Kenneth Blum is currently Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer of LifeGen, Inc. San Diego, California and managing partner of Reward Deficiency Solutions, LLC, and San Diego, California. He was formerly Full Professor of Pharmacology, University of Texas, at San Antonio, Texas for 23 years (retired). He is currently Full Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville Florida. He served as Research Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake forest College of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He serves as scientific Director, PATH Foundation, NY, New York. He has received numerous awards including NIDA Career Teacher Award; American Chemical Society Speakers Award; Gordon Conference Research Award; Presidential Excellence award (National Council of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse). Dr Blum has authored and edited eleven books, was an editor –in –chief of an Elsevier Journal, and has published over 400 peer reviewed papers. Coined “Brain Reward Cascade and Reward Deficiency Syndrome RDS) and is credited as the lead author in the first association of the Dopamine D2 receptor gene with severe alcoholism (JAMA, 1990). He is considered by many as the father of Psychiatric Genetics.� and Neuroadaptagen Amino-Acid Therapy (NAAT). Dr. Blum holds both US & foreign patents on Nutrigenomics. He serves on 7 editorial boards and is the associate editor on two boards including section editor of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology journal and is an ad hock reviewer for 40 journals world-wide.

Psychopharmacology, Neuropharmacology, Genetics, Psychiatric Genetics, Pharamcogenomics, Nutrigenomics nutrition omics.

Roland W. Herzog, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. He is member of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Therapy, the UF Genetics Institute, Shands Cancer and Powell Gene Therapy Centers. After completing a PhD in Microbiology (Auburn University, 1992-1996) and postdoctoral training (Children Hospital of Philadelphia 1996-2000), Dr. Herzog became faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA), before joining UF in 2005. He received, among other awards, a Career Development Award from the National Hemophilia Foundation, an Outstanding New Investigator Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and a Bayer Hemophilia Award. Dr. Herzog serves on the editorial boards of the journals Current Gene Therapy, Gene Therapy, and Human Gene Therapy, and he is a Deputy Editor of the journal Molecular Therapy. He has served as reviewer for several other leading biomedical journals, the National Institutes of Health, and several other funding agencies. Dr. Herzog has published two books and more than 80 articles and has received multiple federal grants for his research program. He has given numerous invited lectures at national and international meetings.

Gene therapy for hemophilia, Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors, Liver-directed gene therapy, Immune responses to coagulation factors, Organ-specific immunity, Immune tolerance induction and mechanisms, Regulatory T cells, Immune modulation, Oral tolerance.

Dr. Arun Srivastava is Chief of Division of Cellular & Molecular Therapy in the Departments of Pediatrics, and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, and Powell Gene Therapy Center. He has also served as Assistant Director of the UF General Clinical Research Center. He received his PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. After completing his postdoctoral training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he worked as a Research Associate at the University of Florida. For nearly two decades, he was on the faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where he rose to the rank of Professor. He was recruited back to the University of Florida in 2004. In the past three decades, he has mentored 8 Clinical Fellows and 32 Postdoctoral Fellows. Two students have graduated with MS degrees, and 7 students have received their PhD degrees from his laboratory. His research activities are currently supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Bayer Hemophilia Program. He has also been awarded 3 US Patents on his research on human parvoviruses and their potential use as vectors in human gene therapy. He currently serves on two NIH Study Sections as well as on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Virology, Human Gene Therapy, Recent Patents on DNA and Gene Sequences, Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology, and Journal of Chinese Integrative Medicine. He has published 157 research articles, mostly on human parvoviruses, in peer-reviewed journals, reviews, and book chapters.

