INVITED SPEAKERS

Home - INVITED SPEAKERS

INVITED SPEAKERS

PROF. IRENA KOSTOVA

 

Medical University, Bulgaria

 

 

Prof. Irena Kostova is one of the World’s Top 1% of scientists according to Stanford University's ranking of scientists with the greatest contribution to the development of modern science. She graduated from Mendeleev University in Moscow with the highest grade. Defended her PhD and DSc theses at MU-Sofia where she is currently a full professor at Chemistry Department. Graduated her second specialization “Theoretical bases of medical chemistry” at MU-Sofia. Her research interests include the developmental work in theoretical and coordination chemistry, vibrational spectroscopy, pharmacological investigations of biologically active compounds etc. Author of about 200 publications with high impact factor and h-index, several textbooks, education book materials and monographs with around 7000 citations in indexed journals. She has been a lecturer at renowned universities in India, Austria, Italy, Romania, Spain, Slovakia etc. Member of the organizing committees of over 30 international conferences. She is an Editor of 7 prestigious international scientific journals, a member of the Editorial Boards of over 25 international journals and a reviewer for numerous high-ranking journals and international projects. She has created and maintains collaborations with a number of European universities in the framework of joint research projects and European programs.


Dr. Qiang Li

 

Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, China

 

 

Qiang Li Dr. , Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine (China), specialized in Pathology and Pathophysiology. The main research interests include the immunopharmacology and toxicology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, stem cells and regenerative medicine, as well as liver diseases. He serves as an editorial board member for "Pharmaceutical Sciences Frontiers" and "Future Integrative Medicine" journals, and as a reviewer for the "iScience" journal. Dr. Li has participated in 1 national heritage innovation team project, 1 Beijing Natural Science Foundation project, and 4 National Undergraduate Training Programs for Innovation (SRT). He has published 4 SCI papers(IF>5) as the first author (including co-authored papers) in renowned international journals such as EMBO reports and Phytotherapy Research (including TOP journals), as well as 2 Chinese core papers (CSCD) and contributed to 1 medical monograph. Additionally, he has been granted 5 national patents and has pending applications for several others.


Dr. Eva Falomir

 

University of Valencia, Spain

 

Aryl Azoles Based Scaffolds for Disrupting Tumor Microenvironment.

 

Dr. Eva Falomir studied Chemistry at the Valencia University, Spain and graduated as MS in 1994. She then joined the research group of Prof. Carda at Jaume I University (UJI). She received her PhD degree in 1998 at the same institution. After two years postdoctoral fellowship supervised by Dr A. Fürstner at Max-Planck Institute, Germany she obtained the position of an Associate Professor at UJI. In 2022, she got a Full Professor position in the same university. She has published more than 100 research articles in SCI(E) journals.


Dr. Lijuan Huang

 

Capital Institute of Pediatrics, China

 

A repositioning of triptolide for treatment of pulmonary fibrosis induced by chlormethine side effects

 

Dr. Huang received a doctoral degree from the Beijing Institutes of Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2023, specializing in systems biology for lung injury caused by exogenous. Subsequently, Dr. Huang conducted postdoctoral research at Capital Institute of Pediatrics, China (2023-2025), and study the mechanism and drug development of bacterial pulmonary fibrosis. She has published 9 SCI papers as the first author in international journals such as Food Chemistry and Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.


Dr. Vita Richard Denk

 

SKAN AG, Switzerland

 

Fully Gloveless-Robotic Aseptic Manufacturing for high potent sterile liquid pharmaceuticals

 

Richard Denk is working at the company SKAN AG, headquartered in Allschwil- Switzerland in the position Senior Consultant Aseptic Processing & Containment. Richard was member of Annex 1 - ISPE Commenting Team and current chair of the ISPE European Affiliate Council, chair of the Containment CoP and Future Robotics of the ISPE DACH. Richard is Author and Member of the PDA ATMP Advisory Board and frequent international speaker. Richard has spent more than 25 years with the subject on Aseptic Processing and highly active / highly hazardous substances and has developed the containment pyramid.


Dr. Ziying Xu

 

Capital Institute of Pediatrics, China

 

Research of gender and species differences in drug-induced liver injury based on transcriptome and DNA methylation

 

Dr. Xu received a doctoral degree from the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS) in 2019, specializing in epigenetics research on renal carcinoma induced by aristolochic acid. Subsequently, Dr. Xu conducted postdoctoral research at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine(2019-2021), and Capital Institute of Pediatrics, China (2021-2023). In 2023, she got a position in Capital Institute of Pediatrics, the primary research field of epigenetics of liver and kidney injury induced by drug abuse.She has published 6 SCI papers(IF>5) as the first author (including co-authored papers) in international journals such as JASN and EMBO reports. Additionally, dr. Xu has Hosted 1 Beijing Natural Science Foundation project, and participated in 2 National Natural Science Foundation of China.


