Editorial Board
Ruiwen Zhang is the Robert L. Boblitt Endowed Professor in Drug Discovery and Director of the Drug Discovery Institute at the University of Houston. With over 30 years of experience in the field of biomedical research, particularly in the area of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, pharmaceutical and toxicological research, Dr. Zhang’s research has been continuously funded by NIH and DoD, and other agencies. He has published more than 230 papers, 2 books, and more than 50 invited reviews/book chapters as well as more than 180 meeting abstracts. For his outstanding contributions in pharmaceutical sciences, Dr. Zhang was elected as a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2009. Dr. Zhang is recently elected as Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (2018).
Dr. Yamaguchi graduated from Shizuoka College of Pharmacy (B.S.) in 1971 and obtained Ph.D of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1976. He was engaged as Research Associate and Assistant Professor in Shizuoka College of Pharmacy (1973-1987), Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka (1987-1991), Associated Professor at the University of Shizuoka, Graduate School of Nutritional Sciences (1991-1993) and Professor at the University of Shizuoka, Graduate School of Nutritional Sciences (1993 ~ 2007) in Japan. From 2007, Yamaguchi was invited as a Visiting Professor, Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine. He was appointed as editorial board member of a number of journals including International Journal of Molecular Medicine, Molecular Medicine Reports, Journal of Osteoporosis, International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, International Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Endocrinology Studies, Alternative Medicine Studies, Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, and Stem Cell Discovery. Yamaguchi published over 500 English original papers, review articles and books. Dr. Yamaguchi's research fields include the bone and calcium endocrinology and metabolism, nutritional prevention of osteoporosis, and the exploration of intracellular signaling mechanism. Yamaguchi found the novel protein and genes which were named as Regucalcin and RGPR-p117.
Dr. Rajesh Agarwal is a Professor and Vice Chairman of Pharmaceutical Sciences Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado, USA. His research interests lie in Cancer Pharmacology: chemoprevention of cancer by natural and synthetic agents; Cancer models: skin prostate, breast, lung, colon, bladder, pancreas, and head & neck; Cancer Biology: Oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, cell cycle and apoptosis modulation, mitogenic and anti-apoptotic signaling, EMT, cancer stem cells, cancer cell metabolism and Warfare vesicants: Cutaneous and ocular injuries by vesicants, and rescue by natural and synthetic agents.
Dr. Nouri Neamati is a John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. He obtained his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. He was a postdoctoral and a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (1995-2000). Dr. Neamati later joined the University of Southern California, rising to the rank of professor in 2011. He is also a recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Technology Transfer Award in 2000, STOP CANCER Award in 2001, GlaxoSmithKline Drug Discovery Award in 2002, BCRP and LCRP Concept Awards from the Department of Defense (DOD) in 2005 and 2009.
Prof. Paul Workman is a Chief Executive and President of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). Prof. Workman is a passionate advocate of personalized molecular medicine and is an enthusiastic practitioner of multidisciplinary cancer drug discovery and development approaches to ‘drugging the cancer genome’. He has established and successfully led drug discovery project teams. Professor Workman’s personal and collaborative research utilizes molecular pharmacology and chemical biology approaches, including high-throughput and genome-wide as well as hypothesis- driven strategies, to interrogate cancer biology, identify and validate new drug targets, discover and develop chemical tools and drugs acting on these targets, identify predictive and mechanism of action biomarkers, and elucidate mechanisms of drug sensitivity of resistance.
Dr. Beverly A. Teicher is a Chief of the Molecular Pharmacology Branch at NCI, since early 2011. Her team focuses on target and drug discovery for rare and recalcitrant cancers such as sarcoma and small cell lung cancer. She completed her PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University and received her postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine. She joined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as an Assistant Professor of Pathology and rose to Associate Professor of Medicine and Radiation Therapy, Harvard Medical School at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. She later joined Cancer Drug Discovery at Lilly Research Laboratories where she founded and chaired the Tumor Microenvironment Action Group.