For the past 30 years, Dr. Srivastava’s research has been focused on the following two parvoviruses, the non-pathogenic adeno-associated virus (AAV), and a common human pathogen, the parvovirus B19, and the development of recombinant parvovirus vectors in human gene therapy. His laboratory has made seminal contributions to the field of parvoviruses, which include: identification of cellular co-receptors for AAV2, AAV3 as well as parvovirus B19; elucidation of various steps involved in parvovirus trafficking in the cell and nuclear transport; identification of cellular proteins involved in the regulation of AAV DNA replication and encapsidation; development of recombinant AAV and parvovirus B19 vectors; and transgenic and knockout mouse models to study parvovirus-induced pathogenicity, and the use of parvovirus vectors for gene transfer and gene therapy. More recently, the next generation of recombinant AAV vectors have been developed in his laboratory that transduce cells and tissues more efficiently at lower vector doses. In collaboration with Dr. Roland Herzog’s laboratory, he has developed strategies to achieve therapeutic levels of coagulation factors at reduced vector doses for the potential gene therapy of hemophilia. The current emphasis is on developing recombinant parvovirus vectors for gene therapy for genetic diseases such as beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease, and malignant disorders such as hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Lee P. Shulman MD is the Anna Ross Lapham Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Chief of the Division of Clinical Genetics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. He also serves as the Director of the Cancer Genetics Program of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and the Co-Director of the Northwestern Ovarian Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Program. Dr. Shulman is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy. He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. Dr. Shulman was graduated from Cornell University in 1979 with a BA degree in the College Scholar program. He then attended Cornell University Medical College where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1983. Dr. Shulman completed an internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at North Shore University Hospital at Cornell University Medical College in 1987 and served as Chief Resident during his final year. From there he completed a fellowship in Reproductive Genetics at the University of Tennessee, Memphis and then joined the Ob/Gyn faculty of the University of Tennessee, Memphis, becoming the Director of Reproductive Genetics in 1994. In 1999 he relocated to the University of Illinois at Chicago where he served as Deputy Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of the Divisions of Reproductive Genetics and Ambulatory Care Services and as Medical Director of the Center of Excellence in Women Health. Dr. Shulman is a member of numerous regional, national and international organizations that pertain to the health and care of women. He currently serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. His work has been recognized regionally and nationally; most recently, he was included in the list of Top Doctors� in Chicago (2009-10) and the United States. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, is a Contributing Editor for The Journal of Reproductive Medicine and the Executive Editor of the Journal of Gynecologic Surgery. He also serves on the editorial boards of Prenatal Diagnosis, Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, Contraception, Menopause, and as a peer-reviewer for 32 journals. A frequent contributor to the peer-reviewed and informational literature with over 130 peer-reviewed articles and over 50 book chapters, Dr. Shulman serves on governmental, foundation and industry advisory boards and is a member of the Medical Advisory Board for the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Diseases.

His major research interests are in reproductive genetics, genetic implications for gynecologic and breast cancer, contraception, menopause and botanical interventions in women health and menopause.

Aldi Kraja is a Research Associate Professor of Genetics. Dr. Kraja finished a second PhD at the University of Illinois in the area of Quantitative Genetics. A group of articles for identification of favorable alleles were published. At the University of Illinois Dr. Kraja worked also as a research and teaching assistant for Statistics, Experimental Designs and SAS applications. He received the "Advanced Teachers Certificate for Excellence in Teaching", one of the only two given to all teaching assistants until that time at the University of Illinois. From 1999-2005 Dr. Kraja worked in the Division of Biostatistics at the Washington University School of Medicine. He is currently contributing in the Family Heart Study, HyperGEN, FBPP, SCAN, CREATE, GOLDN, FHSGWAS, Tumor Sequencing Project, GeneSTAR, and STAMPEED. From 2005 and on he is working in the Division of Statistical Genomics. Articles related to Genetic Epidemiology research have been published. During 2000-2004 he established a SAS course, which was taught twice a year. A textbook on SAS programming was written and maintained for the SAS course. Dr. Kraja is also co-course master for "Computational Statistical Genetics" course. Mentoring GEMS or PhD degree students for their thesis defense, as well as young faculty from minorities (SIPID) has been a continuous fruitful process.

Dr. Kraja research include understanding how genes in interaction with each other and environments produce human diseases. Interests range from the development of new statistical methods to analysis of human data on specific diseases.

Dr. Jasti Rao is Director of the Program of Cancer Biology and Head of the Department of Cancer Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, Professor of both Cancer Biology and Neurosurgery. He has obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Madras, India in 1982. Dr. Rao ongoing research focuses on brain tumors, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, as well as cord blood stem cell research. He currently has seven R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling over $11 million. The scholarly outcomes of Dr. Rao research include more than 210 peer reviewed publications in leading cancer research and biomedical journals and 13 book chapters. He currently serves as a manuscript reviewer for over 30 leading cancer and biomedical journals and is also a grant reviewer for the NIH, American Cancer Society and various other national and international granting agencies.