Dr. Chikezie Kennedy Kalu

 

University in Zhenjiang, China

 

The Impact of Modern Data and Artificial Intelligence on Pharmaceutics

 

Chikezie Kennedy Kalu is currently a graduation level(i.e. 2024) PhD Student at the Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management; Jiangsu University, China. His field of research is Technology and Innovation Management. He is from Nigeria and has a B.Eng. in Electronics Engineering from The University of Nigeria Nsukka; Enugu State, Nigeria (UNN) and a Masters (with Distinction) in Communication Engineering from The University of Manchester, UK. He has also had professional work experiences cutting across the Industries of: Telecom Engineering, Retail, Education, Oil and Gas, ICT and Logistics. Chikezie was awarded the International Best Researcher in Management Science and Engineering at the Asia Research Awards (International Congress for Research Excellence 2024) in India, in March 2024. Chikezie’s research works and interests includes, the design, use and management of innovative modern technologies and processes such as : Data Science/Analytics, Machine Learning Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematical system modelling, Algorithms design, Wireless Communications Systems and Electronics Engineering; to analyse, design, improve, manage and optimize diverse fields, which includes: Health, Food/Agriculture, Sciences, Technologies, Water, Energy, Environment, Management Science, Modern Wireless Communications Systems, Construction, Projects; and various Social Ventures for the good of humanity.


Dr. Fabio Vivarelli

 

University of Bologna, Italy

 

Electronic cigarettes: smoking by any other name

 

In recent years, he has focused her research activity on the toxicological aspects associated with exposure to vapour generated by electronic nicotine delivery devices commonly known as e-cigarettes in in vivo models. The research conducted has focused on the study of oxidative effects at the level of macromolecules and the modulation of cytochrome P450 superfamily activity and antioxidant enzymes in different tissues. Recently, the line of research has turned to studying the co-mutagenic and co-carcinogenic potential linked to exposure to e-cigarette vapours, as well as the potential effects on male gonadal function. (Research group coordinator: Prof. Moreno Paolini - Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy).


Dr. Hui Qi

 

Hebei Academy of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, China.

 

Single-cell and spatial sequencing identifies pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells as a potential therapeutic target of early stage of COPD

 

Dr. Hui Qi studied cell biology at Peking University in China and received her Doctoral degree in 2013. She then worked as a postdoc in professor Thomas Braun’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Germany, where she pursued research in cardiopulmonary medicine, from August 2013 to August 2021. In October 2021, Dr. Hui Qi joined Hebei Academy of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine in China and became the group leader of the “respiratory disease research and drug development platform”. Dr. Qi's current research is focused on deciphering the fundamental mechanisms of pulmonary diseases such as COPD, asthma, and pulmonary fibrosis, as well as the advancement of pharmaceutical treatments for these conditions. Additionally, she aims to elucidate the diverse mechanisms of action of Traditional Chinese Medicine products that exhibit potential in managing respiratory illnesses, in order to provide scientific and objective theoretical basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and to promote its global utilization. Dr. Qi’s scientific contributions have been published in top-tier scientific journals, such as Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cell Stem Cell, International Immunopharmacology and others.


Prof.Ji-Kai Liu

 

Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, China.

 

Exploring Chemical Space: New Natural Products and Bioacitivities of Medicinal Fungi

 

Prof. Dr. Ji-Kai Liu is a Professor and Director of the Academic Committee, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China. He acquired his Ph.D. degree at Lanzhou University in 1988. Following this, he served at Sun Yat-Sen University as a faculty member until 1995. During the period 1993–1994, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of the Saarland in Germany. From 1996–1997 he worked as a Senior Scientist at the Pharmaceutical Research Center of Bayer AG in Wuppertal, Germany. In 1997, he was appointed as a full Professor of Natural Products Chemistry at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and served as a Vice President of KIB and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China during the period 2006–2014. Then he moved to the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, China as a Professor and Dean during 2015-2023. He has published over 500 scientific papers in many leading internationally recognized peer reviewed journals including Chem. Rev., Nat. Comm., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., PNAS, JBC. He is the author of a book entitled “Mycochemistry”, and has been named as a co-inventor for more than 30 patents. Professor Liu has received an array of honors and awards, such as the Hundred Talent Program of CAS (1995), the Bayer-CAS Award (2002), the National Natural Science Prize (2003, 2nd Class; the Central People’s Government of China), and was named as Chief Scientist of the 973 program. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of “Natural Products and Bioprospecting”, and is an Editorial Board member for six other international journals. His research field focuses on bioactive compounds obtained from higher fungi, and includes aspects of natural product chemical biology, total synthesis, and biosynthesis.


