Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman is credited with unraveling how functional alterations in brain immunity induce metabolic changes and ultimately lead to neural cell damage across a broad range of infectious, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders. These discoveries have had broad implications on developmental therapeutics aimed at preventing, slowing, or reversing neural maladies. He is also credited with demonstrating that AIDS dementia is a reversible metabolic encephalopathy. His work has led to novel immunotherapy strategies for Parkinson's disease that have been successfully tested in early clinical trials as a result of translational investigations.

Prof.Linheng is an international renown scientist studying stem cells and their associated niches in hematopoietic and intestinal tissues. He was among the first to identify the endosteal niche in supporting hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), the first cellular component of niche identified in a mammalian system. He was also among the first to propose a model of co-existing reserve (a quiescent pool) and active adult stem cells in the same tissue in mammals. This concept not only provides an explanation for controversial observations of both quiescent and cycling stem cells in several tissues including bone marrow, intestine, and hair follicle in mammals, but also accounts for some aspects of drug resistance in cancer. Linheng has contributed to the field by characterizing and demonstrating the roles of several developmental signaling pathways in the regulation of stem cells. These include FGF, IGF, and Notch, BMP, and Wnt signaling pertaining to self-renewal; the PTEN-controlled PI3K-Akt signaling, in coordination with catenin to promote HSC self-renewal, and the role of non-canonical Wnt signaling in maintaining quiescent stem cells. He shows a critical role in epigenetic (via DNA methylation and non-coding RNA) regulation of H19 Igf2 and Gtl2 maintains primitive stem cells via suppression of mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism; as well as the Hoxb cluster that maintains normal stem cells but also contributes to leukemogenesis. His recent works open possibilities of translational medicine including 1) Robust expanding human umbilical cord blood (UBC) HSCs by targeting Ythdf2, 2) Identification of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) that facilitates cartilage regeneration, 3) Identification of cancer stem cells immune escaping mechanism mediated by catenin, 4) Tumor-initiating stem cell shape their microenvironment into an immunosuppressive barrier. 5) Development of drugs that target immune escape and immunosuppression. He has filed 6 patterns with 2 pending and 4 granted.

Dr. Farid Menaa (B.Sc. Eng., B.Sc. Bio., M.Sc. Genetics, Master Gerontology/Geriatric, Ph.D. Radiation Oncology and Gerontology, EMBA Entrepreneurship and MD candidate), is an inter- and multi-disciplinary professional. He is a Professor, principal investigator, Director, consultant editor, reviewer, event organizer, and entrepreneur. He earned his degrees with highest distinctions from prestigious French universities and institutions. He followed a post-doctoral in oncology as a NIH-fellow (San Diego, California, USA; 2004-2007). Subsequently, he pursued his career in dermatology, and stem cells as a DFG-Fellow (Wuerzburg, Germany; 2007-2009). Then, he was promoted as Chief Scientific Officer and Vice-President R&D at Fluorotronics, Inc. (CA, USA; 2009-2010), a nanotechnology and fluorine chemical company. Eventually, he was appointed Principal Investigator in Hematology and Genomics as a FAPESP-Fellow (Sao Paulo, Brazil; 2010-2012). He authored and co-authored more than 100 publications (including peer-reviewed ISI research and review articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and patents). He is often invited as a speaker; keynote/featured speaker and (co-) chairman to reputed world congresses and institutions, where he offers speeches in various areas of medicine, sciences, and technology

