Organizing Committee

Brij M. Gandhi

CEO and founder of Neo BioMed Services, Former Adviser, Govt of India

Dr Brij. M. Gandhi, M.Sc.(Biochemistry) and PhD (Experimental Medicine, Norway) is presently CEO and founder of Neo BioMed Services (www.neobiomed.com), providing services and consultancy in health areas and regulatory issues related to biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, including stem cell and regenerative medicine. As Adviser to the Government of India, Dr Gandhi was involved in management, promotion and policy issues in biotechnology related to international collaborations, medical biotechnology including stem cells and regenerative medicine, infrastructure development, animals and aquaculture biotechnology, biosafety and biosecurity. Prior to that, he was Research Scientist at AIIMS, New Delhi working on the immunology of parasitic, bacterial and viral infections including amoebic diseases; hepatitis; liver diseases; IVD; food and nutritional health issues. Dr Gandhi was trained at MIT, USA; LSHTM, London, NIH, USA, Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen and the University of Bergan, Norway. Dr Gandhi continues to serve as Advisor / Director to a number of institutions/pharma and biopharma industries with an experience of about 50 years as a research scientist, science manager, adviser/consultant and having over 155 publications.

Henry M. Sobell

Emeritus Professor University of Rochester, USA

Henry M. Sobell completed his studies at Brooklyn Technical High School (1948- 1952), Columbia College (1952-1956), and the University of Virginia School of Medicine (1956-1960). Instead of practising clinical medicine, he then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to join Professor Alexander Rich in the Department of Biology (1960-1965), where, like a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow, he learned the technique of single crystal X-ray analysis. He then joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Rochester, having been subsequently jointly appointed to both the Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics departments (the latter at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry), becoming a full tenured Professor in both departments (1965-1993). He is now retired and living in the Adirondacks in New York, USA

Bing-Huei Chen

Distinguished Chair Professor Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan

Bing-Huei Chen food scientist, received his PhD degree in Food Science & Technology, Texas A & M University, the USA in 1988. His postgraduate career include working at Fu Jen University, Taipei, Taiwan as Associate Professor from 1988–1994, Professor from 1994–2000, Distinguished Chair Professor from 2004–present, Chair of Department of Nutrition and Food Science from 1994-2000, Director of Graduate Institute of Medicine from 2006–2009, and Dean of College of Human Ecology from 2012–2015. He specializes in Lipid Chemistry, Pigment Chemistry, Instrumental Analysis, Food Toxicology, Functional Food Development and Biological Activity Determination as well as Nanotechnology. Until now he has published over 175 research articles in internationally renowned journals and authored 11 book chapters in edited books published by International Publishers. He has been honoured with a young scientist award and outstanding research award by the Taiwan Association of Food Science & Technology in 1993 & 2000, respectively; outstanding research award by National Science Council, Taiwan in 1993 & 1998; outstanding research award by the 4th International Symposium on Natural Colorants, San Diego, USA in 2000; outstanding research award and Chair Professor by Fu Jen University, Taiwan from 2004–present; Distinguished Professor of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2015; Lifetime Achievement Award by Indian Institute of Oriental Heritage in 2015. Professor Stephen S. Chang’s outstanding achievement in food science and technology award in 2016 by Taiwan Association of Food Science and Technology. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of 2 journals “Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition and Agriculture” and “International Journal of Current Toxins Research” and Taiwan Editor of “Food Quality and Safety” as well as Associate Editor of “Journal of Food & Drug Analysis”. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of 43 journals including Journal of Cell Science & Therapy, International Journal of Cardiology and Lipidology Research, Advances in Biochemical Science and Engineering, International Journal of Food Processing Technology, Journal of Clinical Research and Ophthalmology, International Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research, Open Journal of Plant Science, International Journal of Nutritional Health and Food Engineering, Journal of Natural Products Research Updates, SciFed Nanotech Research Letters, Food & Diary Research Journal, Journal of Procedural Dermatology, International Journal of Pharmacology, Phytochemistry and Ethnomedicine, Chromatography and Separation Techniques Journal, Journal of Analytical Oncology, Journal of Research Updates in Polymer Science, Journal of Clinical, Medical & Experimental Images, Otolaryngology Journal, Annals of Urological Research, Annals of Nutrition & Food Science, Remedy Open Journal, Annals of Thoracic Oncology Research, Open access Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, Journal of Medical Devices and Diagnostic Engineering, Mathews Journal of Urology and Nephrology, Mathews Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics, SM Journal of Internal Medicine, Journal of Toxicology: Chemical Research, Pharmaceutical Drug Regulatory Affairs Journal, SM Journal of Clinical Andrology, SM Nutrition and Food Science Journal, Journal Neonatology: Annals of Medical Case Reports, International Journal of Fisheries Science and Research, Journal of Urology Forecast, Journal of Nutrition & Food Science Forecast, Journal of Surgery Forecast, Archive of Food & Nutritional Science, Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Annals of Infertility & Reproductive Endocrinology, Viology & Immunology Journal and Ophthalmology & Glaucoma Journal.