Dr. Grunt obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Cell Biology from the University of Salzburg, Austria. Dr. Grunt also holds a Master of Science in Experimental Biology from the University of Salzburg. Currently he is also an Associate Professor in the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He has published more than 80 scientific publications and is a named inventor of several U.S patents. Dr. Grunt received several awards from the International Society of Differentiation (ISD), the Austrian Association of Clinical Oncology and from the Austrian Society of Hematology and Oncology. He is member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), the European Association of Cancer Research (EACR), the International Society of Differentiation (ISD), the International Society of Cancer Metabolism (ISCaM), and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
Dr. M. Saeed Sheikh is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA. His research activities are focused on the development of tumor markers and targets for cancer therapy. Dr. Sheikh is also involved in a research to elucidate the molecular mechanisms, regulating cell death, and survival signaling in normal and cancer cells to better understand the processes of cancer development and progression and to develop novel, more efficacious and less toxic anticancer agents along with the investigation in a related area of cellular responses to genotoxic, ER and metabolic stresses.
Dr. Simon Cheng is a physician-scientist in radiation oncology as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and a member of Columbia’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is recognized nationally in thoracic oncology and brain tumors and his research group is dedicated to developing innovative strategies to make treatment more effective and improve patient care.
Dr. Della Corte began her laboratory research experience during Medical University, for preparation of an experimental thesis (2011) in Oncology. During her residency at University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" from 2012 to 2017, she worked both on clinical and research side, with focus on lung cancer, especially exploring novel mechanisms of resistance to EGFR inhibitors in NSCLC. In 2018, during her PhD graduation, Dr. Della Corte accepted a position in the laboratory of Lauren Byers, at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston), where she worked in the new field of predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy and potential new therapeutic targets in NSCC and SCLC, like DNA repair protein. From 2020, with the full support of her supervisors and mentors, Prof. Fortunato Ciardiello and prof. Floriana Morgillo, she has been leading her own research lab projects on the efficacy of novel therapies for SCLC, including DDRi and IO, and relative biomarkers.
Dr. Ilhan-Mutlu is presently serving as the director of the Gastroesophageal Tumors Unit” of the Department of Oncology, MUV. She graduated from Medical University. Her PhD is focused on the characterization of the hypothetical gene. She started her residency in internal medicine at the department of Oncology. She received “Transitional Research Grant’’ of the European Society of Medical Oncology and completed postdoctoral at the German Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Hongliang Li is a professor of medicine at Wuhan University. He has served as the Director of Model Animal Hubei Engineering Research Center, Director of Hubei Model Animal Research Center, and acting director of Cardiovascular Research Institute. His research interests focus on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Li has published over 200 peer reviewed papers in highly impacted journals including Nat Med, Cell Metab., Annu Rev Pathol., Physiol Rev., Circulation, etc. His current H-index according to Google Scholar is 55 with more than 100000 citations.
Dr. Yusheng Lu is an associate professor of Minjiang University, China. His research interests focus on nitric oxide drug development, protein posttranslational modifications in regulation of cancer metastasis, tumor microenvironment and metabolism reprogramming, tumor metastasis alert and prevention. He has developed a series of the protocols for in vitro and in vivo studies with cancer metastatic chemoprevention. He proposed a strategy for the development of tumor metastasis prevention drugs by improving the bloodstream microenvironment and interfering with tumor hematogenous metastasis. He demonstrated that multiple compounds can effectively prevent cancer metastasis by interrupting cancer metastatic cascade from initiation. He has contributed many scientific original papers in the top journals in the field of oncology, pharmacology or biotechnology. His current H-index according to Web of Science (Clarivate) is 20.
Dr. Valerio Nardone graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Siena. He started the Residency School of Radiation Oncology and specialized in clinical management of cancer patients, performing both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He obtained a Master’s Degree in Radiotherapy and new drugs: biology and clinic at Brescia University. He is working as a Researcher Type B (Tenure-track for Associate Professor) at University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli” in Naples. He is an author and co-author of more than 54 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well oral communications and posters in international and national congresses. Dr. Nardone’s contribution to radiotherapy and oncology focuses on different diseases, such as brain cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer and gastrointestinal cancer.
Kenneth To is currently an Associate Professor at School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He received post-doctoral research training at National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH) and Johns Hopkins University in the United States. His research focuses on multidrug resistance (MDR) to cancer chemotherapy. He exploited the use of specific inhibitor of MDR transporters and epigenetic drugs to overcome cancer drug resistance and to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy. In recent years, his team has also successfully repurposed non-oncology drugs to overcome resistance to targeted anticancer agents in the treatment of lung cancer.
