Journal of Molecular Pharmaceutics & Organic Process Research

He received his doctoral training in Molecular Biophysics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a top-ranked School in the former Soviet Union. He developed an active research program in the physical chemistry of nucleic acids at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow. He received the decree of Doctor of Science (the top scientific degree in the former USSR) for this research. He is currently a professor at Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Colleague of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE. His research is focused on three major areas – (1) structural genomics, (2) molecular mechanisms Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other protein misfolding diseases, and (3) development of technologies for biomedical nanoimaging approaches. He always had a keen interest in new and innovative instrumentation.

Structural genomics: His current interests are centered around chromatin structure and dynamics and DNA recombination and replication. In the chromatin area, they utilize time-lapse AFM to investigate the spontaneous unwrapping of nucleosomes and have proposed a novel model of chromatin dynamics. His recent experiments with the use a revolutionary high-speed AFM are capable of imaging the dynamics of molecules with video rate, and these have yielded new insights into the pathways of chromatin dynamics. The same methodology has been proven itself in the analysis of DNA recombination. They were recently able to observe directly the branch migration of DNA Holliday junction at high resolution and to fully visualize the mechanism of homologous recombination. The availability of new AFM methodology was critical for his studies of interaction of site-specific DNA binding proteins. His current project on the study molecular mechanism of HIV restriction using natural intracellular defense – APOBEC3 DNA deaminases. Thus, he brings a strong belief in the importance of leading-edge innovative instrumentation.
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other protein misfolding diseases: His second area of interests is linked with understanding the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders. Misfolding and aggregation of proteins are widespread phenomena leading to the development of numerous neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s diseases. He developed an approach in which misfolded states are probed with AFM force spectroscopy. Using this approach, they were able to identify misfolded states of the protein and characterize its properties. The major finding is that a misfolding dimer has a extremely long lifetime in comparison with the fast conformational dynamics of monomers usually occurringon the microsecond-nanosecond time scale. The high stability of misfolded dimers is a fundamental finding, suggesting that the formation of dimers leads to the important huge stabilization of the protein misfolded state. Such stabilization dramatically facilitates the aggregation kinetics and thus triggers the entire aggregation process. This conclusion is in line with recent findings on the critical role of dimers in the self-assembly of proteins. Importantly, recent in vivo studies revealed a high toxicity of dimeric forms of amyloid beta. These important findings would not have been possible without the very best instrumentation.
Nanotechnology development:  It is an area of constant interest to him, and this activity has always been an integral part of all of my research projects. They developed an entirely novel surface chemistry enabling us to develop one of the most versatile methodologies for AFM imaging. A spin-off from our research has been improvementsin the AFM force spectroscopy methodology. Therearenow rapidly developing and exciting applications of AFM in molecular pharmacology, drug design and other biomedical applications.

Vladimir P. Torchilin is a University Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Northeastern University, Boston. He graduated from the Moscow University with MS in Chemistry, and obtained there his Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry and Chemistry of Physiologically Active Compounds in 1971 and 1980, respectively. In 1991, Dr. Torchilin joined MGH/Harvard Medical School as the Head of Chemistry Program, Center for Imaging and Pharmaceutical Research, and Associate Professor of Radiology. Since 1998 Dr. Torchilin is with Northeastern University. He was the Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1998-2008. His research interests include drug delivery and targeting, pharmaceutical nanocarriers. He has published more than 350 original papers, more than 150 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 10 books, including Immobilized Enzymes in Medicine, Targeted Delivery of Imaging Agents, Liposomes, Nanoparticulates as Pharmaceutical Carriers, and holds more than 40 patents. He is Editor-in-Chief of Current Drug Discovery Technologies and of Drug Delivery and on the Editorial Boards of many journals including Journal of Controlled Release (Review Editor), Bioconjugate Chemistry, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. Among many awards, Professor Torchilin was the recipient of the 1982 Lenin Prize in Science (the highest award in the USSR). He is a Member of European Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of AIMBE, AAPS, and CRS, and received the 2005 Research Achievements in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Award from the AAPS, 2007 Research Achievements Award from the Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress, 2009 AAPS Journal Award, 2009 International Journal of Nanomedicine Distinguished Scientist Award, 2010 CRS Founders Award, and 2012 Alec Bangham Award. In 2005-2006 he was a President of the Controlled Release Society. In 2011, Times Higher Education ranked him number 2 among top world scientists in pharmacology for the period of 2001-2010.

