. His areas of interest are (a) Synthetic Organic Chemistry (b) Chemical Biology (focus on cancer signaling and death pathways) (c) Medicinal Chemistry (rational drug design and library screening) (d) Natural Product Chemistry (isolation, structure elucidation and analogue synthesis). Dr. Kornienko has numerous publications and honors to his credit.

Dr Laupland is a dually certified and practicing Intensivist and Infectious Diseases consultant at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, Canada. His research interests are significantly broad and lies within these related disciplines. He has a particular interest in the population-based epidemiology of severe infections and associated to anti-microbial resistant pathogens.

Dr. Yoongho Lim is currently a Professor in the Division of Bioscience and Biotechnology at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. His research skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Cancer Research, Genetics, Immunology, Endocrinology, Developmental Biology, etc. Dr. Lim, as an author/co-author, has published more than 275 articles in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. over 3,680.

Tong-Bu Lu (1964) obtained B.S. in 1988 and Ph.D. in 1993 under the supervision of Prof. Min-Yu Tan from Lanzhou University. After two years postdoctoral fellowship at Sun Yat-Sen University, he joined the faculty at the same University, and became a professor in 2000. In 1998 and 2002, he works as a postdoctor in F.A. Cotton’s group at Texas A&M University. He moved to Tianjing University of Technology in 2016. His research interest is crystal engineering, including macrocyclic chemistry, MOFs and pharmaceutical polymorphs and cocrystals. He has over 200 scientific publications, with H-index 43.

Guanghui Ma, Ph.D, Professor. She graduated from Gunma University of Japan in 1988, received Ph.D degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1993. She joined in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology as an assistant professor from 1994, and became a professor of Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2001. She is a winner of the Outstanding Young Scientists Fund (2001). More than 300 SCI articles published, such as Nature Materials, Nature Communication, JACS, Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater.80 patents were authorized. She was awarded as China “Outstanding Women Scientist” (2005).

Dr. Giuseppe Maina graduated (summa cum laude) in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Turin, Italy in 1985 and Specialized in Psychiatry with honors in 1989. Since 2014, he is Director of the Psychiatric Unit, University Hospital San Luigi Gonzaga, Orbassano - Medical School of the University of Turin. Dr. Maina main research interests include (a) Clinical Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology (b) Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy (c) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (d) Bipolar Disorders.

Dr. McMillan earned a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. She held a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson AR, USA, and a second post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, College of Medicine, at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston SC, USA. She remained at the Medical University of South Carolina as an Assistant Professor in the Pharmacology Department and then moved to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA, in 2007. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, College of Medicine, and the Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health, College of Public Health. She has authored/coauthored over 70 scientific publications and book chapters.

Dr. Jose Medina-Franco received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.In 1998he joined Procter & Gamble. He received Ph.D. degree in 2005, both from the UNAM.He joined the University of Arizona as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Medina-Franco was named Assistant Member at the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies in Florida where he worked as PI for 5 years.He conducted research in drug discovery at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Medina-Franco is currently Full Professor at the School of Chemistry at UNAM where he leads the research group DIFACQUIM.

John E. Morley, MB, BCh, is the Dammert Professor of Gerontology, Director, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Director of the Division of Endocrinology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He serves as Medical Director for two nursing homes. Dr. Morley earned a medical degree at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Geriatric Medicine. He has edited over 20 books, and published more than 1300 manuscripts. He has an h-factor of 107. He serves as Editor of Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, impact factor 6.61.

Dr. Paola Mura is a Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at Department of Chemistry, School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence. Her academic background consist of studying pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry from Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Florence (1971-1976). She is Author of more than 180 Publications on known and qualified Scientific Journals and more than 230 Communications to national and international Congresses. Dr. Mura’s main research interests are aimed at drug optimization in pharmaceutical formulations (for improving its efficacy, stability and safety) and at the development of innovative dosage forms (for obtaining controlled and/or targeted drug release) in order to achieve safer and more effective drug utilization.

