Natural Products and Medicinal Plants Research

1978 and 1999 has completed his Ph.D and D.Sci. at the ages of 33 and 54 years from Zelinsky Instiute of Organic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia and Durmishidze Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Tbilisi, Georgia, respectively. 2006 up to date he is the head of laboratory of plant biopolymers at the Tbilisi State Medical University Institute of Pharmacochemistry. 1996 and 2002 he has been a visiting scientist at Utrecht University (faculty of pharmacy), The Netherlands, by University Scholarship and The Netherlands organization for scientific research (NWO) Scholarship Scientific Program, respectively. He has published more than 81 papers in reputed journals.

Isolation and structure elucidation of a new series of plant polyethers, which are endowed with pharmacological properties as anti-cancer agents. Enantioselective synthesis and biological activities of basic monomeric moiety of these biopolyethers. Synthesis of enantiomerically pure epoxides as chiral building blocks for the production of derivatives of synthetic analogues of such natural polyethers through ring-opening polymerization of chiral 2,3-disubstituted oxiranes

• Mohammed Saleem Ali-Shtayeh Completed his Ph.D. in Plant Sciences, Department of Botany, University of Reading, U.K, Since 1996 Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biology and Biotechnology, An-Najah University, Nablus, Palestine, 1986 The Abdul-Hameed Shoman Foundation Prize for Arab Scientists in Biological Sciences for the Year 1986. Amman, Jordan. (A Pan-Arab Prize). 2000 The Hisham Hijjawi Award for Applied Sciences in the Field of Industry and Environment For The Year 1999. Awarded in Recognition of The Distinguished Applied Scientific Value of Research Article Entitled: "Ecology of cycloheximide-resistant fungi in field soils receiving raw city wastewater or normal irrigation water. "Mycopathologia 144:39-54.

Plant Sciences

Professor Emeritus at Kanazwa Medical University

Fermentation other than Hot-water Extraction

I was promoted to Professor of Applied Microbiology in SIPBS at the University of Strathclyde in 2013. Previously I have been Secretary and UK representative to the European Federation of Biotechnology Working Party in Bioreactor Performance for 5 years. I am also coordinator of several significant research programmes funded by GSK/TSB, BBSRC Link, Marlow Foods, Masterfoods, DSM and Roche. My current project partners and sponsors include EU FP7, BBSRC, EPSRC, Ingenza, TAP, FossNIRSystems. I have acted in a consultancy role for many major EU biotechnology and food companies. My major areas of research interests include Industrial and Marine biotechnologies, reflected by significant grants from thee EU FP7 programme ( 7.5million euros) and also being part of the team which secured in the region of £13M for development of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, Collaborative Masters in IB and equipment funding from the Scottish Funding Council. Key research areas include the understanding the physiology of microbial and animal cell cultures within fermenter and bioreactor systems; bioprocess technology, including reactor and fermenter design; measurement and control in bioprocesses, with particular emphasis on spectroscopic techniques (Near and Mid IR) and data handling. All of these areas have received substantial industrial funding support together with funding from public sources.

Fermentation Technology, Intermediate Microbiology, Advanced Microbial Techniques, Industrial Microbiology.

Heru Chen has completed his PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with Prof. Richard K Haynes as supervisor. He got Post-doctoral training with Prof. Dr. Peter W. Schiller in the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Canada. Then he worked as a visiting scholar in Wuppertal University, Germany. Since March 2008, he has been a full-time Professor and research director in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, China. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and serving as Editorial Board Members of several reputed journals

I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1991 and was appointed Lecturer in Parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine Colombo. I did my MSc in Molecular Parasitology at the University of Salford in 1995 and was awarded the Overseas Research student Award to do my PhD. My postdoctoral training was in Prof John Hyde’s laboratory at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and I went on to work as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocenter (MIB, University of Manchester). My work lead to the first annotated 2D gel maps for the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the development of a novel heavy isoleucine-based quantitative proteomic methodology to investigate the malarial proteome. I was appointed Senior Scientist at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Center at St James’s Hospital in, University of Leeds in 2007 where I worked on developing a novel label-free quantitative proteomics methodology to investigate formalin-fixed tissue archives. I took up my current role as Senior Lecturer at the University of Salford in April 2010.