Dariusz Borys

Director of Digital Pathology Lab Loyola University, Chicago

Dariusz Borys is a Professor of Pathology and Orthopedic Surgery, Head of Orthopedic and Pediatric Pathology and Director of Digital Pathology at Loyola University Chicago. He has received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Wroclaw, Poland in 1994 and completed a residency program in anatomic pathology at County General Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland in 1995. He has completed his Postdoctoral research at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona in 1998. He continued on with and completed residency training in both anatomic pathology and clinical pathology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001. He has received a Pediatric Pathology Fellowship at New York University, New York, New York in 2005 and followed that with an Orthopedic Pathology Fellowship at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, New York in 2006. After completing his fellowships, he has become a faculty member in the rank of assistant professor at University of California and then he finally moved to Loyola University Chicago in 2013. At LUMC he is appointed as a Professor of Pathology and Orthopedic Surgery and is serving as the Head of orthopaedic and Pediatric Pathology and Director of Digital Pathology. Currently, his research focuses on the molecular markers in diagnostic, prognostic and targeted therapy in osteosarcoma.

Kwang-Hee Lim

Professor, Daegu University, South Korea

As a professor in the department of chemical engineering at Daegu University, Dr Lim has impressed upon students the many intricacies of the field for more than 21 years. His expertise stems from his education, which includes both a BS from Seoul National University and a PhD from the University Center City University of New York in the United States. Over the past seven years, his excellent technology was designated as Superior Technology by the Korea Research Foundation. He has also been cited with numerous awards for his achievements in the field, including receiving a Governor Citation Award from Gyeongbuk government governor, two-time Superior Academic-Industrial Cooperation Award and five-time Superior Research Award from Daegu University, and Biotechnology and Bioengineer Award from the Korea Society of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Dr Lim's journey during his tenure in higher education has also allowed him to contribute to numerous journals, both as a provider and as an editor. He has been serving as an editor for the Korean Chemical Engineering Research since 2011, as well as serving as associate-editor-in-chief for the Drug Design Development and Delivery Journal. In addition, he has been serving on editorial board for not only the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanomedicines but also Open Access Biostatistics & Bioinformatics. He formerly served as an editor for the Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering from 2012 to 2016 as well as an editor for the HWAHAK KONGHAK from 2007 to 2010. Furthermore, he has been serving on the mediation committee for the Daegu District Court since 1998 and was an examiner for the Environmental Information Institute from 2011 to 2015. Dr Lim is a fellow, longtime board member of the Korean Society of Rheology, former editor-in-chief of BT News for the Korean Society of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, fellow and vice president of the Korean Society of Odor Research and Engineering, and fellow and journal editor for the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is holding numerous patents in his field.