Dr. Nagler received his medical training at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel, specializing in Internal Medicine and Haematology at the Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, and in Hematopoiesis (MSc) in TA University, Israel. During 1986 to 1990, he carried out a Postdoctoral research fellowship in haematology and bone marrow transplantation at "Stanford University Hospital" Palo Alto, CA, USA.  Dr. Nagler has been working in the fields of bone marrow transplantation for haematological malignancies, for the last 25 years. Dr. Nagler is one of the pioneered of the non myeloablative and reduced intensity/toxicity allogeneic transplantations for both malignant and non-malignant disorders.

Dr. Kazufumi Nakamura did Medicine from Okayama University Medical School, Okayama, Japan in 1993 and PhD from Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan in 1998. Since 2013, he is an Associate Professor at Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Nakamura has been bestowed numerous honors and awards for his contribution to medical science over the years.

Ruth Nussinov graduated from Rutgers, was in the Weizmann Institute, the Chemistry Department at Berkeley and Biochemistry at Harvard. She joined the Medical School in Tel Aviv and accepted a concurrent position at the National Cancer Institute, Leidos. She has co-authored over 550 papers. She is the Editor-in-Chief in PLoS Computational Biology, and an Associate Editor and on the Editorial Boards of several journals. She is a frequent speaker in Domestic and International meetings, symposia and academic institutions, won several awards and elected fellow of several societies. Her National Cancer Institute website describes her science, and major contributions. https://ccr.cancer.gov/ruth-nussinov.

Dr. Emmanuel C. Opara is a Professor at Institute for Regenerative Medicine, VT-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences (SBES) Center on Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, Wake Forest School of Medicine. He did B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from University of Nigeria in 1976 and M.Sc. in clinical biochemistry from University of Surrey in 1980. Furthermore, he did PhD from University of London, England in 1983.

In 1971, Dr. Gian Maria received Laurea (Highest degree of Italian University) in Biological Sciences from University of Pisa. After that in 1983, Dr. Gian earned PhD in Medical Science from Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital. Dr. Gian was an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Medical School, University of Pisa, Italy. Dr. Gian’s main scientific interest is in Neonatal clinical pharmacology. Dr. Gian is also a member of many international journals such as Journal of Pediatric Biochemistry, Jacobs Journal of Drug Metabolism and Toxicology, Current Pharmaceutical Design and so on.

He graduated in Medicine in 1988. In 1994 he received a doctorate in Cardiovascular Physiology. From 1996 to 1999 he worked at Johns Hopkins University, as a researcherand as a visiting scientist.Prof. Pagliaro has received numerous honors, prizes and awards. He is a member of the following scientific societies: Italian Society of Physiology, Physiological Society and Italian Cardiovascular Research Society. He is President of the SIRC, vice-chair of the Cardiotoxicity and Cardioprotection SIC working-group, and vice-chair of the PhD program in Experimental Medicine and Therapy.He published more than 150 peer-reviewedarticles. On Scopus, h-index is 33.

Dr. Luna graduated in Pharmacy in 1986 and obtained her Ph.D. in 1992. She is a regular teacher of): Pharmaceutical Technology, Socio economy and Law for Industrial Pharmacy degree (II level), University of Perugia (Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences). She is author of many research papers published mainly on international journals. Her skills and expertise are in Thin Films and Nanotechnology, Materials Chemistry, Spectroscopy, Nanotechnology, Pharmacokinetics, Nano biotechnology, and Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. She has contributed more than 150 publications, having citations around 2,630

Dr. Rosario is presently serving as a Full Professor at the Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania. He has contributed more than 160 publications, having citations around 3,106. His research interests are Nanoparticles, Nanotechnology, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Thermal Analysis, Polymer Chemistry, Pharmacy, Controlled Drug Delivery and Drug Formulation.

Dr. Pisani is a physician-scientist with a long-standing interest in the basic and clinical aspects of basal ganglia dysfunction, with a specific interest in dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Since early 2000’s, he has been deeply involved in experimental research on dystonia and Parkinson’s disease models, focusing on the role of striatal function in the pathogenesis of movement disorders. In detail, he focused on the functional interplay between striatal dopamine and acetylcholine, characterizing the alterations occurring in distinct rodent models of movement disorders and their consequences on corticostriatal synaptic plasticity.

