Dr. Varano della Vergiliana is currently a research officer at the Lung Institute of Western Australia, focusing on the role of mesothelial cells in pleural infection. He completed his Bachelors degree with honours in Pathology, which evaluated serum biomarkers of hepatic fibrosis in hepatitis C virus infected patients. Dr. Varano della Vergiliana gained research experience in the area of proteinase-activated receptors before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia, which focused on the activation of the plasma kallikrein-kinin system on respiratory epithelial and pleural mesothelial cells.

Christoph Hotz-Behofsits is currently leading the cancer and immunomodulation drug development at NanIRx Therapeutics in New York, NY. He has a graduated engineering degree in food- and biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from King’s College London at the University of London, UK. His research experiences include DNA vaccination/HIV at University of Bergen, Norway, postdoctoral cancer research at Columbia University in New York, NY, and participating in industrial and academic collaboration in his second postdoctoral research project focussing on diagnostic of radiation pathology at ASU Biodesign and HTGenomics, AZ.

I am an immunologist by training, having done my graduate work at Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and worked as post-doctoral follow with Dr. Max Cooper. In the early days, I worked on T cell subsets, in particular, the T helper-1 and T helper-2 in Leishmania infection. Their balance determines whether the host or this intra-macrophage parasite takes control of the immune defense system. Induction of cell-mediated immunity promotes inflammation and production of nitric oxide for eliminating the parasites. Conversely, the disease will manifest if the parasite potentiates humoral immunity. Leishmaniasis is endemic in India. I found that the anti-inflammatory compound curcumin, active ingredient in the Indian spice turmeric, would increase the infectivity of Leishmania. These findings excited my interest in dietary anti-inflammatory small molecules, their mechanisms of action and their potential as therapeutics. I learned that certain dietary anti-inflammatory agents, parasites and endogenous fatty acids, such as 15d-PGJ2, lipoxins and dietary -3-fatty acid, resolve inflammation by inducing the transcription factor, PPAR, which in turn inhibits activation of NFB and iNOS.

Wangde Dai received his M.D. from Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, China, in 1999. From 2000 to 2002, he was a Research Fellow at the Vascular Gene Therapy Lab, Vascular Surgery Division, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, where his research involved improving endothelial cell retention on polytetrafluoroethylene grafts in vivo, and preventing neointimal hyperplasia on a cell-seeded polytetrafluoroethylene graft by transfer of nitric oxide synthase gene in a rabbit aorta bypass model. In 2002, he joined as a Research Fellow at the Heart Institute, Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, where his studies included cardiac cell transplantation therapy, protection of ischemic myocardium, and development of therapies for improvement of cardiac function after myocardial infarction.

Dr. Chaban received his Ph.D. from Bogomoletz Institute, Kiev and continued his training at Babraham Institute, Cambridge, U.K. Prior to coming to UCLA he worked at Nencki Institute in Warsaw. Dr. Chaban completed his post-doctoral training in Neuroscience at the Department of Medicine at UCLA and graduate training in Clinical Research at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. Currently Dr. Chaban is an Associate Professor of Medicine. He received Wood-Whellan Award from International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Fellowships from International Science Foundation, European Science Foundation and UNESCO. He also received 2008 President\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Award for Excellence in Service to Charles Drew University and 2009 Life Sciences Institute Emerging Scientist Award.

I was born in Baghdad, Iraq on 6 April 1978. I finished my B.Sc in pharmacy the year 2001 at the college of Pharmacy, University of Baghdad, Iraq. I have worked as a hospital pharmacist in the government sector and as a retail pharmacist in the private sector. In 2002,I was appointed as a teaching fellow in the college of Pharmacy, University of Baghdad and I assisted practical classes teaching in the field of Pharmacognosy for more than 5 years. Following this, I joined as a Master degree student at the Physiology department, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Malaysiain January 2007 and I was granted the degree in May 2009. I have studied at the same school as a Ph.D candidate since August 2009 until present. I have received several awards such as the Vice Chancellor’s award (fellowship), best Master degree thesis and best publication awards.