Giulio Tarro

President, Foundation T. & L. de Beaumont Bonelli for cancer research Italy

Giulio Tarro graduated from Medicine School, Naples University (1962). Research Associate, Division of Virology and Cancer Research, Children’s Hospital (1965-1968), Assistant Professor of Research Pediatrics, College Medicine (1968-1969), Cincinnati University, Ohio. Oncological Virology Professor, Naples University (1972-1985). Chief Division Virology (1973-2003), Head Department Diagnostic Laboratories, (2003-2006). D. Cotugno Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Naples; Emeritus, 2006 -. Since 2007 Chairman Committee of Biotechnologies and VirusSphere, World Academy Biomedical Technologies, UNESCO, Adjunct Professor Department Biology, Temple University, College of Science and Technology, Philadelphia, recipient of the Sbarro Health Research Organization lifetime achievement award (2010). His researches have been concerned with the characterization of specific virus-induced tumor antigens, which were the "fingerprints" left behind in human cancer. Achievements include patents in the field; the discovery of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in infant deaths in Naples and of tumor liberated protein as a tumor-associated antigen, 55 kilodalton protein overexpressed in lung tumors and other epithelial adenocarcinomas.

Ming Chen

Professor, Zhejiang University, China

Ming Chen received his PhD in Bioinformatics from Bielefeld University, Germany, in 2004. Currently, he is working as a full Professor in Bioinformatics at College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University. His group research work mainly focuses on the systems biology, computational and functional analysis of non-coding RNAs, and bioinformatics research and application for life sciences. Prof. Chen is serving as an academic leader in Bioinformatics at Zhejiang University. He chairs the Bioinformatics society of Zhejiang Province, China. He is a committee member of Chinese societies for "Modeling and Simulation of Biological Systems", "Computational Systems Biology", "Functional Genomics & Systems Biology" and "Biomedical Information Technology"

Yinglei Song

professor Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, China

Yinglei Song received his PhD in computer science from the University of Georgia, the USA in 2006. From the year 2007 to 2012, he worked as an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA. Currently, he is working as a professor of information and computer science at the Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, China. His research interests include bioinformatics, design and analysis of algorithms, data mining, machine learning and image processing.

Qiang Cheng

Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University USA

Dr QiangCheng received the BS and MS degrees from the College of Mathematical Science at Peking University, China, and the PhD degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is an associate professor at the Biomedical Informatics Institute and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. He previously worked as a faculty fellow at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson, OH, and a senior researcher and senior research scientist at Siemens Medical Solutions, Siemens Corporate Research, Siemens Corp., Princeton, NJ. His research interests include data science, machine learning, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and biomedical informatics. He has published about 100 peer-reviewed papers in various premium venues including IEEE TPAMI, TNNLS, TSP, NIPS, CVPR, ICDM, AAAI, ICDE, CIKM, KDD, ACM TIST, and TKDD. He has a number of international patents issued or filed with Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory, and Siemens Medical.

Abdeen Mustafa Omer

Energy Research Institute (ERI) Nottinghamshire

Dr. Abdeen Mustafa Omer (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an Associate Researcher at Energy Research Institute (ERI). He obtained both his PhD degree in the Built Environment and Master of Philosophy degree in Renewable Energy Technologies from the University of Nottingham. He is qualified Mechanical Engineer with a proven track record within the water industry and renewable energy technologies. He has been graduated from University of El Menoufia, Egypt, BSc in Mechanical Engineering. His previous experience involved being a member of the research team at the National Council for Research/Energy Research Institute in Sudan and working director of research and development for National Water Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Sudan. He has been listed in the book WHO’S WHO in the World 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. He has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 200 review articles, 15 books and 150 chapters in books.

Rita Casadio

Professor University of Bologna, Italy

After working in Laboratories of Biophysics both in the United States and in Germany, in 1987 Rita Casadio became Assistant Professor of Biophysics at the University of Bologna Italy. Since 1/10/2001 she is a full professor of Biochemistry/Biophysics in the same University; Rita Casadio has been working mainly in the fields of membrane and protein Biophysics (particularly with bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacterium Halobium and F1F0 ATPases from mesophilic organisms), both experimentally and theoretically. Presently she is interested in computer modelling of relevant biological processes, such as protein folding and modelling of their stability and interactions. One major field of research is the application of machine learning methods to the prediction of the secondary and tertiary structure of proteins from their amino acid residue sequences, particularly of membrane proteins and their transmembrane topology. one active research field is the annotation of mutations disease-related and the prediction of their role at the level of structural systems biology. Presently she is the group leader of the Biocomputing Unit of the Interdepartmental Centre for Biotechnological Researches (CIRB) of the University of Bologna, Italy and her researches are devoted to different aspects of protein modelling, including prediction of secondary and tertiary structures with neural networks, hidden Markov models, genetic algorithms, molecular docking, protein reaction mechanisms and de novo design of helical peptides (for details see http://lipid.biocomp.unibo.it). At present, the focus is mainly the implementation of integrated platforms for genome/proteome annotation, sequence annotation after alternative splicing in the human proteome, prediction of the relation of protein folding, misfolding and diseases in humans, search for SNPs in different genomes and their validation. Rita Casadio is the author of about 300 scientific papers and presented her work at several (over 300) national and international meetings