Prof. Korolenko Tatiana A., graduated from Novosibirsk Medical University (Russia, West Siberia). After University, she has been working in the Central Research Laboratory of Novosibirsk Medical University (Biochemical Laboratory). Her main topic of research was devoted to study on the role of lysosomes in pathology. Her dissertation was related to the study of lysosomal membrane damage in toxic hepatitis. Prof. Korolenko T.A. was shifted to the Institute of Physiology, Academy of Medical Sciences (Novosibirsk), where she worked as a Head of the Laboratory Cellular Biochemistry. Her research interest was in the study of the role of lysosomes in experimental tumor development and effects of lysosomotropic agents. Her doctoral dissertation was devoted to study of lysosomotropic agents' effects in pathology. She is the author of 150 publications devoted to lysosomes, endosomes, proteolysis and proteases, besides, her special attention was devoted to the role of cysteine proteases inhibitors (Cystatin C, Cystatin SN) in human tumors in ophthalmology. She has participated in international conferences related to cellular biochemistry. She has supervised 15 PhD students.
Dr. Panagiotis J. Vlachostergios MD PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in 2013. He has published more than 70 international peer-reviewed articles, and authored several book chapters and abstracts. His research has been highly cited, and he is a recipient of prestigious awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology, Society for Translational Oncology, American Federation for Medical Research, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, and others. He serves as an investigator on CDMRP-funded and industry-sponsored clinical studies
Dr. Lihui Wang is a full professor of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. His research investigations mainly focus on clarifying resistant mechanisms of cancer cells to chemo- or targeted therapies as well as identifying small molecule compounds acting on these mechanisms to overcome anti-cancer drugs resistance. Dr. Wang has published more than 30 papers, as first or corresponding author, in international peer reviewed journals, such as "Molecular Cancer", "Clinical Cancer Research", "Drug Resistance Updates", "British Journal of Cancer" and "Journal of Medicinal Chemistry".
Dr. Wang Ning, received his bachelor degree in biochemistry from Sun Yat-Sen University (2006, China), Mphil degree in pharmaceutical science from Sun Yat-Sen University (2008, China) and PhD degree in pharmacology from the University of Hong Kong (2012, Hong Kong) and continued his post-doctoral training at the same University. He is now Assistant Professor in the School of Chinese Medicine. Since 2006, Dr. Wang has published more than 100 international peer-reviewed papers and over 50 abstracts and conference proceedings in the field of pharmacology of natural products and Traditional Chinese Medicine. He serves on the editorial boards of BMC complementary and alternative medicine, World Journal of Stem Cells and Frontiers in Pharmacology. He is the member of European Association of Cancer Research.
Dr. C. Xu received his Doctoral degree from the Third Military Medical University (TMMU), China. Following his clinical and research training in internal medicine and preventive medicine at TMMU. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in cancer stem cell research at the Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Center, Southwest hospital, TMMU. He is currently a Professor of Sichuan Cancer Hospital & Institute, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests include the self-renewal mechanism of cancer stem cell, tumor microenvironment, protein posttranslational modifications in signaling and immune regulation of cancer. He has published more than 30 papers and gained strong expertise and experience in studying protein-protein interaction and signal transduction. Dr. Xu has provided numerous services to the scientific community and beyond, his current services include the members of the Committee of Neoplastic Supportive Care, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and Experts Committee on Education for Cancer Patients, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Xudong Yao, received his PhD degree in medicine in Tianjin Medical University, China. He completed post-doctoral training in Fudan University, China. He is currently a Professor and the Director of Department of Urology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University. Dr. Yao has published more than 50 international peer-reviewed papers and authored several book chapters. His research focuses on tumor diagnosis, treatment, and pathogenesis, including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and renal cell carcinoma. He is the member of Chinese Medical Association, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, American Urological Association, and European Association of Urology.
Przemyslaw Bozko received his Ph.D. from the University of Gdansk, Poland in 2003. After several postdocs he became the Lab head of the Dept. Internal Medicine at Tübingen University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany since 2012. His research interests include interactions between tumor suppressors and oncogenes, during tumor formation and anticancer therapy.
Davide Barreca is an Assistant Professor of biochemistry at the University of Messina. He specializes in enzyme modulation by natural compounds, inhibition of protein aggregation and activation of signal apoptotic cascade. Most of his research projects concentrate on separation and identification of unknown flavonoids, structural-activity elucidation, and biochemical analysis of their health promoting or cytotoxicity properties on cell culture. He is author of over 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 30 chapters in books, and 70 conference proceedings and reviewer of over 40 international scientific journals.