Cancer research, Tumor biology, Biochemistry, Immunology, Signal transduction, Angiogenesis, Apoptosis, Cell cycle regulation, Growth factors and Invasion

George Perry is dean of the College of Sciences and professor of biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Perry is recognized in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research particularly for his work on oxidative stress.Perry received his bachelor’s of arts degree in zoology with high honors from University of California, Santa Barbara. After graduation, he headed to Scripps Institution of Oceanography and obtained his Ph.D. in marine biology under David Epel in 1979. He then received a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Cell Biology in the laboratories of Drs. Bill Brinkley and Joseph Bryan at Baylor College of Medicine where he laid the foundation for his observations of abnormalities in cell structures. In 1982, Perry joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University, where he currently holds an adjunct appointment. He is distinguished as one of the top Alzheimer disease researchers with over 800 publications, one of the top 100 most-cited scientists in neuroscience and behavior and one of the top 25 scientists in free radical research. Perry has been cited over 24,000 times and is recognized as an ISI highly cited researcher. Perry is editor for numerous journals and is editor-in-chief for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and past-president of the American Association of Neuropathologists. Most recently he has been named a Foreign Correspondent Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.

Alzheimer disease, Oxidative stress, Parkinson disease, Cytoskeleton, Mitochondria, Amyloidosis, Neuropathology, Cytochemistry. Perry’s research is primarily focused on how Alzheimer disease develops and the physiological consequences of the disease at a cellular level. He is currently working to determine the sequence of events leading to damage caused by and the source of increased oxygen radicals.

Chun-Sheng Kang, PhD Professor and Vice-director Tianjin Neurological Institute Department of neurosurgery Tianjin Medical University General Hospital Heping District, Tianjin, China

Neurology

Alexander Yu Nikitin isAssociate Professor of Pathology and Leader of the Stem Cell Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.He received his M.D. with Distinction in Internal Medicine from Pavlov First Medical Institute(1983) and Ph.D. in Pathology from Petrov Research Institute of Oncology (1988) in St. Petersburg, Russia.Following his postdoctoral and junior faculty research atthe University of Essen Medical School in Germany and at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in Texas, he joined Cornell University faculty in 2000. Dr. Nikitinis a Member of the Academy of Genomic Pathology since 2007 and is a co-founder and a co-organizer of the NCRR supported Annual Practical Workshop on the Pathology of Mouse Models for Human Disease since 2002. Dr Nikitin has published over 70 research articles, 7 book chapters and a book on Histologic Basis of Mouse Endocrine System Development.

Current research of Dr. Nikitin aims to understand how tumor suppressor genes, microRNAs and microenvironmental factors regulate adult stem cells and how aberrations in those regulatory mechanisms may lead to cancer, including its metastatic stages. This research is complemented by technology-oriented projects involving generation and characterization of new mouse models of human cancer and development of novel targeting vectors.

Associate Professor, Neurology and Pediatrics Director, Neurogenetics Laboratory NYU School of Medicine He has received an MD from the University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, Philippines, 1979-1983. He has completed Pediatrics and Molecular Genetics Residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1986-1992. He has completed Medical Genetics Fellowship at the Mayo Clinical Foundation, 1989-1991. He has received a Young Pediatric Investigator Award, Mount Sinai Child Health Research -Center, NIH (5 P30 HD28822), 1996-1997, and a Minority Clinical Associate Physician Award, Mount Sinai General Clinical Research Center, National Center for Research Resources, NIH (5M01-RR0071). He has published over 120 paper, two textbooks, 14 book chapters and is serving as an editorial board member of reputed journals and reviewer of 10 journals.

Lysosomal storage disorders, Clinical trials design and outcome measures for rare disorders, Neurogenetics.

Philip Ng Associate Professor Department of Molecular and Human Genetics Baylor College of Medicine One Baylor Plaza Houston, TX, USA

My laboratory is interested in developing gene therapies for genetic diseases using helper-dependent adenoviral vectors (HDAd). HDAd (also called gutless or gutted adenovirus) do not contain any viral genes and thus represent a major improvement over early generation adenoviral vectors with respect to safety and efficacy. These vectors can transduce target cells with high efficiency to provide high level long-term transgene expression without chronic toxicity. Studies into improving the production of HDAd as well as their characterization are ongoing in my laboratory including manufacturing the vector under current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) for clinical applications in humans. Another major focus of my laboratory is lung-directed gene therapy using HDAd with the primary goal of treating cystic fibrosis. In collaboration with Dr. Peter Hiatt, a pediatric pulmonologist, we have recently developed a novel method of aerosolizing HDAd into the lungs of nonhuman primates which has resulted in very high efficiency gene transfer to the airway epithelium with negligible toxicity. Based on these encouraging and compelling results, we plan to obtain regulatory approval from the FDA to use this novel technology to treat patients with cystic fibrosis in the near future.