Loai AlJerf

Professor, Damascus University, Syria

Loai Aljerf is a Prof in the Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine/DamascusUniversity. He is a specialist in analytical and industrial chemistry. He obtained many awards and published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers (two of them in French) in Environmental Sciences, Green Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Synthesis Chemistry, Concrete, Ceramics, Paper Industry, Petrochemical, Extraction, Separation, Lithium-Ion-Batteries, and Oral Chemistry. He is a partner in Advances in Cleaner Production Network, and a member of the German Chemical Society e.V. (GDCh), Asian Chemical Society, and the American University of Beirut. He is a member of the higher committee of the 6th International Workshop-Advance in Cleaner Production (São Paulo, Brazil (May 24th to 26th - 2017)) and in more than 20 conference organizing committees. Loai Aljerf is in the Cambridge Scholars Publishing-Life Science Advisory Board and an editor of more than 50 journals and a reviewer for Top journals in Industry, Chemical Engineering, and Environmental Chemistry.

Mohamed Eddouks

Moulay Ismail University, Morocco

Mohamed Eddouks is Professor at Moulay Ismail University, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques Errachidia, Morocco. He is a researcher in Physiology and Pharmacology with a Master Degree in Metabolic and Molecular Endocrinology from University of Paris vi, a specialized certificate in Endocrine Pharmacology from University of Paris vii and PhD degrees in Physiology and Pharmacology from University of Liege, Belgium and Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco. After his post-doctoral fellowship at Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine of Montreal, Canada, he is working for the last 16 years on medicinal plants. His work on antidiabetic and antihypertensive plants is well recognized globally. His research focuses on ethnobiological as well as pharmacological issues in the use of Moroccan medicinal plants for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, obesity and hypertension. His contribution to this field includes four international books and more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters of international repute. He served as Guest Editor and Member of Editorial Board of several international journals. He has been honored with the first Prize of Scientific Research in 2008 by the Moroccan Association of Research and Development and the first Prize of the Federation of Arab Scientific Councils in 2016. He has been the founding Dean of Polydisciplinary Faculty of Errachidia from 2008 to 2012.

Prof. Dr. Mamdouh Ibrahim Nassar

Act Dean Faculty of Science, Cairo University

Dr. Mamdouh Ibrahim Nassar completed his Ph.D. degree,1995 for pests management, University of Maryland, (USA) and the Cairo University channel system. He started his career as an Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University in 1992. Currently, he is the Act Dean Faculty of Science, Cairo University

Francisco Torrens

Universitat de València Spain

Francisco Torrens is a senior lecturer in physical chemistry at the Universitat de València. After obtaining a PhD in molecular associations in azines and macrocycles from the Universitat de València, Dr. Torrens undertook postdoctoral research with Professor Rivail at the Université de Nancy I. More recently, Dr Torrens has collaborated on projects with Professors Tomás-Vert, Salgado and Castellano. Major research projects include prediction of the environmental impact of chemical substances using chemobioinformatics tools, discovery of new inhibitors of tyrosinase: computational design, synthesis, characterization and experimental corroboration, search for new antimicrobial agents that inhibit the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall, minimal active domains of proteins of the Bcl 2 family, development and application of quantum chemistry methods and techniques to studies of drugs, analysis of pores of BAX at nanometric scale and study of the in vivo antioxidant capacity of phenolic compounds through QSAR/QSPR modelling: crossing of the blood-brain barrier and interactions with cytochromes and drugs. His scientific accomplishments include the first implementation in a computer at the Universitat de València of a program for the elucidation of crystallographic structures and the construction of the first computational-chemistry program adapted to a vector-facility supercomputer in a Spanish university.