Dr. Bharat Bhushan received an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971, an M.S. in mechanics and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1973 and 1976, respectively, an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, NY in 1980, Doctor Technicae from the University of Trondheim at Trondheim, Norway in 1990, a Doctor of Technical Sciences from the Warsaw University of Technology at Warsaw, Poland in 1996, Honorary Doctor of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, Gomel, Belarus in 2000, University of Kragujevac, Serbia in 2011, and University of Tyumen, Russia in 2019. He is a registered professional engineer. He is an Academy Professor (San Jose, CA), and has served as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and The Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the College of Engineering, Director of the Nanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- & Nanotechnology and Biomimetics (NLB2), and affiliated faculty in John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. In 2013-14, he served as ASME/AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, House Committee on Science, Space & Technology, United States Congress, Washington, DC. He has served as Expert Investigator on IP related issues in the U.S. and International Courts.

As the Founder and Principal at Pharmaceutical Consulting LLC, Dr. Das coordinates the interface between client needs and external services/capabilities to facilitate strategic positioning for optimal product development and global registration. Services provided to clients in response to specific requests include regulatory input, risk analysis, cost estimates, process design, and combination (drug/device) product development for both small and macromolecules. He has been involved in combination biopharmaceutical product development for more than 30 years related to parenteral (pulmonary, transdermal, intravenous and implanted) and oral drug delivery therapeutic strategies. Dr. Das has authored and coordinated the filing of 29 IND’s for both small and macromolecules and assisted with the successful submission and registration of 3 CTD/NDA’s (for Dry Powder Inhaled Insulin, “Exubera®”, approved by the FDA and EMA in Jan 2006; Thermal Aerosol Vapor Generated Staccato Loxapine, “Adasuve®” approved by the FDA and EMA Dec 2012 and Dry Powder Inhaled Tobramycin, “Tobi Podhaler®” approved by the FDA and EMA March 2013). These efforts were directed to both single drug and combination products used for the treatment of infectious, allergic, genetic and neurological diseases. He is an Inventor on 8 issued Patents covering thiocationic lipids for gene delivery, a taste masked Ibuprofen suckable tablet and spray dried formulations for nasal and inhaled drug delivery. Dr. Das earned his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering studying the effects of inhaled inorganic dusts and their role in the etiology of silicosis at a joint program between West Virginia University and the National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health and an MBA (Strategy) from the University of California at Irvine. He also earned an MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University supported by a Mellon Fellowship and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire supported by Scholarships from the International Students Office and a Fellowship from the Winchester R. Wood Memorial Foundation.

Oscar Segurado is the Chief Medical Officer for ASC Therapeutics, a fast-growing biotechnology company focused on developing curative gene-based therapies for inherited blood disorders, initially focusing on hemophilia A and B and Beta-Thalassemia. As a leading biopharma discovery company with over 14 years of experience in gene editing and stem cell technologies, we have created an end-to-end platform for gene therapy and gene editing. Former CMO for Symvivo, Myriad Genetics and CellMax Life, Vice President for Becton Dickinson and Global Medical Head for Abbott/AbbVie (Humira). Executive veteran with extensive global leadership experience in translational science, clinical development and global medical affairs. Author and co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including Nature and Lancet, books and medical articles and member of several scientific and medical societies. Forbes Council Board Member. Holding a tenured Professorship of Immunology at the University of Leon, Spain. Received PhD from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany and MD from the University of Salamanca, Spain.

Dr. Lillard is an immunologist who uses both in silico and in vivo methods to develop biologics or molecular tests to better treat or diagnose, respectively, chronic diseases. His research involves dissecting the molecular mechanisms of chemokine-mediated solid tumors and heme malignancy progression, using clinically annotated DNA/RNA sequence data and the implementation of precision medicine. His research contributions span disciplines including oncology, immunity, inflammation and biodefense. Dr. Lillard’s cumulative peer-reviewed funding principally directed over his scientific career exceeds $60 million and he has authored over 300 scientific communications, which have been cited over 9,700 times.

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 118; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Hebei University of Technology, Saveetha University, Vellore Institute of Technology, UFPI, and others. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies. Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 53,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2023).