Dr. Priebe obtained a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry degree from the University of Warsaw in Poland and a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Organic and Medical Chemistry from the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland. He is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and also holds the title of Professor of Chemistry in the Republic of Poland. Prof. Priebe is noted for his successful development of new therapeutic entities for the treatment of cancer. Five of his drugs entered clinical trials and several others are in different stages of preclinical development. He has published more than 200 scientific publications and his work has led to over 50 patents.

ZhiYong Qian, Professor in the State Key Lab of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, the National Distinguished Young Scholar, was born in January 1976 in Jiangsu Province, PR China. Dr. Qian obtained his PhD from the Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences at 2003. His research interests are in the area of biomaterials, biomedical engineering, drug delivery system, tissue engineering and nanotechnology. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Qian is the Editor-in-Chief of “J Biomed Nanotechnology”, Associate Editor of “Chinese Chemical Letters”.

Dr. Nima Rezaei did his M.D. from School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2002. He did M.Sc. and PhD from School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Sheffield in 2006 and 2009. He has more than 640 articles publications in the internationally recognized scientific journals (H-index: 50). Over the years, Dr. Rezaei has presented more than 400 lectures/posters in international and national congresses.

Dr. Prof. Rita Rezzani has been serving as a chairman and a full professor of Anatomy and Physiopathology Division at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy since 2006. Her skills and expertise are in Cell Culture, Hypertension, Apoptosis, Inflammation, Atherosclerosis, Antioxidants, Blood Pressure, Reactive Oxygen Species, Oxidative Stress and Free Radical Scavengers. She has contributed more than 250 publications in different international journals and she has been cited more than 5000 times in different publications.

Dr. Carlo Riccardi obtained his Medical degree in 1988 from Perugia University Medical School, University of Perugia, Italy. Dr. Riccardi is currently Full Professor of Pharmacology, in the Department of Medicine, at Perugia University Medical School, University of Perugia. His skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of pharmacology, drug therapy, inflammation, autoimmunity, immunopharmacology, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, anti-inflammatory drugs, etc. Dr. Riccardi, as an author/co-author, has published more than 285 articles in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. over 13,390.

Silvia Rivara is Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Food and Drug of the University of Parma (Italy). Her scientific interests are focused on drug design and structure-activity relationship studies. She has participated to the design and development of several new compounds acting on drug targets, mainly GPCRs and enzymes. Computational techniques, like virtual screening, molecular dynamics, pharmacophore building etc. are applied to support lead finding and optimization. She is also involved in projects aimed at the development of protein-protein interaction inhibitors and of dual-acting compounds. She is author of more than one hundred scientific articles published on international peer-reviewed journals, with h-index = 30.

Prof. Rizzo is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Palermo, Italy as well as Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, USA. Prof. Rizzo sits on the editorial board of 9 international journals with Impact Factor. He has been the recipient of national and international fellowships and awards, and acted as reviewer for 100+ scientific international journals. The research work of Dr. Rizzo combines translational research (focus on the effects and mechanisms of action of lipid-lowering and anti‐diabetic agents) and basic research (focus on novel cardiovascular risk factors), with 200+ scientific publications with Impact Factor (total Impact Factor: >700. H‐Index: 42).

Prof. Matteo A. Russo obtained his Medical Degree from Catholic University Medical School in Rome (Italy). He specialized in Oncology, General Pathology (from University of Rome Sapienza) and Cardiology (Catholic University Medical School). Soon after he got a track tenure at University of Rome Sapienza Medical School, first, as Associate Professor of Experimental Oncology and then as Full Professor of General Pathology. At present, he is the Head of Basic Research and Laboratories at San Raffaele Scientific Institute; he is also President of MEBIC (Medical and Experimental Bioimaging Center, a joint consortium between San Raffaele University and University of Rome Tor Vergata). He has published more than 150 scientific papers, being awarded by three international prizes for Basic Research. Prof. Russo is member of the editorial board of 6 peer-reviewed journals.