Malaria continues to inflict a heavy mortality and morbidity burden with up to 3 million annual fatalities globally. Despite significant post-genomic technical advances, drug development has struggled compete with resistance acquisition. My research interests focus on drug discovery/screening and the development of proteomic/mass spectrometric methods to define mechanisms of antimalarial drug action. The emergence of resistance to the current frontline drug Artemisinin and the absence of affordable alternatives in the developmental pipeline make it imperative to explore new options for antimalarial drug discovery. The Malaria Proteomics Laboratory at the University of Salford is currently screening a range of compounds for potential antimalarial properties. The main areas of investigation are summarized below: Drug repositioning or re-purposing, whereby existing FDA approved drugs already used in other diseases are screened for antimalarial activity. The strategy affords a fast tracked route to discover new antimalarial options as well as synergistic compounds which could be used in combination with current frontline drugs impede the progress of resistance. Fluorescence-based in vitro drug susceptibility assays optimized in the laboratory are used in the preliminary screens. A second research strategy focuses on the investigation of a range of natural product options for antimalarial efficacy. A collaborative project with the National Institute for Pharmaceutical research and development (NIPRD, Nigeria) is currently exploring a series of ‘traditional fever cures’ for in vitro antimalarial activity. Potential leads are taken forward for bioassay guided fractionation and active compound isolation. Fractionation end points will be guided by proteomic/mass spectrometric parameters to improve on currently available drug susceptibility assays which are largely reliant on parasite death, a crude and late measure of antimalarial efficacy.

Dr. Milind J. Umekar, Principal and professor, SmtKishoritaiBhoyar college of Pharmacy, Kamptee completed his B.Pharm from Amravati University, M. Pharm and PhD( Pharm.Sci.) and MBA & PhD (Management) from RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur. Dr. Umekar has 20 years of teaching, research and administrative Experience. He has been a versatile guide and has guided 38 M. Pharm and 6 PhD students in various fields of pharmaceutical sciences. He has published more than 58 research articles in national and international journals. He is recipient of best research paper award at International conference of Ethnopharmacology, Petra, Jordan in 2015. He has been awarded with prestigious fellowship in Indian Pharmacological Society (FIPS). He has also authored various books on Biochemistry and Pharmaceutics. Under his able guidance institute has received various research grants worth Rupees 80 lakhs from SERB-DST and AICTE. Dr. MilindUmekar has been chairman and Member of LOC for reputed International Scientific Conferences like, 45th International Conference of Indian Pharmacological Society,2nd International Conference of Ethnopharmacology, 68th IPC, First and Second Pharma HR Summit .He has chaired many scientific sessions at conferences of IPC, APTI, ISP, IPS,PHRSI, INNOPHARM etc. He has been Convener and coordinator for many scientific workshops and seminars. Under his visionary leadership as a President, APTI,MS , he has made many reforms and has conducted several programs for the professional growth of Pharmacy teachers. Through his administrative skills and excellent directions his institute Smt. KishoritaiBhoyar college of Pharmacy has been ranked 34th at all India level by National Institute Ranking Framework, 2017, Ministry of HRD ,Govt of India. He has worked as Member, Board of Studies, RTM Nagpur University. He serves as an examiner for UG, PG and PhD courses at various universities. He is associated with 33 National and International Professional Bodies&Organisations. Currently he is Vice President, Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India, Vice President, Pharmacognosy Society of India, Secretary, Association of Unaided Private Pharmacy Colleges, and also Member, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association, worked as President of IPA (Nagpur Branch), State Coordinator of Society of Pharmacognosy. He is Founder Secretary of Pharma HR Society of India and National executive member of Indian pharmacology society. Dr. Umekar has been honored with Pharmacy Teacher of the Year Award, Maharashtra Pharmacist Association Award, Young Achiever Award, National Teacher Excellence Award, Best Teacher Award and Best Principal Award by various professional organizations.

Herbal formulations, Ayurvedic preparations, Acute and sub-acute toxicity studies for Herbal formulations, Standardization of Herbal preparations as per OECD and WHO guidelines. Phytochemistry, Pharmacological activity and pharmaceutical aspect of tradinally used medicinal plants.

Fatma Ülkü Afifi-Yazar, Prof. of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, has obtained her Dr. nat. sci. from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 1977. Since 1982 she works at the University of Jordan (UJ), Faculty of Pharmacy where she teaches and supervises MSc and PhD students and hold administrative positions (Dept. Head, Dean). She has published more than 125 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of reputed journals. Her research projects were granted institutionally, governmentally and internationally. She received the "Distinguished Researcher Award" from the UJ for three successive years; 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Alexander V Sirotkin received his PhD degree in Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Leningrad, Russia and his DrSc degree at the Research Institute of Animal Production, Nitra, Slovakia. He is working as Professor at the Constantine the Philosopher University, as a Research Scientist at Research Institute of Animal Production in Nitra, Slovakia and as a Visiting Professor at the King Saud University in Ryiadh, Saudi Arabia now. He has about 600 publications including 130 full papers in the international journals. He is an Editorial Board Member of 4 international journals and a recipient of more than 10 national and international awards.

