17^th Annual Congress on Pharmaceutics & Drug Delivery Systems September 20-22, 2018 Prague, Czech Republic | Panorama Hotel Prague | Milevská 7, 140 63 Praha

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. He was the Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1998-2008. His research interests include liposomes, lipid-core micelles, biomedical polymers, drug delivery and targeting, pharmaceutical nanocarriers, experimental cancer immunology. He has published more than 350 original papers (which received more than 30,000 citations), more than 150 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 10 books.

Research Interest including Immobilized Enzymes in Medicine, Targeted Delivery of Imaging Agents, Liposomes, Nanoparticulates as Pharmaceutical Carriers, Biomedical Aspects of Drug Targeting, 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, Molecular Pharmaceutics.

Volkmar Weissig, Sc.D., Ph.D. is a Tenured Full Professor of Pharmacology and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Weissig received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry and his postdoctoral Sc.D. degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany). Combined he completed several years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow (Russia), at the Academic Department of Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London (UK), at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science in Prague (CSFR), at the College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Before joining the faculty at Midwestern University, Dr. Weissig was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Dr. Weissig holds 16 patents and he has published 98 research papers, review articles and book chapters, mostly in the area of nano drug delivery systems. He also edited and published 8 books. He serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Liposome Research and he is member of several other Editorial Boards. In July 2009 Dr. Weissig was inducted into the World Technology Network as a Fellow. In October 2014 Dr. Weissig was elected President of the World Mitochondria Society.

Dr. Weissig’s major research interests lie in the areas of Mitochondrial Medicine and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology. In particular, his laboratory has pioneered the design and development of mitochondria-targeted nano drug delivery systems, which have opened new strategies for mitochondrial gene therapy, for apoptosis-based anticancer chemotherapies and for controlling and manipulating the redox status of mammalian mitochondria.

Vaclav Vetvicka, Ph.D., is a Professor of Pathology and Director of Research at the Department of Pathology of the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic with an advanced degree in biology and obtained his Ph.D. from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. His postgraduate training included a stay at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, and at the Institute of Microbiology, Prague, Czech Republic. In addition to the glucan research, Dr. Vetvicka helped to launch glucan in several countries including USA, France, Turkey and Czech Republic. Dr. Vetvicka is author and co-author of more than 220 peer-reviewed publications, eight books and nine international patents.

His main area of research interest focuses on the development of natural immunomodulators

Professor Raid Alany has over 25 years of international experience in pharmacy education, pharmaceutics and drug delivery research. His academic journey spans three continents, namely, Asia, Oceania and Europe. He received his PhD in drug delivery from the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand in 2001; was appointed as a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, in 2001 where he was responsible for establishing the first pharmaceutics curriculum at The University of Auckland. He was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2004, appointed as Head of Pharmaceutics in 2007, promoted to Senior Lecturer above the bar in February 2009; appointed as Honorary Associate Professor in 2011. He joined Kingston University London as Professor (Chair) of Pharmaceutics in January 2011 and was appointed as Research Director for the School of Pharmacy and Chemistry in December 2013. He has been appointed as the Inaugural Head of School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry on 1st of June 2015. Raid won several awards such as Microscopy New Zealand Young Scientists Award in 1999 The University of Auckland's Vice Chancellor's Early Career Research Excellence Award in 2003, the Controlled Release Society Veterinary Programme co-chair/ chair Distinguished Service Awards in 2008/2009 and the Spark Ideas Challenge, Uniservices Prize and Chiasma Prize in 2011. He consults for human and veterinary pharmaceutical companies in New Zealand and Singapore and is an inventor on several international patents.

Ophthalmic Drug Delivery, Lipid and Surfactant Based Drug Delivery Systems, Delivery of Antisense, Oligonucleotides and siRNA, In Situ Gelling Systems, Veterinary Pharmaceuticals

Christine Goze has completed his PhD at the age of 26 years from Strasbourg University and postdoctoral studies from University of Bern. She is currently working at the Institute of Moecular Chemistry, at the Uiversity of Burgundy. She has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals.