Computational biologist specializing in next-generation sequencing data analysis, genome annotation improvement, and protein modeling. Diverse experience across phases of drug development and therapeutic areas with expertise in infectious disease, immunology, astrobiology, and oncology. Graduated from Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, and Michigan State University.

Dr. Mahadevan Seetharaman is a Duke Integrative Healthcare Leader and Founder of Ayurveda Living. As an Ayurveda Diet & Nutrition Consultant and Yoga Teacher, he provides up-to-data Ayurveda/Yoga related health and wellness information, directory, research, news, and reviews. Dr. Mahadevan serves on the Boards of the Global Council for Ayurveda Research (GCAR), American Association of Ayurvedic Professionals (AAAP), the American Academy of Yoga and Meditation (AAYM),and co-founded the Texas Ayurveda Professionals Association (TAPAS). He was previously the CEO and Managing Director at one of the largest integrative research university hospitals in India – the Institute of Ayurveda & Integrative Medicine (I-AIM). During this time, he served as Professor & Dean, School of Health Sciences. Since then, he has helped set up an Integrative Healthcare Centre as the COO of Isha Arogya Research Foundation. He currently serves as a Visiting Professor at the Transdisciplinary University (TDU) and volunteers at the Hindu University of America (HUA).

Dr. Zengqiang Zhang is Full Professor for Environmental Science and Technology at the Northwest A&F University, China. Prof. Zhang has gained national and international recognition for his applied research work in organic waste treatment and soil heavy metal pollution remediation. His main research is on organic waste composting and land application, soils and sediments pollution by potentially toxic elements and remediation. He also has a certain expertise in remediation of contaminated soils using various soil amendments and environmental wastes, water treatments and pollution control, solid and hazardous waste management, and environmental risk assessment.

Ruchika has BSc (H) Biochemistry from University of Delhi and MSc. Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India and received her PhD from Purdue University where she was trained as a Membrane Protein Biologist. Afterwards, she pursued her postdoctoral training at UCSF. She focused on ABC transporters all the way in her scientific training. She is very much passionate in elucidating in mechanistic underpinning of ABC transporter function using biochemical, biophysical and structural biology approaches, which could help to rationally design novel pharmacological tools to modulate the function of membrane proteins altered in disease.

Dr. Kajal Gupta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Rush University Medical Center's in Divisions of General Surgery and Pediatric Surgery. Her group focuses on applying immuno-oncology research with the goal of developing novel combination immunotherapies and new molecular and cellular immunity agents for the immune-based treatment and prevention of human malignancies. In order to develop and translate novel laboratory research findings into more effective immunotherapies for cancer treatment and prevention, it is important to: (a) define the fundamental regulatory mechanisms that support anti-tumor immunity or facilitate tumor immune evasion; (b) dissect the transcriptional and cellular mechanism of the tumor immune microenvironment to discover new immunotherapeutic targets and predictive biomarkers.

Dr. Barakat received his PhD in biophysics from the University of Alberta in 2012 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of the Nobel Laureate, Professor Michael Houghton, for two years. During his career, Dr. Barakat received numerous awards including the CIHR and AIHS postdoctoral fellowships, the prestigious UofA dissertation award, the ACRI Studentship and many distinction awards throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies. Dr. Barakat is also the editor of a number of journals. Dr. Barakat's lab is supported by different funding agencies including the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and IC-IMPACTS Centres of Excellence. Dr. Barakat is also the CEO & co-founder of HEKA Therapeutics Inc. and co-founder of ACHLYS; two spinoff companies devoted to drug discovery of immune checkpoints small molecule inhibitors and predicting off-target toxicity of new compounds in drug discovery.

Professor Vladimir G. Chigrinov is Professor of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology since 1999. He is an Expert in Flat Panel Technology in Russia, recognized by the World Technology Evaluation Centre, 1994, and SID Fellow since 2008. He is an author of 6 books, 31 reviews and book chapters, about 317 journal papers, more than 668 Conference presentations, and 121 patents and patent applications including 36 US patents in the field of liquid crystals since 1974. He got Excellent Research Award of HKUST School of Engineering in 2012. He obtained Gold Medal and The Best Award in the Invention & Innovation Awards 2014 held at the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) 2014, which was hosted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 20-22 Feb 2014. He is a Member of EU Academy of Sciences (EUAS) since July 2017. He got A Slottow Owaki Prize of SID in 2018 . He is 2019 Distinguished Fellow of IETI (International Engineering and Technology Institute)

