Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine

Dr. Sujit Nair is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at SVKM's Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India. He received his PhD from the Center for Cancer Chemoprevention Research and Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA. He has experience in cancer pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, pharmacokinetics and precision medicine in oncology (h-index 20, over 2000 citations).

Dr. Bipin Nair is currently Professor and Dean of the Amrita School of Biotechnology, Amrita University, India. He received his Ph.D in Microbiology from M.S. University, Baroda, India. After post-doctoral training in Pharmacology at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, Dr. Nair worked for over 12 years in the US Biotechnology industry as a Research Manager with MDS Pharma Services. His areas of expertise include growth factors, GTP binding proteins, cell signaling, cancer biology as well as biomedical devices and diagnostics. Dr. Nair has about 90 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. He also has several awards and honors including a couple of US patents.

Dr. Rengo is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Temple University of Philadelphia and Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the University of Naples Federico II. His work is based on heart failure and the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of signaling through cardiovascular adrenergic receptors, the study of G-protein coupled receptor function and signaling, and also heart failure gene therapy. He is currently studying new molecular mechanism responsible for neurohormonal overdrive observed in heart failure. He recently demonstrated that blood GRK2 levels can independently predict prognosis in HF patients, providing a new prospective for the clinical utility of GRK2 in HF.

Gianluca Serafini’s major research interests include: neurobiology, neuroimaging of suicidal behavior, major affective disorders, psychopharmacology, and neuroplasticity. He is an active researcher, being the author of more than 166 publications and scientific contributions (author of more than 120 articles in peer reviewed international and national Journals, author of approximately 40 book chapters, author of more than 35 abstract/posters in peer reviewed international Journals). He actually serves as a reviewer for 126 peer-reviewed international Journals, and he is Editorial/Advisory Board Member of approximately 40 peer-reviewed international Journals collectively.

Robert A. Winn is the Associate Vice Chancellor for community-based practice and Director of the Cancer Center at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. He is a NIH-funded investigator with over 50 publications. His basic science research focuses on developing novel in vitro and in vivo models to study lung cancer pathways. His other interests include precision medicine, health equity/disparities and community-based health care. He has extensively presented nationally and internationally, and has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, scholarship, leadership and service. He is a member of the Association for Cancer Research and the National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies.

Alessandro Antonelli (Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, MD) is now Director of the Immuno-Endocrine Section of Internal Medicine at the University of Pisa. His principal areas of expertise are autoimmune thyroid disorders, type 1 diabetes, systemic autoimmune disorders, chemokines and cytokines, HCV-associated thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer. His researches have been published in more than 270 articles on International journals. He serves as an editorial board member and is Referee and Reviewer of many scientific International journals.

Dr. Ramy Karam Aziz is currently Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University. He earned his PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, USA in 2005. His current research interests are molecular epidemiology, systems biology of microbial pathogens, microbial and bacteriophage genomics/metagenomics, immunogenetics of infectious diseases, the human microbiome, and pharmacomicrobiomics (drug-microbiome interactions). His scientific publications include a book, 7 book sections, 55 articles in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to multiple scientific and non-scientific blogs oriented to transformative education and science communication.

Reham F. Barghash, received her Ph.D. degree in Applied Organic Chemistry from Ain-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Through several research grants, Dr Barghash got the opportunities to carry out her research work in Italy at Ferrara University, and postdoc at University of British Columbia‘s Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC, Canada. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as peer-reviewer of international journals. A large part, if not all, of her research interests in pharmaceutical chemistry and drug design is being developed with the aim of providing new products for biochemical studies and pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

Dr. Bitto got her MD from the University of Messina, Italy and the Ph.D. from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Currently Dr Bitto has a tenure track in Pharmacology at the University of Messina. She has published over 150 papers and is a named inventor of 2 international patents.

The Han lab is focused on how the activities of hundreds or even thousands of kinase or lncRNAs are coordinated to achieve biological meaning. We have pioneered methods to predict, dissect, and control large-scale gene regulatory network; these methods have provided insights into human cancer, and other disease. A particular interest is targeting delivery the drugs to the tumor region, particularly with the help of nanoparticles.

Ziarih Hawi is a Senior Research Fellow in Psychiatric Genetics at the Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience. The focus of Dr Hawi’s research has been mapping risk genes for psychiatric disorders with particular emphasis of the genetic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr Hawi has successfully identified risk genes for ADHD and has functionally characterised some of the ADHD-associated genes.

Dr. Muntaser El Tayeb Ibrahim obtained his Ph.D. degree (1994) in Molecular Genetics from the Faculty of Health Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Ibrahim is currently Professor (and Head of the Department) of Molecular Biology and Genetics, in the Institute of Endemic Diseases, at University of Khartoum, Sudan. His skills and expertise mainly lie in the subject areas of PCR, DNA, Cloning, DNA Sequencing, Genomics, Genetics, Biomedical Science, Statistics, Genetic Analysis, Immunology, Population Genetics, Human Genetics, Malaria, Molecular Parasitology, etc. Dr. Ibrahim, as an author/co-author, has published more than 100 articles in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, over 4,555.