Physiologically active polymers and their use as drug carriers, Targeted delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic agents, Experimental diagnostic imaging, Experimental tumor immunology and therapy and Micellar tumor targeting.

Dr. Zhe-Sheng (Jason) Chen, M.D., PhD, is currently a Professor and a Director of Cancer Pharmacology Laboratory at College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, St. John’s University. He joined St. John’s University in 2004 as an assistant professor. Since 2008, he established several research projects to study ABC transporters and multidrug resistance (MDR) as well as reversal of MDR in both in vitro and in vivo tumor models. During past 8 years, his laboratory has been well funded by NIH and Companies. He published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and 2 book chapters. He carried out his postdoctoral training at Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia, USA, 2000-2004) and Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine (Japan, 1998-2000). He received his Ph.D. degree from Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine (Japan, 1994-1998), Master degree from Sun Yat-Sen University School of Public Health (China, 1985-1988) and M.D. from Guangdong Medical and Pharmaceutical College (China, 1980-1985).

Physiology, Pharmacology and Pathology of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters; Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of multidrug resistance. Chen laboratory is interested in the molecular and cellular pharmacology of anticancer drugs, such as drug resistance mechanisms and reversal of resistance study and new drug development. Another research direction is to study the role of ABC transporters family on the detoxification of chemicals (including carcinogens and mutagens) using knock out mouse models.

Carlos Bregni is Pharmacist and Doctor of the University of Buenos Aires (PhD UBA), Professor (full-time), Researcher and Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Professor of Rheology and Stability of specialization in Cosmetic Production of UBA, former Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology in the Department of Biology, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, National University of the South. He was a Teacher-Researcher category "1" and Director of Research Projects in the area of new therapeutic systems in the UBA, the Northeastern University and the National University of Misiones. He is a chief of fifteen doctoral theses in the chemical and pharmaceutical technology. He has one hundred fifty-one published works in national and international magazines and over two hundred presentations at congresses of the specialty. He is visiting Professor in several foreign universities. He has received numerous awards and distinctions. He is a member of the National Academy of Pharmacy and Biochemistry.

His interests are nanotechnology, polymeric materials for controlled delivery and new drug delivery systems.

Natasa Skalko-Basnet is a Professor and Head of Drug Transport and Delivery Research Group in the department of Pharmacy in the University of Tromsø, Norway. She completed her PhD from the University of London. She has publications of 46 refereed original research articles, 4 reviews and 1 book chapter and 75 abstracts of contribution to international scientific conferences.

Her research interests include liposomes as novel drug delivery system in topical application, especially skin and vaginal therapy, bioadhesive hydrogels as wound dressings, topical formulations containing natural origin substances and liposomes as drug carriers for poorly soluble drugs.

Liyan Qiu is a Professor & Director of Zhejiang University. She completed her Ph.D. from Zhejiang University on Polymer Chemistry and Physics. She started her career as an instructor and then as an Associate Professor in Zhejiang University. She has authored or co-authored more than 50 SCI-indexed papers on various international journals such as Journal of Controlled Release, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Nanomedicine, Biomaterials and so on. These papers have been cited by others for more than 530 times. She was selected into New Century Excellent Talents Program of China Ministry of Education and 151 Talents Program of Zhejiang Province, and awarded Chinese Pharmaceutical Association-CSPC young pharmaceutics award.

Research interests cover novel drug delivery systems and functional biomaterials used as drug carriers, specially controlled release preparations for peptide and protein drugs, targeted delivery system for anticancer drugs or genes, and self-assembly of amphiphilic biopolymers for drug delivery.