Andrew V. Schally, Ph.D., M.D.h.c., received his training in England, Canada, Sweden, and USA. In the years 1954-1977 he worked in the field of neuroendocrinology. Dr. Schally’s group isolated and elucidated the structure of hypothalamic LHRH. Dr. Schally was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1977 for his work on hypothalamic peptides. Dr. Schally switched then to cancer research. He is a world leader in research on hormone-related cancers and treatment of prostate and other cancers. Various classes of anticancer peptides were developed in his laboratory. Dr. Schally is the Professor of Pathology and Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Chief of the Endocrine, Polypeptide Cancer Institute at the VA Medical Center, Miami, Florida and Distinguished Medical Research Scientist. He has more than 2500 publications to his credit.

Dr. Jasvinder A. Singh, MD, MPH, is currently serving as a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is also a Staff Physician at University of Alabama Hospital and University, Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, and UAB Highlands Hospital. He has been recognized with Max Cooper Award for Research Excellence in 2017, Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award in 2016, and American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Rheumatology fellow award in 2001. He has contributed more than 600 publications, having citations around 35,311.

Dr Claudio Soto is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Mitchell Center for Alzheimer’s disease and related Brain Disorders at the University of Texas in Houston. He received his PhD from the University of Chile in 1993. His research focuses in understanding the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases associated to the misfolding and aggregation of proteins, particularly Alzheimer’s and prion disorders. He has published more than 160 peer review articles, many of which have been published in prestigious scientific journals (including Cell, Nature, Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature medicine, Lancet, etc). Dr Soto's publications have been cited more than 12,000 times (H index 59). He has been awarded many grants from NIH, and private foundations for a total funding of over 30 million dollars, and has been invited speaker in more than 160 scientific meetings worldwide.

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

Dr. Shams Tabrez received his Ph.D degree in Biochemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, India in the year 2010. Currently, he is working as Associate Professor at King Fahd Medical Research Center (KFMRC), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He has vast experience in the field of clinical pharmacology. He is also having a strong research interest in the field of natural compounds based therapy which has fetched him a good number of publications. He had published 115 articles in the journals of international repute till date and some more are in pipeline. He has been also credited to publish a book and 2 chapters with reputed international publishing agency based in Germany (Total citations: 2115; h-index: 26; i10-index: 65). Dr. Tabrez has successfully accomplished four research grant funded by KACST and KAU as a principal investigator. Currently, he is running 5 different projects as principal and co-investigator. He has generated more than 2.35 million Saudi Riyals in research funds either as PI or as CO-I.

Prof. RX Tan is a chair professor and vice president at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, with his concurrent chair-professorship at Nanjing University. He has been well established in the field of drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. He has published over 330 articles with over 10,000 citations in respected journals such as Nat Commun, PNAS, J Am Chem Soc, and Angew Chem. As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), he is at the editorial (advisory) boards of Natural Product Reports, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Frontiers in Plant Sciences, and others.

Dr. CG Tocchetti is Associate Professor of Medicine, Naples, Italy. He is a basic and clinical investigator and coordinates the HF outpatient unit. His studies in Baltimore have helped dissecting the cardiac contractile effects of HNO and the development of a novel HNO donor for treating human HF currently used in clinical trials. Hence, the main goal of his lab is to explore pathophysiologic mechanisms and therapeutic targets in cardiac dysfunction, particularly in post-ischemic HF, genetic and inflammatory cardiomyopathies, Pulmonary Hypertension and RV dysfunction, and HF due to antineoplastic therapies, including novel anticancer immunotherapies and biologic drugs for inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Neşe Tunçel received her BS in Pharmacy in 1970 and her PhD in Medical Physiology in 1982 from Ankara University, Turkey. She has been served as a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Eskis􏰁ehir Osmangazi University, and she was retired in April 2016. She has 95 scientific publications. She also serves as a member of the Editorial boards of several academic journals including Current Pharmaceutical Design, Medicinal Chemistry, Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery, The Open Cancer Journal, Biomedical Review and Adipobiology, Current Clinical pharmacology. She has also served in the Editorial Advisory Board of Peptides in the period 1998-2010 and, Immunology, Endocrine and Metabolic Agents for three years.