Dr. Massimo Breccia is assistant physician at Sapienza University of Rome, Azienda Policlinico Umberto I. His scientific interests and publications as author or co-author are mainly focused on biological and clinical aspects of acute and chronic myeloid leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes. He is a peer-reviewer for several journals such as Blood, Haematologica, Leukemia Research, British Journal of Haematology, etc. and editorial board member of 5 journals Leukemia Research, Leukemia Research and Treatment, Hematology Reviews, etc.. He is a member of SIE, SIES, EHA and participates as a study coordinator in several clinical trials for CML, AML and MDS. He is the secretary of GIMEMA QoL Working Party. He has more than 300 papers in peer reviewed journals.
Prof. Michael P. Carty is an associate professor in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and head of the DNA Damage Response laboratory in the Centre for Chromosome Biology, at the University of Galway. He did Ph.D. in biochemistry. He carried out post-doctoral work at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, and became a research assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. Prof. Carty joined the University of Galway in 2000. His research focuses on the role of DNA damage tolerance pathways in response of cells to DNA damaging agents, and, in collaborative work, on the characterisation of the cellular effects of novel anti-cancer molecules.
Dr. Chai received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York in 1998 and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University in 2001. Then he served the Department of Veterans Affairs of the USA as a Principal Investigator (2002-2016), in affiliation with the University of California in Irvine. Currently, he is a professor at Baotou Medical College, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. He has published dozens of science articles in a broad field, from zoology to cancer biology. He has been a member of AGA, AHA, and ASBMB, and the editorial board of multiple journals.
Dr. Cheung is an assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Hong Kong. The focus of her research is functional characterization of genomic abnormalities in cancers (with a goal of ultimately devising the optimal therapeutic strategies for cancer patients). Her research revolutionizes the concept underlying precision cancer therapy (where mutations of the same cancer gene may have different functional impact and confer sensitivity to different drugs). She has published in Cancer Cell, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Research, Nature Communications, Genome Research, etc.
Professor William A Denny gained a PhD in chemistry at the University of Auckland and, following positions at Oxford University and UC San Diego, returned to the University of Auckland as director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre. In this capacity, with co-workers and commercial partners (including three co-founded startup companies), he has brought 14 new drugs to clinical trials for cancer and infectious diseases, with 3 to date approved. This work is reported in 740 scientific publications and 114 patent families. Honours include the ACS Medicinal Chemistry award and the UK Royal Society of Chemistry Adrien Albert Medal.
Prof. He received an M.D. degree from Chongqing Medical University and a Ph.D. degree in molecular cell biology from the Pennsylvania State University. After completing his postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Dr. He was recruited as a faculty and the director of Molecular Oncology Laboratory at The University of Chicago Medical Center, he stayed there and became a tenured faculty member. He has research interests including cancer biology, cell signaling, stem cell biology, cell and gene therapy, and regenerative medicine. Dr. He has published a number of peer-reviewed original articles and reviews. He has an h-index of 91 according to Google Scholar. Dr. He has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of Biological Chemistry, Scientific Reports, Laboratory Investigation, and Current Cancer Drug Target.
Chaunshu Huang is a Professor of Department of Environmental Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Urology, and Deputy Director of Nelson Institute of Environmental medicine, New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Huang has published more than 280 research papers with total citations over 11,200. Chuanshu’s major research addresses fundamental questions concerning the responses of mammalian cells to environmental carcinogens at the levels of protein kinases, transcription factors and their target genes, as well as protein modification both in vitro and in vivo. His research also includes elucidation of tumor invasion and metastasis, as well as screening and identifying novel anti-cancer drugs and the molecular mechanisms underlying their anti-cancer effect.
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Amjad Kamal is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the King Fahd Medical Research Center (KFMRC), King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, where he was full Professor from March 2011 to March 2013. He is leading a highly productive global collaborative research team based from Novel Global Community Educational Foundation (NGCEF), Australia. Dr. Kamal's biochemical research in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 diabetes and leukemia has culminated in more than 500 publications in internationally respected journals, and 65 abstracts at international conferences. Prof. Kamal migrated to Australia in 1998 and was awarded a prestigious U2000 Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2000 by the University of Sydney, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences. Moreover, he is serving as a regional/editorial member/guest editor of several reputed scientific journals - this is undertaken on an honorable basis.
Junya Kuroda, holder of M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, is an associate professor at the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, and has published more than 120 articles.
Junya Kuroda’s research interests focused on the identification of the disease–specific dysregulation of epigenetics, genetics, cytogenetics, and cell signaling, to develop novel therapeutic strategies and biomarkers for cancers, especially hematologic malignancies, such as leukemias, lymphomas, or myeloma, while also covers clinical researches in hematological oncology.