Yasukatsu Izumi is a Associate Professor of Department of Pharmacology, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka, Japan.He has received a PhD from Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan (2000). The dissertation is “Cardiac mitogen-activated protein kinase activities are chronically increased in stroke-prone hypertensive rats�. He has received a MD from Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan (1994). He is serving as an editorial board member of reputed journals and reviewer of 3 journals. He is a Board Certified Member of The Japanese Circulation Society and The Japanese Society of Hypertension. He is a councilor of The Japanese Pharmacological Society. Number of publications: 47

Signal Transduction and Gene Expressions in Cardiovascular Remodeling, Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Gene Therapy in vivo, Hypertrophy and Heart Failure in Experimental Models in vivo.

Dr. Montano laboratory investigates host-pathogen response during HIV-1 infection. Research initiatives include the identification and analysis of host genes and molecular mechanisms engaged during HIV-1 infection and transmission; interaction between host immune factors and muscle remodeling during HIV associated wasting; and transcriptional control and evolution of HIV-1 sequences. The laboratory utilizes tools in molecular virology, quantitative analysis of gene and protein expression, and genome-wide microarray analysis to characterize transcriptional profiles association with HIV-1 infection, transmission and pandemic spread.

Division of Cardiac Surgery University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland Alumni Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. Swiss Society Thoracic/Cardiac/Vascular Surgery Award, Distinguished AHA Awards for top 10 and top 4 research papers, Medical Faculty Award, University Basel, Euler and Novartis Awards. Serving as editorial board member of reputed journals and reviewer of numerous journals.

Marfan Syndrome and related disorders Aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection Clinical application of genomics and proteomics Biomarker in cardiovascular disease

Rajagopalan G, PhD Department of Immunology Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA

Immunology

Jie Wang is a Senior Research Scientist, Principal Investigator, and Project Leader of Optimum Therapeutics LLC, The Ohio State University Science Tech Village. Dr. Wang earned his PhD in Pharmaceutics from the Ohio State University (2005), MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Peking University (2000), and BS in Pharmacy from Beijing Medical University (1997). He is a member of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and American Association for Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). He has teaching experiences in the field of pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics. He has been serving as reviewer for top-ranked scientific journals in the area of pharmaceutical sciences, experimental pharmacology, medicinal chemistry and nanotechnology.

Nanomedicine formulation design for targeted drug delivery and development of non-viral vectors for gene (including oligonucleotides) delivery; Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs in systemic and regional cancer chemo-gene therapy.

Yingli Wang, D.M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Wang received her D.M.D. from Xia an Medical University, and a Master of Oral Pathology from Hubei Medical University, China. She received her Ph.D. in craniofacial biology from Peking University, China. She finished her postdoctoral training in craniofacial development and disorders at The Johns Hopkins University. She joined the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine as an instructor in 2007, and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2010. Dr. Wang has given invited lectures in national and international conferences. She has served as reviewers for several journals including Molecular Medicine and Experimental Cell Research.

Craniosynostosis is a common malformation characterized by the premature closure of one or more of the cranial sutures of the skull. There are more than 100 human syndromes with craniosynostosis as a feature. Dr. Wang research is focused on studying the pathogenesis, molecular mechanisms and pharmacologic treatment of human genetic malformations with craniosynostosis and other craniofacial abnormalities, including Apert, Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrate, Crouzon and Saethre-Chotzen syndromes, by generating and characterizing transgenic mouse models.

Ilhem Messaoudi is an Assistant Professor at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health and Science University. Assistant Scientist in the division of Pathobiology and Immunology, Oregon National Primate Research Center. Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University. She has received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Lafayette College in Easton, PA and her PhD from the Cornell University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She serves on as the co-director of the biology of Aging working Group at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. She is also a member of the editorial board on the Journal of Virology and serves as a reviewer on 6 additional journals including Journal of Immunology, AGE, Reviews in Aging Research. She received a Leadership in Aging Research Fellowship from the Brookdale Foundation.