Maria da Graça Campos has completed her Ph.D in 1997 from Coimbra University Portugal and postdoctoral studies in 2000 at Industrial Research, Ltd at Lower Hutt, New Zealand. She is Professor of Pharmacognosy, Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapy at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra since then. Nowadays she is Director of Observatory of Herbal-Drug Interactions, and Director of Pharmacovigilance Center of Herbal – Drug Interactions, a premier organization on this research field in Portugal. She wrote 3 books in co-author and 4 chapters, more than 60 papers in reputed journals. Shes editorial board member of 4 scientific journals.

Her research interests include pharmacognasy, medicinal plants and pharmacotherapy.

Narenmandula is a Professor in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, China. He completed his M.Sc. from the Chiba University and obtained there his Ph.D in 2008. He completed his postdoctoral training in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Canada. He started his career as a senior lecturer in Inner Mongolia Medical College, China and has been working as a Professor in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.

His research interests include:
(1) arsenic speciation, exposure, metabolism, and health effects.
(2) the molecular mechanisms of the carcinogenic effects of chemical compounds (e.g., arsenicals) and its metabolism. 
(3) the role of AS3MT (expression, genotypes, etc.) in human hepatocytes and leukemia cells. 
(4) the effect of arsenic intermediate metabolites on PML/RARA oncoprotein in NB4 cells.

Dr. Weston spent several years as a research scientist in computational chemistry & biology in the biopharmaceutical industry before transitioning into academic pharmacy. He authored a recent book chapter (in Concepts in Pharmacogenomics), has published several journal articles, and has received a number of patents and grants for his research work. He recently initiated a new medicinal plant/natural products program at Harding University. He attended the University of Mississippi where he received a B.S. in Pharmacy in 1990. In 1995, he received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Mississippi in Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry and then completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Northwestern University Medical School in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS).

Dr. Weston’s research interests include drug discovery and development, computer-aided lead discovery and optimization, molecular docking, quantitative structure-activity relationships, and algorithm development.

Dr. Reigan obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester in 1997. He then worked as a Scientist at Evotec OAI in the UK and then at Bayer Pharmaceuticals in Germany. In 2000 Dr. Reigan obtained an MSc in Pharmacology and in 2004a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Manchester. From 2004-2007 Dr. Reigan was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado. He is now an Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado. Dr. Reigan lectures on medicinal chemistry and drug metabolism to undergraduate and graduate pharmacists and toxicologists. His research focuses on the design, synthesis and preclinical evaluation of a range of compounds for the treatment of cancer, HIV and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Reigan has published a number of research papers, book chapters, and filed several patents. He has given invited talks to pharmaceutical companies, venture capitalists, and at scientific meetings in the US and Europe. Dr. Reigan is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Association of Cancer Research, Chemistry in Cancer Research Working Group, the British society of Toxicology, University of Colorado Cancer Center, Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Colorado Center for Drug Discovery and the University of Colorado Brain Tumor Research Group.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of small-molecule agents that act on molecular targets associated with the pathology of cancer or Parkinson’s disease. Our current research efforts are focused on developing agents for the treatment of brain tumors and leukemia. The effective treatment of these tumors presents a number of challenges and the therapeutic agent exhibit tumor selectivity. Our approach involves several strategies which include the development of:
• Computational-based molecular modeling for anticancer drug design, understanding the interaction of the drug with the molecular target, and the prediction of ADMET and passive blood-brain partitioning
• Novel antiangiogenic agents that target the catalytic activity or protein-protein interactions of proangiogenic proteins
• Drug delivery approaches, including prodrug and liposomalstrategies, that enhance tumor delivery of anticancer agents
• Prodrugs that exploit the catalytic activity of enzymes overexpressed by tumors to selectively generate the active agent(s) at the tumor site
• Novel agents that potentiate the antitumor activity of established anticancer therapeutics by targeting mechanisms of tumor resistance

Yazen M Alnouti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center. He worked as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center. he received his Post Doctorate from University of Kansas Medical Center. He was selected by Selected by “Who’s Who in America” as a scientist with outstanding achievements in the year 2009. He has a Professional membership in American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). He experienced as a Teaching & Research Assistant in the College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia. His highlights of Research expertise include Drug Metabolism and Disposition, High-Throughput Bioanalytical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics.