Dr. Aviv Asher is the head of animal science unit in MIGAL research institute and the northern R & D. Dr Asher is a physiologist/nutritionist and Chrono- biologist of ruminants and many of his scientific research is dealing with factors that effects feed and production efficiency including the correlation between feed efficiency and animal welfare of livestock. During the last 8 years one of the main issues that Dr. Asher is investigating is the influence of modern artificial light (mainly LED illumination) on the production, feed efficiency, welfare of dairy and beef cattle and on sheep and goats. Dr. Asher also lead scientific projects regarding to Precision livestock farming technologies for managing livestock in pasture with holistic grazing management, which offers the potential to make farming more sustainable and efficient. Another research topics that Dr. Asher is promoting is investigating new sustainable forage crops using high quality and advanced Nutritional experiments that examine the effect of the crops on feed efficiency and GHG emission.

Brandon Lucke-Wold was born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO. He graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Neuroscience and distinction in honors from Baylor University. He completed his MD/PhD, Master’s in Clinical and Translational Research, and the Global Health Track at West Virginia University School of Medicine. His research focus was on traumatic brain injury, neurosurgical simulation, and stroke. At West Virginia University, he also served as a health coach for the Diabetes Prevention and Management program in Morgantown and Charleston, WV, which significantly improved health outcomes for participants. In addition to his research and public health projects, he is a co-founder of the biotechnology company Wright-Wold Scientific, the pharmaceutical company CTE cure, and was a science advocate on Capitol Hill through the Washington Fellow’s program.

Gang Fang is an Assistant Professor of Biology, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU. He is also affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology at NYU's campus in New York City. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was an associate research scientist at Yale University. He holds a PhD from Institute Pasteur, France, and BS and MS degrees from Peking University, China.

Dr Camillo Porcaro is a computational neuroscientist with a core interest in the development of analytical methods for extracting information from non-invasive measures of brain activity. His research focuses on identifying functional brain sources from data obtained through neuroimaging techniques. In 2008, he defended his PhD dissertation with honors in 'Functional Neuroimaging: from cells to systems' at the Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies (ITAB), University of Chieti, Italy. In the same year, Dr Porcaro became a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Birmingham, School of Psychology, using simultaneous EEG/fMRI. In 2011, he joined the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, after being awarded a highly competitive independent research position.

Salima is an account executive at Collaborative Drug Discovery covering Pacific Northwest / San Francisco Bay Area. In 2011 Salima had earned her doctorate degree in biology in her native country Azerbaijan studying some native lichens as a key ingredient in perfume palette. Later in 2019, Salima received her MBA from Florida International University, majoring in Sales & Negotiations. Salima’s sales career took off at John Deere GmbH in 2009 where she was responsible for managing several dealerships for the company’s AG & Turf, as well as Water products. In 2019, Salima got a sales job offer at a California based construction company which she took on welcoming change and challenge. Salima considers her career path in both agricultural and construction industries quite successful, however in the summer of 2022, she decided to get back to her roots by moving into CDD. Building relationships with drug discovery industry players and intellectuals are aligned with Salima’s scientific background as a PhD in Biology.

Huixun “Zoe” Du is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the Buck Institute of Research on Aging, where she works in the lab of Dr. Daniel Winer. Her research focuses on investigating the modulation of mechanical signals on cell inflammatory phenotypes using Next Generation Sequencing tools. With a keen interest in the intersection of aging and immunology, Zoe is passionate about contributing to the active effort to tackle age-related immune decline in the biotech industry. Through her research and aspirations, she aims to make a positive impact on human health and well-being.

Umut Kökbaş works in the Department of Medical Biochemistry at Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Department of Basic Medical Sciences. He has researches in the field of biotechnological biochemistry.

Dr Dibyajyoti Banerjee, MD is currently working as Professor, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. He is interested in developing novel concepts for drug development and his several concepts are published and many researchers are working with it. His focus in drug development is diabetes and tuberculosis. Apart from drug development he is interested in developing point of care testing tools. In this area also he has developed several tools which are in current use.