Moecular Chemistry

Drug Discovery and Development

Dr Irena Zizovic is a Professor at Division of Bioprocess and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia in 2006. Her current research work is in application of supercritical fluids with a focus on development of polymer based materials with antibacterial properties and novel drug delivery systems. She is a leader of team that consists of scientists in chemical engineering, pharmacy and microbiology. She authored and coauthored 8 chapters in international editions, more than 50 articles in international journals and two patents. Dr Irena Zizovic has been a member of the Working Party on High Pressure Technology of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers (EFCE) since 2014.

Current research interests of Prof. Irena Zizovic include development of polymer based materials with antibacterial properties or for controlled drug release by: supercritical solvent impregnation of polymers with pure compounds or plant extracts, polymer foaming and impregnation in supercritical carbon dioxide and fabrication of solid dispersions of drugs in polymers.

Analytical chemistry

Zdeňka Šklubalová is Acting head of Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Charles University.Her main research interest in Pharmaceutical Technology in general, particularly liquid and solid dosage forms

Pharmaceutical Technology in general, particularly liquid and solid dosage forms.

Yu-Kyoung Oh has completed her bachelor and master degrees from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. degree from State Univ. of New York at Buffalo in 1994. She obtained postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School (1994-1996). Her research interests focus on delivery of chemical drugs and nucleic acid-based drugs using versatile nanobiomaterials. She has published more than 180 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an as an associate editor for Journal of Controlled Release, and Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and as an editorial board member of Advanced Drug Delivery Review, and Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B.

Developing nanomedicine manufacturing technologies Bio-drug delivery system of nucleic acid, cellbased therapeutics

Youhoon Chong has completed his PhD at the age of 33 years from University of Georgia and postdoctoral studies from The Scripps Research Institute. He is the chairman of the department of integrative bioscience & biotechnology, Konkuk University. He has published more than 140 papers in reputed journals.

integrative bioscience & biotechnology

HF is the director of Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine. He published some articles on drug delivery in the following journals. 1. Development of three-microneedle device for hypodermic drug delivery and clinical application. Plast Reconstr Surg, 2012. 2. Application of a three-microneedle device for the delivery of local anesthetics. Patient Preference and Adherence, 2015.

Qiang Zhou, Ph.D., is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. Trained as an electrophysiologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Zhou’s research has evolved from studies in ion channels and receptors, to synaptic transmission and plasticity, and further to neural network and behavioral analysis. His expertise also includes fluorescence imaging techniques and molecular biology approaches, and he is one of the world leading experts in combining electrophysiological recording with real time fluorescence imaging. He had worked in both academia and pharmaceutical industry. He is now focusing on elucidating mechanisms underlying major central nervous system diseases (Alzheimer’s disease, depression and schizophrenia) for new therapeutic interventions and prevention

He is now focusing on elucidating mechanisms underlying major central nervous system diseases (Alzheimer’s disease, depression and schizophrenia)

Dr. Hajime Hirao received his BEng and MEng degrees from Kyoto University and his PhD from The University of Tokyo. He underwent his postdoc training at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Emory University, and Kyoto University. Prior to that, he worked for three years on computer-assisted drug design at the Novartis institute in Japan. Dr. Hirao’s research applies quantum chemistry, multiscale models, and many other computational chemistry techniques to a variety of complex molecular systems of practical importance such as metalloenzymes and drugs/drug targets. He is also interested in developing new concepts and computational methods that may enhance our understanding of chemistry or improve the efficiency of computational analyses.

Dr. Hirao’s research applies quantum chemistry, multiscale models, and many other computational chemistry techniques to a variety of complex molecular systems of practical importance such as transition-metal catalysts, metalloenzymes, drugs/drug targets, porous materials, and nanomaterials