Dr. Nana Gorgaslidze

 

Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia

 

Environmental Factors, Pharmaceutical Products, and Pharmacotherapy

 

Nana Gorgaslidze has been working at Tbilisi State Medical University since 1980. 1996-2017 in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of Georgia. 2014-2019 Director of TSU Iovel Kutateladze Institute of Pharmacochemistry and 2021 Head of Social and Clinical Pharmacy Department of Tbilisi State Medical University, Professor. He has published more than 285 scientific articles in well-known journals in various fields of pharmacy (pharmaceutical management, marketing, clinical pharmacy, drug technology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Pharmacology, Pharmacoecology, etc.), the author of 4 books and 2 patents. I am also a member of the organizing committee of several international conferences and congresses; I was the chairman and speaker of international conferences and congress sessions many times. I have two international awards: 1. Silver medal for the invention of the 4th International Invention Competition of Women in the Sky in Korea in 2021; 2. BID Quality Crown Convention Award gold category prize and gold badge - London, Great Britain, 21-23.XI, 2015; I have a long experience working in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of Georgia in the direction of development of legislative acts, state registration of pharmaceutical products, and state control of the quality of pharmaceutical products. I am the founder of the Georgian Pharmaceutical Association and the "Pharmacy" newspaper.


Prof. Sungchul Ji

 

Rutgers University, USA

 

Supermetabolons as RNA barcodes predicting cell functions in health and disease

 

Sungchul Ji studied pre-engineering at the Seoul National University between 1957 and 1959 and, after completing the mandatory South Korean military service, transferred to the University of Minnesota at Duluth in 1962 on an exchange student scholarship, graduating in 1965 with double majors in chemistry and mathematics. Between 1965 and 1968, he performed graduate research at the State University of New York at Albany on the mechanism of the sulfonamide bond cleavage induced by sodium naphthalenide solution in an organic solvent, receiving a Ph D. degree in physical organic chemistry in 1970. He then embarked on a series of postdoctoral research in mitochondriology and enzymology (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1970-1974), tissue biophysics (University of Pennsylvania, 1974-76), system physiology (Max Planck Institute for System Physiology, Dortmund, 1976-79), and toxicology (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1979-82), finally landing a tenured professorship at Rutgers University in 1983, retiring in 2022 as a Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Cell Biology. He has authored 3 books (Molecular Theories of Cell Life and Death, 1991; Molecular Theories of the Living Cell, 2012; The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter, 2018), the last of which has been applied to pharmacology and personalized medicine in the form of a new experimental method known as the "RNA pair-wise co-expression analysis" that promises to lower the cost of discovering drug by a fact or at least 100.


Dr. Giuseppina Nocca

 

University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy

 

Nano Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Oral Lichen Planus

 

Giuseppina Nocca is Associate Professor in General Biochemistry at the Catholic University in Rome, where she coordinates a research group engaged in the characterization of the Drug Delivery System. She has been carrying out research for 30 years in the field of biochemical interactions between cells and drugs and between cells and biomaterials (overall in the dentistry field). In particular, she has a documented experience in the study of the alterations of the metabolic pathways that underlie the toxicity of drugs or biomaterials, as a starting point for improving the biocompatibility characteristics of biomaterials, using both primary and stable cell cultures in 2D and 3D, together with techniques for the synthesis and characterization of nanocarriers for drug delivery. She is the author of over 60 full-length publications in indexed international journals with a total Impact Factor of 1090 and an H-index of 21 (source: Scopus) and total Impac Factor 1504 and H-index of 25 (source: google scholar) Prof. Nocca is the holder of numerous courses in disciplines related to the Biochemistry in the degree courses activated at the Rome office of the UCSC, including Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry, Biotechnology for Personalized Medicine, and Cosmetological Sciences and Technologies. She is an editorial board member of seven journals. She received many awards including 1 st prize for the best research in the "National Congress of the Graduate School of Dentistry," Study of biocompatibility of a self-curing adhesive for orthodontic use. and 1 st prize for the best research in the "Dr. Garberoglio competition ""Advantages of a new approach fortesting biocompatibility of endodontic materials ", 28 th National Congress of the Italian Society of Endodontics, Naples, November 15 th -17 th , 2007 Funding Obtained: ▪ 2011: PI of the university project (Line D1) "Evaluation of the differentiating capacity of dental pulp stem cells according to their metabolic conditions" ▪ 2018: PI of the University project (Line D1) "New platforms for oral drug delivery" ▪ 2019: PI for the second year of the University project (Line D1) "New platforms for oral drug delivery" ▪ 2021: Unit Head of the SISMAC project "Innovative Sensorized Systems through Additive Manufacturing for Cranioplasty" funded by POR FESR Lazio 2014-2020. Project T0002E0001. Based on the Public Notice "Research Group Projects 2020" (Executive Resolution no. G08487 of 19 July 2020) Resolution 13 April 2021, no. G04014.