His research focuses on the application of bioanalytical chemistry, in vitro models such as microsomes and stably-transfected cell lines, and in vivo animal models such as knock-out mice, to support ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) and pharmacokinetics studies. This is a technique-driven enterprise; therefore liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is heavily applied in our research. Another area of interest is the study of bile acid metabolism, homeostasis, and toxicity, with a particular interest in the role of sulfation, a phase II metabolic pathway, by the sulfotransferase (SULT) enzymes, in controlling bile acid homeostasis.

Romi Ghose, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of pharmaceutics at University of Houston. she completed her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. She was honored with Faculty Development Initiative Program (FDIP) Teaching award in 2010. She also serving as the editorial board member for the Journal of Clinical Trials. She has published many articles and reviewed many manuscripts. She also has memberships in some of the Professional societies.

Her research interests include Protein kinases and the regulation of transcription, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Drug metabolism.

Dr. Krishna Mallela is an Assistant Professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He was a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and did his postdoctoral research on protein folding with Dr. S. Walter Englander. He received his PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research under the guidance of Dr. N. Periasamy. He has published more than 40 research manuscripts, and has been invited to give oral presentations at more than 40 international conferences and research institutions. He has received many awards that include the Skaggs Scholar, Butcher Investigator, Protein Society Young Investigator, The Alchemist Young Chemistry Writer, IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, and the Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist Medal. He has been an ad hoc reviewer for more than twenty leading peer-reviewed international journals, for multiple funding institutes that include the National Science Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association, and has organized and chaired scientific sessions at multiple conferences that include the American Chemical Society and the Biophysical Society.

Protein structure, stability, folding, and aggregation; Molecular Biophysics; Biomolecular Spectroscopy

Dr. Mansour currently holds faculty appointments and graduate appointments at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), and is faculty associate of the UK Membrane Center. She is a faculty mentor in the UK Engineered Bioactive Interfaces and Devices Program funded through the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education Research Training (NSF IGERT) Program and the NSF Research Education for Undergraduates (NSF REU) Training Program joint with the UK College of Engineering. She is also a faculty mentor in the National Cancer Institute-Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center (NCI-CNTC). Previously, she was an Instructor (both in the graduate and Pharm.D. programs) and a postdoctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy receiving the 2007 UNC-Chapel Hill Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence from the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and the 2007 AAPS Postdoctoral Fellow Award in Research Excellence, in addition to other honors and awards. She has a BS in pharmacy (highest honors & distinction) and a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences with a PhD major in drug delivery/pharmaceutics (School of Pharmacy-2003) and a PhD minor in advanced physical & biophysical chemistry (Dept. of Chemistry-1999) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of eight journals in drug delivery and nanomedicine, the NIH U.S. Pediatric Formulations Initiative New Drug Delivery Systems Aerosols Working Group, and is Delegate to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Dr. Mansour has published over 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications, invited papers, 5 book chapters, over 80 abstracts, and is Co-Editor of a new book on nanomedicine drug delivery by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press. Her research program enjoys funding from federal sources (NIH, NSF, FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Mansour has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international scientific conferences. She leads a multi-disciplinary group of postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, visiting professors, graduate students, physician-scientist fellows, and undergraduate students.

She has an active research program on targeted nanomedicine, nanoparticle engineering design of multifunctional lipopolymeric self-assemblies, advanced pulmonary inhalation aerosol nanotechnology delivery systems, targeted pulmonary nanomedicine for the treatment and prevention of pulmonary diseases, and sustained release depot delivery of biological drugs from biocompatible/biodegradable polymeric microparticles/nanoparticles.