Dr. Jinhui Liu, Ph.D., is an attending physician in the department of gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. Dr. Liu received his PhD from Nanjing Medical University in 2020. His research activities mainly focus on the immune microenvironment markers of gynecological tumors with a multi group approach and has published over 60 research articles. He also served as associate editor of European Journal of Medical Research, member of editorial board of 10 SCI journals including Journal of Immunology Research, and guest editor of frontiers in genetics, frontiers in oncology and medicina with an H-index of 16.
Juan Carlos Lacal is a doctor in Biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He completed his postdoctoral training at the NCI with scholarships from EMBO and the Fogarty International Center and as Visiting Associate at the LCMB, NCI. He is a Research Professor at CSIC. He worked as a Secretary General and President of ASEICA, member of the Executive Committees of FESEO and the EACR, member of the Council of FECS and Council of the EACR as a member and Chairman. He is an inventor of 16 patent families with 92 applications and the scientific promoter of two spin-off companies focused on cancer diagnosis and treatment. He is actually a member of the Advisory Council of MEDES of the Lilly Foundation, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of INCLIVA and Expert of the European Commission. He has published over 200 papers in journals, books, and monographs with an H index of 63 and over 12,000 citations. His major contribution is the discovery of choline kinase as a new biomarker and drug target in oncology and other human diseases.
Dr. Lin is currently a Principal Investigator/Professor at the First Affiliated Hospital in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. His lab works on RNA modifications, cancers and stem cells related diseases.
Debabrata (Dev) Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D.: Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Florida, has a joint appointment with the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. Before moving to Mayo Clinic as Professor 14 years ago, he was research fellow and later independent investigator followed by as an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston. He has carried out angiogenesis and tumor microenvironment related research and also leading translational nanomedicine programs including new drug delivery systems. He has been serving as reviewer for several study sections in NIH and agencies. Recently, he has been appointed as the Florida Department of Health Cancer Research Chair. He has published more than 190 peer-reviewed papers in different journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, Nano Letters. He has several patents and has been involved to develop different start up companies in the area of therapy and diagnosis of the disease
Prof. Vincent Collins Ofuka Njar, Ph.D. is a distinguished University professor of medicinal chemistry & pharmacology, at University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). He is also the head of the Medicinal Chemistry Section, at the Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT). He is a world leader in the field of small molecules discovery and development for the treatment of a variety of cancers. He is the recipient of prestigious awards, including the recent appointment as one of the five inaugural UMB Distinguished University Professors and the UMB 2021 David J. Ramsay Entrepreneur of the Year. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (FNAI). His groundbreaking studies resulted in a number of issued US/foreign patents as well as pending patents that have led to several highly productive licensing agreements at UMB. He is a co-founder of Isoprene Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of small molecule oncology drugs. He has a number of peer-reviewed scientific publications. He is the editor of Steroids and serves as a member of a number of editorial boards of scientific journals.
Dr. Rakesh Naidu has been appointed as an Associate Professor in biomedical sciences at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. His current research focuses on the molecular biology of cancer, cancer therapeutics and cancer venomics. His research group focuses on the identification and understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of synthetic compounds and analogues derived from natural compounds as well as natural components from venoms that contribute to anti-cancer activities in human cancer cells such as lung, prostate, colon, breast and glioblastoma. He has published peer-reviewed research papers in several international and national journals and book chapters in cancer.
Dr. Franco Patrone MD obtained specialization degrees in General Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology from the University of Genova, Italy. Currently Dr. Patrone is an adjunct professor of Internal Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genova. He has published more than 170 scientific publications reported on PubMed. Dr. Patrone has been, director of the first Medical Clinic and of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, as well as of the Internal Medicine and Oncology Clinic and of the Department of Hematology and Oncology, San Martino University Hospital, Genoa, Italy.
Yves Pommier is the Chief of the Developmental Therapeutics Branch, NCI. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Paris, and has studied DNA topoisomerases and the pharmacology of their inhibitors for the past 30 years. Three of his topoisomerase I inhibitors are in clinical trials. Dr. Pommier also discovered the first HIV-1 integrase inhibitors and the mechanism of action of poly(ADPribose) polymerase inhibitors by trapping PARP-DNA complexes. He pioneered the concept of drugs acting as interfacial inhibitors.