Prof. Tuttolomondo, obtained two post graduate degree ( Internal Medicine and Neurology) and a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Genetic and Pathophysiology of Cardiovascular Damage in Metabolic Diseases from the University of Palermo ( Italy) Currently Prof. Tuttolomondo is Associate Professor in Internal Medicine in University of Palermo ( Italy). He has published more than 130 scientific publications on international, ISI and medium-high impact factor journals and inherent in the pathophysiology and epidemiology of ischemic stroke, heart failure, diabetic foot and Anderson-Fabry Disease .

Jingwei Xie received his B.S. (1999) and M.S. (2002) from Nanjing University of Technology, China, and his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore (2007). He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Xia group at Washington University in St. Louis (2007-2011) and then as a Senior Scientist at Marshall University (2011-2013). He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery-Transplant and Holland Regenerative Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. His research interests include biomaterials, drug delivery, nanomedicine, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

Bing Yan got his Ph.D. from Chemistry Department of Columbia University in 1990. He then carried out postdoctoral research at Physiology Department of University of Cambridge, U.K. and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at University of Texas Medical School in Houston from 1990 to 1993. From 1993 to 2005, he carried out drug discovery research at Novartis, Discovery Partners International, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He was a Full Professor and Director of High-Throughput Analytical Chemistry Center at Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee from 2007 to 2012 and Cheung Kong Scholar Professor at Shandong University, Jinan, China since 2005. He served as Associate Editor for “Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry (name now changed to ACS Combinatorial Sciences)” published by American Chemical Society from 2009 to 2011. He is now serving as Associate Editor for both “Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety” and Elsevier’s new journal “NanoImpact”. He is also editor of book series “Critical Reviews in Combinatorial Chemistry” published by Francis & Taylor Group. He has published 11 books and more than 210 peer-reviewed papers. He is interested in drug discovery, nanomedicine, and modulation of biological activities of nanoparticles using systematic approaches.

Dr. Wuli Yang is currently a Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science at Fudan University. He received his BS degree in 1995, MS degree in 1998 and PhD degree in 2001 from Fudan University. His current research interest is focused on functional inorganic nanoparticles, functional polymeric composite microspheres and biomedical nanoparticles for diagnostic and drug delivery. Prof. Yang has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed papers, and is the recipient of 16 Chinese patents. His publications have been cited over 6600 times with current H-index of 48.

Xiaojun Yao received his Ph.D. degree in chemoinformatics and theoretical chemistry from University Paris 7-Denis Diderot, Paris, France, in 2004. He works as a Professor of chemoinformatics and analytical chemistry in College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. His current research interests include computer-aided molecular design, bioinformatics, and computational biology.

Dr. Xiang has obtained Ph.D. in Psychopharmacology from the Institute of Mental Health, Peking University School of Medicine, Beijing CHINA. He is presently serving as an Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, USA. He has been awarded The Beijing Science and Technology Award in 2008, Senior Scientist Award in 2006, Travel Award, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2005 and many others. His skills and expertise are in Molecular Biology, Psychopathology, Clinical Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology and Neuropsychology. He has contributed more than 245 publications, having citations around 5,159

Dr. Qi (Tony) Zhou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University. He obtained his PhD from Monash University of Australia and received postdoctoral training at the University of Sydney. Dr. Zhou’s research focuses on pharmaceutical solid dosage forms, pharmaceutical manufacturing and pulmonary drug delivery systems. He has secured numerous research funding from Governments, organizations and pharmaceutical industry, including NIH R01 and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grants. Dr. Zhou’s contributions to the field of pharmaceutical sciences have been recognized by many awards including 2013 Australian Early Career Fellowship, 2014 Australian Endeavour Fellowship, 2015.

Shaobing Zhou received his B.S. degree in polymer chemistry from Sichuan University in 1996 and Ph.D. degree in Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. He was promoted in 2005 to Full Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University. His research interests include drug controlled release system and tissue engineering scaffold. He is the author or coauthor of more than 120 refereed articles, 1 book chapter and 15 Chinese patents/patent applications. He has been cited over 3500 times and has an h-index of 39 Currently he is one of associate editors of the journal: American Journal of Materials Science.

Dr. Majid Khazaei is currently working as a Professor of Physiology at the Department of Physiology, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. He obtained his PhD. in physiology from the Department of physiology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1998 from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Dr. Khazaei has numerous honors, awards and publications to his credit.