Dr. Rizvi pursued an M.S and Ph.D combined degree program at the Center for Biotechnology and Drug Design, Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University (GSU), Atlanta, GA. While working at GSU, Dr. Rizvi was trained in the areas of Analytical Chemistry, Separation Sciences, Bioanalysis, Surfactant Chemistry, Chiral Separations of the Drugs, Trace Level Analysis (Forensic Chemistry) of Drugs in human body fluids (led to a US and International patent). Right after finishing M.S and Ph.D at the GSU, Dr. Rizvi pursued another Ph.D (under Prof. Martin J. D’Souza) at the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Department of the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mercer University (MU), Atlanta, GA in collaboration with Dr. Scott L Childs (founder and chief Scientific officer, Renovo Research, LLC). At Mercer, Dr. Rizvi was trained in the areas of Solid Dosage Formulations (direct compressed tablets), Controlled Release Formulations, Nanoparticulate System for Non-Invasive real time In Vivo Imaging, Cell-Lipid interaction Studies. At Renovo, Dr. Rizvi was trained in the area of Solid State Chemistry of the Drugs, e.g., Polymorphism and Cocrystallization. Moreover, Dr. Rizvi pursued part time postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Fredric M. Menger (Charles Howard Candler Professor) at the Sanford S. Atwood Chemistry Center, Emory University, where he polished his skills in Organic Synthesis, Soft Material Chemistry, Surface and Interfacial Sciences, Gene Transfection Studies using Gemini Surfactants, State of the art, Langmuir-Adam Balance Studies. Dr. Rizvi has published many peer-reviewed articles (cited over 600 times) in top ranking journals and two book chapters. Dr. Rizvi publications include one of the most highly rated article, two cover articles and one figure from Dr. Rizvi’s paper was included in the text book “Quantitative Chemical Analysis” by Daniel C. Harris (7th Edition, p 616, W. H. Freeman, 2006, ISBN-10: 0716770415). Dr. Rizvi also presented his work through posters and oral presentations in national and international conferences. Dr. Rizvi also serves as editor -in-chief, the editorial board member of several scientific journals and review papers for more than 20 different journals.

Micro and Nano-Technology for Drug Delivery, Controlled Release Formulations, Solid State Chemistry of the Drugs, Surface Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Soft Material Chemistry, Forensic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Natural Product Chemistry, Vaccinology and Immunology.

Arik Dahan is an Assistant Professor in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He did his postdoctoral research from University of Michigan. He received his PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the year 2007. He has published more than 35 research manuscripts, and has more than 15 lectures and poster presentations.

His research focuses on integrating up-to-date molecular and cellular mechanistic investigations of drug disposition in the context of the human body, in order to enable successful drug delivery and therapy. In implementing this molecular biopharmaceutical approach to ADME research, he is seeking to enable mechanistic-based successful solutions to drug delivery, especially (but not only) oral, in challenging scenarios e.g. low-solubility, low-permeability, efflux transport, extensive metabolism, poor site targeting, various pathophysiological conditions, and pediatrics patient care.

Paraskevas D. Tzanavaras received his PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2003 from the Department of Chemistry of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Since 2007 his is a Lecturer of Analytical Chemistry at the same department. His is Editor of the Analytical Chemistry section of the international journals Central European Journal of Chemistry (Versita-Springer) and European Journal of Chemistry, Assistant Editor on Flow Injection Techniques of Analytical Letters (Taylor and Francis) and member of the Editorial Board of several journals. He has published more than 75 scientific papers, edited 4 special issues for international journals and co-edited 1 e-book and co-authored various book chapters in international publications. He is an active reviewer for more than 50 international journals (> 350 articles).

Automated sample preparation by coupling sequential injection (SI) to separation techniques (HPLC, CE, GC), Use of novel stationary phases (monolithic, fused core, etc) in LC and low-pressure separation setups (Sequential Injection Chromatography - SIC), Development of novel methods for the determination of thiols in various matrices, Flow optical sensors based on Gold Nanoparticles (GNPs), Post column derivatization for Liquid Chromatography.

Mounir Mohamed Salem is an Assistance Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics in King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He finished his Postdoctoral Fellowship in NYU School of Medicine, USA and completed his PhD from Al-Azhar University, Egypt. He was given Shikh Abd Ullah Mubarak Elsabah award for Scientific Creation, Cultural Reading Foundation award and Dubai cultural award.

His research interests include Antibiotic Resistant, Molecular Biotechnology and Quality Control of pharmaceutical, herbal, cosmetic and water products.