Immune senescence Vaccine development Neuro-endocrine-immunology Virology

Neurodegenerative Disease

Liting Song obtained his medical degree from China, and he was a physician in public health and epidemiology in China. He acquired a masters degree in medicine, specialized in medical virology from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He completed his postdoctoral training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School, and the University of Toronto. He received a Certificate in English for Technical Purposes from Red River College. Liting is an Executive Editor of the Journal of Genetic Syndrome & Gene Therapy. He is an editorial board member of Stem Cell Studies; Journal of Infectious Diseases and Immunity; and Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology. He is a reviewer for Journal Prep; Cell Biology International; and 3 other journals. He isolated some new serotypes of Seadornavirus from mosquitoes collected in China. He pointed out that reovirus is unlikely to be an effective and practical anti-cancer agent. He proposed a possible approach for stem cell gene therapy of some genetic diseases. He and his colleagues won the Third Prize in Chinese Medical Science and Technology, and the Third Prize of Progresses in Science and Technology of Beijing City in 2004.

Stem cell gene therapy of genetic diseases, Genomic DNA and transfection, Gene expression, Non-coding RNAs, Infectious disease control and epidemiology.

Christine Skerka is a senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, University of Bremen, Germany. She performed her doctoral thesis at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Bethesda,USA. She worked as post doctoral fellow and researcher at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany. Docent (Assistant Professor) for Immunology and Molecular Biology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Docent (Assitant Professor) for Molecular Biology at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany. Leader of the Research Group for Immunoregulation at the Department of Infection Biology, Leibniz-Institute for Natural Products Research and Infection Biology, Jena, Germany. She is reviewer of The Welcome Trust, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and several journals (Blood, Nature immunology, Human Molecular Genetics, Journal of Biological Chemistry etc). Medac Publication Award 2009. Faculty Member of the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena and GRK an International Leibniz Research School for Microbial and Biomolecular Interactions Jena.

Complement regulation in autoimmune diseases age related macular degeneration, and hemolytic uremic syndrome, Genotype-phenotype correlation of disease associated mutations in complement regulators, Immune-evasion of human pathogens such as Candida albicans, Role of CFHR proteins as complement regulators.

Yoshiyuki Yamada is Section Chief, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Gunma Childrens Medical Center in Gunma, Japan. He received his MD in Kansai Medical University (1995) and a PhD in Akita University Graduate School of Medicne (2003). He completed his Residency and Clinical Fellowship in Pediatrics, Kansai Medical University (1995-1998). He completed post-doctoral fellowship in Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center (2003-2007). He is a recipient of several awards (American Heart Association Ohio Valley Affiliate Postdoctoral Fellowship, Best Abstract Award in 4th Biennial Congress of the Int Eosinophil Society, FIT Best Abstract Award, MAAI interest section American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) 2006 and several awards of AAAAI) and several grants including Japanese national one. He is currently an assistant editor of Pediatrics International. Dr. Yamada is a team leader of pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis in Research on Intractable Diseases, Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan.

Eosinophilic disorders (hypereosinophilic syndromes and eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders), allergic disorders, laboratory medicine and infectious diseases.

Christian M. Hedrich is attending in Pediatrics and responsible for the Pediatric Rheumatology out-patient clinic, University Children Hospital Dresden, Germany. C.H. received his medical degree from University of Ulm Medical School in 2004 (Dr. med.). He finished his postgraduate training in Pediatrics at University of Dresden Children Hospital, Dresden, Germany and passed boars exams in General Pediatrics in 2010. C.H. is responsible for the Pediatric Rheumatology out-patient clinic of University of Dresden Children Hospital. C.H. spent two years at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Baltimore for postdoctoral research training. There, he worked on epigenetic regulation in the IL-10 cytokine cluster. Since his return to University Medical Center Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden, he is group leader in the epigenetics and gene regulation lab, where he works on epigenetic marks and genomic variants and their effects on the regulation of cytokine genes.

Pediatric Rheumatology, Cytokine dysregulation in inflammatory disorders, Gene regulation in the immune system, Epigenetic regulation of cytokine genes, Autoinflammation and Autoinflammatory diseases.