Prof. Bruno Sarmento is a Principal Investigator, Group Leader, and member of the Board of Directors at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), University of Porto (UP), and Invited Associate Professor at Instituto Universitario de Ciencias da Saude (IUCS), Portugal. So far, he has supervised/co-supervised 15 Post-Docs (13 completed), 50 PhD students (38 completed) 40 MSc students (37 completed), and 13 researcher assistants. He attracted direct competitive funding worth more than 20 Ma, at national and international levels. His current research is focused on the development of functionalized nanomedicines and their application in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. In particular, nanoformulations of biopharmaceutical drugs with an interest in diabetes, cancer, and infectious diseases. He has also specialized in mucosal tissue engineering models to validate functionalized nanomedicines and to perform in vitro/in vivo correlations. He published 400 papers in international journals, most in top journals (Q1 in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Q1 in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology; total citations in Scopus 15500; H-index 64 and in Google Scholar 20500; H-index 74), 56 book chapters and more than 350 proceedings. He edited 5 books, participated in more than 50 invited/selected talks in national and international meetings, and was awarded several distinctions. He is an editor of the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of several international journals, including the Journal of Controlled Release, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, and Pharmaceutics. He has acted as a referee for top-ranked journals in his area of expertise, and for international funding agencies: FNRS (BE), Inserm (FR), CNCS (RO), FCT (PT), Foncyt (ARG), CNPq (BR) and European Commission. Bruno Sarmento was the first Chair of the Nanomedicine and Nanoscale Delivery Focus Group of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and is now Director-at-Large of CRS and a member of CRS College of Fellows. In addition to being a partner in several research projects, he was the PI of competitively funded projects (FCT, Gilead, and CESPU), PI of different bilateral collaborative projects between Portugal (FCT) and foreign funding agencies as well as a partner of several European projects funded by European Commission.

He studied medicine in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and graduated at 2005. He received his MSC in “Medical Research Methodology” in 2008 from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in “Surgery of Liver, Biliary Tree and Pancreas” from the Democritus University of Thrace in 2016. He received his PhD degree in 2014 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as valedictorian for his thesis “The effect of combined administration of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in ulcerative colitis. Experimental study in rats.” He is a General Surgeon with special interest in laparoscopic surgery and surgical oncology and also in surgical infections, acute care surgery, nutrition and ERAS and vascular access. He has received fellowships for EAES, ESSO, EPC, ESCP and ACS and has published more than 180 articles with more than 3000 citations

Prof. Brandon Lucke-Wold was born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO. He graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Neuroscience and distinction in honors from Baylor University. He completed his MD/Ph.D., Master's in Clinical and Translational Research, and the Global Health Track at West Virginia University School of Medicine. His research focus was on traumatic brain injury, neurosurgical simulation, and stroke. At West Virginia University, he also served as a health coach for the Diabetes Prevention and Management program in Morgantown and Charleston, WV, which significantly improved health outcomes for participants. In addition to his research and public health projects, he is a co-founder of the biotechnology company Wright-Wold Scientific, and the pharmaceutical company CTE Cure, and was a science advocate on Capitol Hill through the Washington Fellow program. He has also served as president of the WVU chapters for the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Neurosurgery Interest Group, and the Erlenmeyer Initiative Entrepreneur group. In addition, he has served as vice president for the graduate student neuroscience interest group, Nu Rho Psi Honor Society, and medical students for global health. He was an active member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He is currently a member of the Young Neurosurgeon's Committee. He is married to Noelle Lucke-Wold and has a toddler daughter named Esme. As a family, they enjoy running with their dogs, rock climbing, and traveling the world. In his spare time, Brandon frequently runs half marathons and 10ks together with his wife. Brandon also enjoys reading and discussing philosophy and playing chess. He is excited to join the neurosurgery residency program at the University of Florida.

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Prof. Neetesh Kumar Jain have total 15 years of experience in Academic and Research. Currently working as Professor and HOD, Department of Pharmacology, Modern Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Indore-India and Visiting Professor, School of Science and Technology Centro Escolar University, Manila Philippines. Worked as Dean & Principal in Faculty of Pharmacy, Oriental University, Indore and Director, Drug & Disease Information Center (DDIC), Indore. He have strong academic and research background, as my 09 Indian Patents, 2 Design Patent and One Copy Right have been published, published more than 189 Research papers in National and International journals, presented more than 201 Research papers in National and International conferences and also published 08 books and16 book chapters with reputed publishers of globe.

My research work mainly focuses on the construction and function of DNA nanomachines, which are cutting-edge and challenging topics. I designed and constructed unique DNA motifs using a short circular DNA nanotechnology technique and functionalized these probes with fluorophores, gold nanoparticles, small molecular drugs, and peptide ligands. To achieve plasmon resonance effects, I achieved nano-specific precision in organizing plasmonic nanoparticles on the nano DNA frameworks. My work on the DNA nanomachines provided an efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer mechanism that realizes the bio-imaging, detection of biological events, and functions of the biomolecules. I have also been working on multilayered hybrid magnetic nanoparticles for applications in nanomedicine for the last three years.

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