Dr. Vivian Lee is currently an associate professor of the School of Pharmacy and the Assistant Dean (Student Development) of the Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her specialty is in clinical pharmacy in particular to cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Lee is a certified specialist by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties (US) in Pharmacotherapy and added qualification in cardiology pharmacotherapy. Dr. Lee's research interest is in clinical pharmacy research, in particular to chronic disease management, utilizing the skills of clinical pharmacy, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacogenomics and innovative technology to improve patient care.

Prof. Ming Li has studied genetics and molecular biology of human diseases, especially addictive disorders for more than 20 years. During those years, Dr. Li has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has trained approximately 70 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The papers which he has published are very broad-ranging from molecular pharmacology, neuropsychopharmacology, molecular biology, statistical genetics, computational biology, bioinformatics. Dr. Li has served as a regular and ad-hoc member of many study panels and sections in the US and other countries. Besides, he has served as an advisor for a dozen research centers/programs and ad-hoc reviewers or board member for more than 30 scientific journals. He has been invited to give more than 100 seminars or oral presentations by various national and international conferences and institutions throughout the world.

Beatriz Marcheco-Teruel is medical doctor and clinical geneticist. She serves as full professor at the Medical University of Havana and senior researcher/director of the National Center for Medical Genetics. Dr. Marcheco-Teruel obtained her PhD at Aarhus University, Denmark, in 2005. Her research interests involve genetic risks factors associated with complex disorders, the study of genetic structure and admixture of the Cuban population and Precision Medicine. She also works in Genomics and Public Health. For the last 5 years, she has been the president of the Cuban Society of Human Genetics and is a full member of the Cuban Academy of Science.

Raffaele Palmirotta did his M.D. from the University of Chieti, Italy. He specialized in Clinical Pathology in 1996, Ph.D. in "Molecular diagnostic techniques for the study of hereditary cancer and gene therapy" in 2001 and specialized in Medical Genetic in 2006. He completed Master in “Forensic Genetic” and in “Cytogenetic”. He joined the Department of Oncology and Neurosciences at the University of Chieti, the Istituto Regina Elena per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Rome and the IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome. From 2015 to date, he worked as the collaborator at the Oncogenomic Research Center in the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy.

Dr. Rasmussen is a lead scientist at the Institute of Biological Psychiatry, Mental Health Centre Sct. Hans, the Psychiatric Services of the Capital Region of Denmark and associate professor at Roskilde University, Denmark. He earned his PhD degree within the fields of microbiology and immunology. Before acquiring his present position, Dr. Rasmussen held positions at the Laboratory of Neurochemistry and Neuroimmunology, Roskilde University. His current research focuses on psychiatric genetics and personalized medicine with a vision to improve the pharmacological treatment of psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Shimoda graduated from Shiga University of Medical Science in 1983. Dr. Shimoda started his research career from chronobiological research and defended his PhD thesis in graduate school of Shiga University of Medical Science in 1987. Dr. Shimoda studied abroad in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA for two years (1998-1990) and Karolinska Intitutet, Sweden for one year (1995-1996). Dr. Shimoda has authored more than 70 original manuscripts and his main research area has been clinical psychopharmacogenetics. Currently, Dr. Shimoda is chairman and professor of Department of Psychiatry, Dokkyo Medical University, Japan.

Martha Sosa-Macías is researcher at Instituto Politecnico Nacional, CIIDIR-Durango, Mexico. She received her Ph.D. degree in Toxicology from CINVESTAV, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico. She has been working for more than 10 years on pharmacogenetic of indigenous groups from Mexico, and she has published about 30 articles on this topic. Moreover, she works in evaluating the effects of drugs used during pregnancy on placental transport of endogenous substances, as a mechanism that may be related in the development and fetal wellbeing.

Dr. Alessio Squassina has a degree in Biology, a PhD in Neuroscience and a Specialty in Applied Pharmacology. He trained as a pharmacologist and molecular biologist in Italy and Canada. He has held a position as lecturer at the University of Cagliari since 2012 and is adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. His research focuses on the pharmacogenomics of mood stabilizers and the genetics of bipolar disorder and suicide.

Johnson Stanslas obtained his PhD in the field of Cancer Pharmacology from the University of Nottingham, UK. His field of expertise is Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is actively involved in the discovery of new anticancer and anti-inflammatory drugs. To date he has been successful in discovering lead anticancer molecules for the treatment of pancreatic, breast and colon cancers. Through pharmacogenetics approach, his research also extends to efficacy and toxicity studies of anticancer and anti-depressants in patients with the intention of translating the laboratory findings to the clinic for better patient management.