Dr. C.G. Gerin got her Ph.D. in neurophysiology in 1996, awarded of the mention of Summa Cum Laude with Distinction. In addition, she holds a post-graduate university diploma of Vasculo-nervous Microsurgery with top honors as well. C.G.G. was employed at the University of Chicago, and has been concurrently appointed as an assistant professor of physiology at CSU, UIC, and at Argonne National Laboratory. During her doctorate C.G.G. studied effects of motor function on neurotransmitter release within specific anatomical areas of the spinal cord in rats. C.G.G. pioneered a surgical approach and instrumentation for spinal cord, and this led to national TV news demonstration in: “Spinal Cord Injuries and New Hopes for Repair”. As a faculty member, C.G.G. has been thesis advisor in the field of genomics and neuro-repair and regeneration of the spinal cord.

I am an assistant professor in Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and Vascular Biology Institute at the University of Miami. I received an MD degree from Gannan Medical University (China) in 1983, and a Ph D degree from Kagawa Medical University (Japan) in 2000. I have completed 4 years post-doctoral training at Hypertension/Nephrology Division, University of Minnesota and University of Miami.

Miao Wang, PhD currently holds a position of Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at University of Pennsylvania, where he finished postdoc and clinical research training and was appointed as Research Associate prior to current position. His research interest is focused on cardiovascular biology and therapeutic discovery of prostanoids (a group of bioactive lipids that belong to eicosanoids), vascular hemodynamics and inflammation, stem cell homeostasis and therapy, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Miao obtained his PhD degree in biophysics/immunology from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College, and his BS and MS degrees in molecular biology from Zhejiang University. Miao published over 25 research papers, including those in JCI, PNAS and Circulation as 1st author or corresponding author.

Dr. Copeland graduated from the American University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. In 1985, he graduated from Howard University with a Ph.D in Pharmacology. Dr. Copeland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine at Howard University; as well as, Director of Medical Informatics at the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library centrally located on Howard University campus. Dr. Copeland is a member of the Literature Scientific Review Technical Committee, a scientific reviewer for the Hazardous Substance Data Bank, member of the Environmental Health Information Partnership, all of the National Library of Medicine located at the NIH, and a member of the advisory board of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Dr. Copeland has authored publications in national and international journals in the areas of Drug Abuse, Toxicology and Drug Development for prostate and breast cancers. Dr. Copeland holds memberships in the American Medical Informatics Association, American Association for Cancer Research, Neurotoxicity Research Society, Society for Neuroscience and Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Pradeep K. Karla is an Assistsnt professor in pharmaceuticall sciences at Howard University, School of Pharmacy. The significance of Dr. Karla’s research involves the discovery of new drug efflux transporters on human ocular tissue, cornea, which forms the primary barrier for topical ocular drug delivery. Dr. Karla’s research have demonstrated for the first time theat these transporters play a vital role in decreased ocular bioavailability of drugs employed in chronic disease states such as glaucoma and ocular herpes. In-vivo ocular micro dialysis studies in rabbit animal model have demonstrated promosing results, where ocular bioavailability improved significantly with modulation of transporters.

Dr. Shankar is an associate professor of pharmacy practice-psychiatry and director of the psychiatric pharmacy practice residency at western University of health sciences, Pomona, CA. Dr. Shankar received his pharma.D. from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska and also holds a MS degree in public health from the University of north Carolina and MS degree in clinical psychology from CSU. He is board certified in psychiatric pharmacotherapy and is certified as a pharmacist clinician (Phc) by the new mexico board of pharmacy. He is a “Fellow of the Australian college of pharmacy practice.”

Dr. Maria Kontoyianni is an Assistant professor in Medicinal Chemistry, in the school of Pharmacy. She holds a Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she worked under the supervision of Professor Phil Bowen. After a post-doctoral fellowship with professor terry Lybrand at the University of Washington, she joined Zymogenetics, where she focused on ligand-based design and homology modeling.