Balázs Sarkadi, MD, Ph.D., spent several years as a post-doc and then as a visiting scientist at major universities in the United States and Canada. He is research professor at Semmelweis University, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, past president of FEBS, member of several international research societies including the Academia Europeae. His research has been focusing on membrane proteins, including the investigation of ABC membrane transporters, which play a major role in the multidrug resistance of cancer, in general pharmacology, and in stem cell function. He has published more than 250 papers in international scientific journals, with a citation number over 13,000.
Dr. Kalkunte Srivenugopal obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science. He is currently a tenured Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy in Amarillo, Texas, USA. Dr. Srivenugopal’s research interests include brain tumor chemotherapy, DNA repair, drug discovery, p53 biology and redox signaling. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas and many private foundations. He has published more than 85 peer-reviewed articles.
Dr. Kedong Song is currently Professor in Dalian R&D Centre for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology. Prof. Song obtained a PhD degree from Dalian University of Technology. He was a Post‐doctoral research associate in Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London from 2008 to 2009. He became a full professor in 2016 at Dalian University of Technology in the areas of 3D tumor models, Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Prof. Song has published over 100 papers on international journals, and has got citation more than 2,500 times.
Prof. Wei Wang is a Yangtze River (Scholar) distinguished professor at Hunan University of Chinese Medicine. He has served as the director of TCM and Ethnomedicine Innovation & Development International Lab. His research interests focus on the material basis and new compound discovery of TCM, and the new method of screening the activity of TCM based on specific target and the innovative research on the targeted synergistic effect of active components of TCM. Prof. Wang has published over 200 peer reviewed papers in highly impacted journals including Angew Chem Int Ed Engl., ACS Nano, Biomaterials, Sci Bull., J Pineal Res., etc.
Dr. Nathaniel Weygant is a Professor at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. His interests include investigating the role of epithelial-immune crosstalk in cancer, identifying subpopulations of cancer patients vulnerable to cancer progression, understanding gender differences in cancer and identifying therapies to target CSCs. His previous work included investigating the functional role of the DCLK1 CSC marker, role of intestinal epithelia in the inflammatory response, the development of miRNA/mRNA oncology biomarkers and the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Weygant performed his undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma (Oklahoma, USA) and obtained his PhD from the University of Portsmouth (Portsmouth, UK).
Yingqiu Xie is an Associate Professor of Biology. He received a Ph.D. in genetics. Dr. Xie’s research interests include cancer drug targets, cell signaling, biomarkers, cancer genetics, cancer recurrence, drug resistance and experimental therapeutics, especially in prostate cancer and leukemia. Recently Dr. Xie has carried out the research on nanotechnology and herbal medicine in cancer signaling and pharmacology. Dr. Xie has been qualified for Ph.D. supervisor and has been a supervisor of several M.S. students. He has been serving as reviewer and Editorial Board member for several journals.
Dr. Zhang is a Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Southern California and had postdoctoral training with Dr. Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins. He has been studying mechanisms of cell death in colorectal cancer therapy and prevention. Dr. Zhang has authored over 140 research and review articles with over 25,000 citations and H-index of 61. He has served as a standing member of the NIH DMP study section and editorial boards of Cancer Research and other journals.
Dr. Hettie is an NCI/NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellow (PI/PD) in the Departments of Radiology and Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery within the School of Medicine at Stanford University that specializes in the design, development, and implementation of near-infrared-I/II peptidyl-, nucleic acid-, and immuno-based activatable bio-/molecular probes, biosensors, theranostics, and nanoparticles targeting biomarkers of brain cancers and their tumor microenvironment for their early detection, direct visualization, and surgical removal via utilizing image-guided surgery. He focuses on their rational design, bio-/chemical synthesis, and bio-/analytical evaluation of novel diagnostics and therapeutics in basic science research, preclinical, and clinical setting.
Dr. Weiwei Wang received his Doctoral degree from Beijing institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He finished his post-doctoral training and worked as a research associate at the University of Alberta in Canada. Currently he is serving as a CTO, Vice President, R&D Director in Geneis (Beijing) Co. His main research areas are IVD assay development/related translational studies including cancer related ctDNA/cfRNA identification using NGS/nanopore sequencing; clinical metagenomics; virome enrichment and sequencing; single-cell multi-omics; microfluidic-chip based assays. Dr. Wang has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers/book chapters in the journals related to oncology, virology, immunology, metagenomics, genomics, proteomics, etc.