Zhen Yang is a senior scientist of biopharmaceutics at Merck. Prior to joining Merck, he led a clinical bioanalytical lab as Supervisor at Texas Medical Toxicology for 1 year. He obtained his Ph.D. at University of Houston focusing on oral drug absorption, metabolism, and related drug transporters. In his master program at Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry, he worked on development of transdermal drug formulation. He published more than 25 papers in several peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters and 10 more conference abstracts in the areas of biopharmaceutics, formulation and bioanalysis.

His main research area is to support oral formulation development at various development stages. In addition, Zhen will lead and collaborate with colleagues in identifying and evaluating opportunities for alternate route of drug delivery in both drug discovery and late stage development.

Emmanuel Abraham HO is an Assistant Professor in the department of Immunology at University of Manitoba. He obtained his Ph.D from the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Toronto. He received research grants which include Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) - Leaders Opportunity Fund, MHRC Establishment Grant and CIHR Operating Grant. He published more than 20 papers in several peer-reviewed journals.

His interests include Biomedical engineering, Pharmaceutics, Drug delivery, Materials science, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Immunology, Oncology, Toxicology and Molecular biology.

Zhong-Xing Jiang was born in Chengdu (China) in 1975. He received his BS in chemistry at the Southwest Normal University (China) in 1999 and received his PhD at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (Chinese Academy of Sciences) in 2004. After postdoctoral training with Y. B. Yu at the University of Utah in 2004-2007 and with Z-Y Zhang at the Indiana University in 2007-2008, he moved to the University of Maryland Baltimore as Research Associate then Research Assistant Professor from 2008 to 2011. Since 2011, he has been Professor at the Wuhan University (China). His research is focused on the field of imaging-guided drug delivery system, with a focus on fluorinated biomaterials.

Fundamentally, his interest in science revolves developing novel imaging-guided drug delivery system for both diagnosis and therapy. Historically, he has used organic synthesis and MRI to pursue this interest and recently, this has led him to synthesis of novel fluorinated polymers and drug conjugates as imaging tracers for drug delivery as well as using fluorinated drug to probe small molecule-nuclear receptor interaction. Additionally, the study of structure-function relationships of small molecular antagonist for orphan nuclear receptor as pertains to human health have been investigated by the laboratory using combinatorial synthesis, fluorous chemistry, mass spectrometry and 19F MRI/NMR. All of these efforts are supported by his background in organic synthesis, fluorine chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, chemical biology and magnetic resonance imaging. The discovery based science projects within the laboratory are used to generate novel imaging-guided nanomedince for personalized drug therapy.

Dr. Alok Nahata has completed his Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Doctor Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar (M.P.), India. He has done his postgratuation in Pharmacognosy and Natural Products from the same department. Specialization in M. Pharm was on the memory enhancing and anxiolytic activity of Shankhpushpi. Phytochemcial and pharmacological investigations on all the different varieties of Shankhpushpi was done. Markers have been isolated and characterization and standardization parameters have been developed for using analytical techniques like HPTLC, HPLC and Spectrofluorimetry. In his doctoral programme, he worked on the effect of herbals on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer. Successful phytochemical investigations led to the isolation of markers from the tested plants and new leads in the prevention and treatment of BPH and prostate cancer were developed. Presently he is engaged in development of a research and development facility at one of the reputed herbal companies in Malaysia and carrying phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of natural products followed by preclinical studies.

Phytochemistry and Preclinical Research, Herbals and natural products and their pharmacological activities, Anxiolytic and antidepressant activity, Memory enhancement activity, Hepatoprotective activity, Antiandrogenic activity, Prostate cancer,Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Analytical studies using HPLC, HPTLC and Spectrofluorimetric analysis, Quality Control and Standardization of Herbals and Plant Tissue Culture.

He earned his PhD from University of Mumbai, India and Post-doctorate from Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan. He has published and presented several original research papers, articles and abstracts in peer reviewed journals and conferences. He has conceptualized innovative drug delivery platform technologies and is an inventor in number of patents. He is an invited speaker at international scientific meetings and conferences. H e serves as reviewer for more than 30 scientific international journals and is on Editorial/Advisory board of various journals.

His Research interests include Pharmaceutics, Drug delivery, Pharmaceutical technology, Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics and Regulatory affairs.