Enrique Teran, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor at School of Medicine in the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). He received his MD from Central University of Ecuador and his PhD from University College London in the UK. Although he is a pharmacologist, he has been working for more than 20 years on different aspects related to the pathophysiology of preeclampsia, study of infectious diseases; he is the pioneer in the pharmacogenetic research in Ecuador. He has published more than 45 peer review papers (h index 15 Google Scholar) and currently he is corresponding member both at the Ecuadorian Academy of Science and the Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Amit K. Tiwari received his Bachelors in Pharmacy from R.I.V.T.E, India, followed by Masters and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from St. John’s University and Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship from Icahn School of Medicine, NY. He is a Principal Investigator at Cancer Chemotherapy and Systems Therapeutics and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toledo, OH. Dr. Tiwari is also an adjunct Professor at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Tiwari’s research is focused on Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic driven anticancer drug development. Dr. Tiwari has authored 64 publications as research articles, reviews, book chapters, patents and editorials in high impact peer-reviewed journals and has presented over 100 peer-reviewed abstracts in national and international conferences.

Brian Tomlinson is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics and the Phase I Clinical Trial Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was formerly Chair Professor in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics and Head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He trained in internal medicine and Clinical Pharmacology and obtained his higher medical degree at the University of London. He has trained over 30 postgraduate students and is an author of over 350 publications. He is currently the President of the Asian-Pacific Society of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Diseases.

Professor Wei Wang commenced his role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (China) of Edith Cowan University (ECU) in February 2017. Prior to joining ECU, Professor Wang was Vice Director-Research of Peking University-Hong Kong University of Sciences & Technology Medical Centre in Shenzhen, Vice Dean of School of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dean of School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China and Professor, Public Health, Edith Cowan University, Australia. He has published over 200 scientific papers in prestigious journals including Nature Genetics, Science and The Lancet. Professor Wang is the representative of European Association of Preventive, Predictive and Personalised Medicine for Australia and China. Professor Wang holds the degrees of Doctor of Medicine from China Medical University and Doctor of Philosophy from Oita Medical University, Japan. In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and in 2016 as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. In 2017 Professor Wang was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine of United Kingdom.

Kuender D. Yang, MD, PhD graduated from National Defense Medical Center in 1983. He received pediatric resident training at Tri-service General Hospital, Taiwan. He got his PhD degree in 1989, advised by Prof Harry R. Hill and Prof Men-Ling Chu. He received his clinical immunology fellowship training in University of Utah School of Medicine and molecular pharmacology fellowship in Harvard Medical University. He has published about 300 peer-reviewed articles in allergy, immunology and rheumatology. He is now working on precision medicine and immunotherapy in Mackay Children Hospital and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Mackay Medical College, Taiwan.

Dr. Yerer- Aycan is the Head of Dept of Pharmacology in Erciyes University, Faculty of Pharmacy. She is a pharmacist graduated from Hacettepe University, Turkiye and gained her doctorate degree in Erciyes University in 2006. She has several national and international grants and she has been the member of several scientific societies. Previously, Dr. Yerer- Aycan served as the Associate Dean of The Faculty of Pharmacy for 8 years. Notably, She has authored more than 25 manuscripts and she is also in the editorial board of Journal of Cellular Biotechnology and Journal of Natural Products for Cancer Prevention and Therapy.

Dr. Andrey A. Zamyatnin Jr. is currently a Professor, Head of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Head of the Cross-Disciplinary Hub for Clinical and Basic Medical Research in Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. He earned his PhD in Virology and later DSc in Virology and Molecular Biology in Lomonosov Moscow State University. His current research interests are molecular markers, molecular targets, development of immunotherapy and enzymatic therapy approaches. His scientific publications include more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Zamyatnin acts as an Expert in several scientific funds.

Dr. Gianluigi Zaza holds a PhD in Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine Therapy from University of Bari. He serves as Assistant Professor at the Renal Unit, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Verona, Italy. The scientific activity of Dr. Zaza resulted in several publications in international peer-reviewed journals. Moreover, he obtained many national and international awards/honors. Dr. Zaza continues his clinical activities as medical doctor primarily involved in post-renal transplant clinical maintenance follow-up. Additionally, his research interests include pharmacogenomics, transcriptomics and translational medicine.

Dr. Xiang Yang Zhang is an Associate professor in Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He has been taking comprehensive studies in cognition, biomarkers including oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, neurotropins, neuro-electrophysiology and neuroimaging, genetics and clinical psychopharmacology in schizophrenia and drug dependence/addiction research. He is an invited reviewer for over 40 peer-reviewed journals and on the editorial board for 5 journals, with more than 230 published articles in the international journals.

Tung On Yau is a bioinformatician and biomedical researcher at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. He completed his BSc in biotechnology at Jinan University and later began his research in the institute of digestive disease, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Afterwards, he moved to Nottingham Trent University for his MSc in Biomedical Science and continued his research concentrating on microbiology, colonic diseases, and acute myeloid leukaemia in both academic and industry projects. He is now completing his PhD by Published Works.

Prof. Dr. Jean-François Picimbon (杰夫) is a PhD in Neurosciences. ( He achieved the Publons Peer Review Award, Insect Science Most Cited Paper Award of 2017 and top 10% most cited PLOS ONE published in 2016. He has been referee for the editors of international journals. He is a distinguished Professor in the Bioengineering, Qilu University of Technology and in the Yunnan University until present.