Nancy Smyth Templeton is the Director of Delivery Systems at Gradalis Inc., Carrollton, TX. She received postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in the National Cancer Institute and in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD (1988-1994). She received a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT with her thesis research conducted at the Childrens Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio upon her mentors move there (1983-1988). She received an MS in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (1978-1982). She received a BS in Education and Sciences from CCNY, NYC, NY graduating magna cum laude (1974). She has received a Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Faculty Excellence Award (for Enduring Educational Materials), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, a Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Faculty Excellence Award (for Teaching and Evaluation), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX and was awarded membership in the Academy of Distinguished Educators, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, the National Cancer Institute Officers Recognition EEO Award, NCI, NIH and other awards. She has served on 42 Grant Review Panels and Study Sections, 10 Professional Committees; reviewer for 20 peer-reviewed journals; editor of three editions of a Gene Therapy textbook; member of 8 Professional Societies, three clinical trials; has 54 publications; presented over 170 seminars as an invited speaker and/or moderator including national and international meetings; consultant for 5 Biotech and Pharmaceutical companies; and has 2 issued patents and 8 patent applications.

Liposomal delivery systems, Non-viral delivery systems, Targeted systemic delivery, Human clinical trials, Histone modifications, High-level gene expression, Homologous recombination, Plasmid DNA manufacture, Long-term gene expression.

Erwin G. Van Meir, PhD is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Hematology/ Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Winship Cancer Institute Brain Tumor Program and Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology part of a multidisciplinary neuro-oncology team aimed at designing new approaches for brain tumor therapy. Dr. Van Meir has extensive experience in cancer research. He was trained in molecular biology at the Universities of Fribourg and Lausanne, Switzerland where he obtained his PhD in 1989. Dr. Van Meir pursued postdoctoral work at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego, joining the Faculty of Emory University in 1998. He has authored over 100 scientific publications on this topic, serves as a reviewer for over 30 international cancer research journals, is a current member of the editorial board of Frontiers in Bioscience, Neuro-Oncology and International Journal of Oncology, and is a former associate editor for the International Journal of Cancer. He has trained multiple undergraduate and graduate students, medical fellows and postdocs and is a member of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biochemical Sciences at Emory, where he participates in the programs in Genetics and Molecular Biology and in Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology. Dr. Van Meir is active in several scientific societies, including the American Society for Neuro-Oncology and the European Association for Neuro-Oncology. His research, supported by the NIH, the SNSF and many private foundations, is described in more than 100 peer-reviewed international scientific publications that have cumulated over 3,000 citations. Dr. Van Meir is also the author of several US and foreign patents. His contributions have been presented in over 100 invited seminars worldwide and have furthered the understanding of brain tumor biology and genetics, as well as led to the development novel preclinical therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Van Meirs primary research interests include brain tumor biology and genetics. Dr. Van Meir and his colleagues have made many original contributions to cancer research, primarily directed at defining the genetic alterations in brain tumors and determining their biological significance for tumor development, with particular emphasis on angiogenesis and hypoxia, and translating this knowledge into new therapeutic approaches.

Sean M. Post is an Instructor in the Department of Genetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his BS in Biology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock- 1996. He completed his Ph. D. in Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He is the recipient of the Dowdy P. Hawn Fellowship. He is an Ad Hoc reviewer for 2 journals.

Cancer Genetics Mouse Models p53 Pathway Biology

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Nephrology

Chunping Qiao is a research faculty in UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina. She has finished her postdoctoral training in University of Pittsburgh. She has received her Ph.D in Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences, China She has received her M.D in He-nan University of Medical Sciences, China. She is serving as a reviewer for 2 Journals. She has more than 20 publications.

Adeno-associate virus (AAV) mediated gene therapy, Muscular dystrophies, Muscle biology, Cardiac disease

Nicole R. Tartaglia is a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician at The Childrens Hospital in Aurora, Colorado and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Denver Fragile X Treatment and Research Center and the Director of the extraordinary Kids Clinic, a specialized clinic for children and young adults with sex chromosome abnormalities at The Childrens Hospital. She received her MD from University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2000, and trained in Pediatrics at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics at the UC-Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento California.

Her research interests are in behavioral phenotypes and neurodevelopment in genetic disorders, including special interests in fragile X syndrome, sex chromosome aneuploidy, and 22q11 deletion syndromes. She is also interested in research related to autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Instructor in Medicine Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

Cancer biology

David N. Cooper is Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at Cardiff University. He obtained his PhD in molecular biology from Edinburgh University in 1983. Having worked on the molecular genetics of inherited disorders of thrombosis and haemostasis at the University of London, he took up his present position in 1995. His research interests are largely focused upon elucidating the mechanisms of mutagenesis underlying human genetic disease, but include genotype–phenotype relationships in various inherited conditions, as well as human evolutionary and population genetics. He has published over 350 papers in the field of human molecular genetics and has co-authored or co-edited a number of books including Human Gene Mutation (1993), Nature Encyclopedia of the Human Genome (2003), Molecular Genetics of Lung Cancer (2005), Handbook of Human Molecular Evolution (2008) and Copy Number Variation and Disease (2009). He curates the Human Gene Mutation Database (http://www.hgmd.org), a comprehensive database of mutations causing human inherited disease, which is marketed internationally through a commercial partner, BIOBASE GmbH. Professor Cooper is European Editor of Human Genetics and Editor of the Genetics & Disease section of Wiley’s Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. He is also a member of several Editorial Boards including Journal of Medical Genetics and Human Mutation.

His research interests are largely focused upon elucidating the mechanisms of mutagenesis underlying human genetic disease, but include genotype–phenotype relationships in various inherited conditions, as well as human evolutionary and population genetics.

After graduating from Loyola University Chicago in 2004, Dr. Lawlor completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology and a fellowship in Neuropathology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and has since become board-certified in both of these fields. Dr. Lawlor pursued postdoctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Beggs at Children’s Hospital Boston, where he focused on the pathological analysis of animal models of muscle disease and thedevelopment of treatments for X-linked myotubular myopathy. Since moving to the Medical College of Wisconsin September of 2011, Dr. Lawlor has continued to work closely with the Beggs laboratory while establishing clinical and research neuromuscular pathology laboratories. The work performed in his research laboratory at MCW has performed the pathological analyses for a number of preclinical trial studies for animal models of X-linked myotubular myopathy that are currently being performed worldwide, including anti-myostatin therapy, gene therapy, and protein replacement therapy.

Pathological analysis of pediatric neuromuscular disease (in both humans and animal models), as well as in the development and testing of therapeutic agents for this class of diseases.

Dr. Linda B. Baughn has received his PhD in Immunology from Tufts University in Boston, MA during the period of 1998-2004. Currently, Dr. Baughn is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at the University of Minnesota. She has authored 9 research articles/books. She is a member of The American Association of Immunologists and Graduate Women in Science. She has been honored as a recipient of multiple traveling awards and research fellowships.

The proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib is widely used to treat multiple myeloma, relapsed mantle cell lymphoma and is being evaluated in clinical trials for other B cell malignancies. However, due to the development of drug resistance, patients treated with Bortezomib eventually relapse.  One of my goals is to understand the basis of Bortezomib resistance and to determine whether the enzyme, activation induced cytidine deaminase contributes to the development of drug resistance.

Dr. Ahmed M Malki is currently assistant professor and program director of Molecular Biology in Biochemistry Department, Faculty Of Science, Alexandria University in Egypt. He graduated from Edison Institute of Biotechnology at Ohio University (USA) in 2006 with PhD in Molecular Oncology then He joined Nutritional Science and Toxicology department at University of California Berkeley, USA in 2007. Then, he was appointed as director of Genetic Engineering laboratories at center of excellence at City of Research and Technology. He is an editorial board member in African Journal of Biochemistry Research and Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Reviews.

He received best research record award from Ohio University in 2006 and best research paper from global breast cancer conference in Seoul, South Korea in 2011. He also received Alexandria University award for scientific encouragement and achievement in 2011. He is currently a leader of group of no of grants in the field of molecular therapeutics.

The central theme of my research is the understanding of the signaling pathways and the genes that regulate cell proliferation and cell death. My research also focuses on design of novel chemotherapeutic drugs and gene therapy.

Haris Kokotas, Molecular Geneticist, received his BSc from the Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Greece and earned his PhD in Molecular Genetics of Deafness from the Athens University Medical School. He has gained experience on cytogenetic and molecular techniques and he has focused his research on the genetics of the head, including hearing loss and eye diseases. He is currently the principal investigator or co-investigator in several research projects which are being performed at the Department of Genetics, Institute of Child Health, Athens, Greece. He has presented in several national and international conferences and has published numerous articles in national and international peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has also taken the task of the managing editor for a special issue dedicated to the genetics of sensorineural hearing loss. Haris is a member of the Hellenic Association of Medical Geneticists, the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG), and the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG).

Molecular genetics of deafness and blindness