Jae-Ha Ryu has completed his PhD at the College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Korea in 1989 and postdoctoral studies from National Institute of Health, Maryland, USA. He got academic postion in 1992 at College of Pharmacy, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul Korea. He is the director of Research Center for Cell Fate Control (Medical Research Center). His main research interest is to suggest leading compounds from medicinal plants for drug development, especially for the treatment of cancer and various metabolic diseases. He has published 150 papers in reputed journals.

Heru Chen has completed his PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with Prof. Richard K Haynes as supervisor. He got Post-doctoral training with Prof. Dr. Peter W. Schiller in the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Canada. Then he worked as a visiting scholar in Wuppertal University, Germany. Since March 2008, he has been a full-time Professor and research director in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, China. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and serving as Editorial Board Members of several reputed journals

Mark Feitelson received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1979 from the UCLA School of Medicine. He was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University from 1980-82, and was then recruited to the Fox Chase Cancer Center by Dr. Baruch Blumberg (Nobel laureate). In 1991, Dr. Feitelson became Associate Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology and head of the Molecular Diagnostics Lab in Microbiology at Thomas Jefferson University. In 2007, Dr. Feitelson moved to Temple University, where he is now Professor of Biology. His research on hepatitis B and liver cancer has been supported by NIH for more than 25 years, has more than 130 publications, and is presently head of the Professional Science Master’s program in Biotechnology at Temple University.

Biotechnology,Microbiology and Immunology, Pathology and Cell Biology, hepatitis B and liver cancer

Dr Ian Cock completed his PhD from Griffith University in 1994 and undertook postdoctoral studies at the University of Queensland. He currently leads a research team in the Environmental Futures Research Institute at Griffith University, with research interests involving bioactivity, phytochemical, metabolomic and mechanistic studies into the medicinal potential of Australian and international medicinal plants, resulting in approximately 100 scientific publications in a variety of peer reviewed journals. Dr Cock is also a member of the editorial boards of 10 scientific journals, including being the editor-in-chief and foundation editor of the journal Pharmacognosy Communications.

Dr Ian Cock's research is involved in bioactivity and phytochemical studies into a variety of plant species of both Australian and international origin. His current research interests involve bioactivity, structural and mechanistic studies into the medicinal potential of Aloe vera, South Asian and South American tropical fruits, as well as Australia plants including but not limited to Scaevola spinescens, Pittosporum phylliraeoides, Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu plum), Australian Acacias, Syzygiums, Petalostigmas and Xanthorrhoea johnsonii (grass trees).He also has ongoing studies into the antimicrobial properties of foods, with the aim of reducing food borne disease and increasing shelf life. He also has an interest in the antioxidant potentials of Australian plants (eg Kakadu plum).

Prof. Dave Winkler, is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Manufacturing in Melbourne, Australia and hold Adjunct Professorial positions at several Australian and overseas universities. He has held positions of President of the Asian Federation for Medicinal Chemistry, Project Director in Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry in the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies, and Chairman of the Board of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He is an author on over 200 scientific papers and book chapters and an inventor on 20 patents. He sits on the Editorial Board of ChemMedChem, BMC Biosciences and Molecular Informatics.

Molecular design, biologically active molecules, biomaterials and regenerative medicine, complex systems, biological properties of nanomaterials, machine learning, computational chemistry, structure-property relationships, peptides and peptide mimetics, self-assembly and self-organization, molecular pharmacology, radioastronomy

Dr. Jamal Ouazzani completed his PhD in applied microbiology in 1988 from Paris XI University, France and obtained a permanent research position at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in 1989. Since 2002, he has acted as Research Director at the CNRS Institut de Chimie Des Substances Naturelles (ICSN) and has headed the ICSN Pilot Unit. He has engaged in diverse consulting activities since 1996, for environmental, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a leading expert in the field of bioremediation. He has published more than 59 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has obtained nine patents and has benefited from European Commission grants in the context of four collaborative projects, including coordinating the project TASCMAR.

Heru Chen has completed his Ph.D from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with Prof. Richard K. Haynes as supervisor. He got postdoctoral training with Prof. Dr. Peter W. Schiller in the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Canada. Then he worked as a visiting scholar in research group of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Scherkenbeck in Wuppertal University, Germany. Since March 2008, he has been a full-time professor and research director in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, China. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and serving as editorial board members of several reputed journals.

My research interests are directed toward the idenfication of bioactive compound, the total synthesis, and structural modification of natural products from Chinese herds, drug design and synthesis based on natural lead compounds, mechanism study of natural products, peptide investigation initiated from natural peptides, the interface of organic chemistry and cell biology.

K.H.C. Baser has completed his PhD from University of London in 1978. He is the director of BadeBio Biotechnology Ltd., a Technopark Company in Eskisehir, Turkey. He has published more than 700 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of reputed journals and is the Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly open access journal Natural Volatiles and Essential Oils (NVEO). He is a visiting professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since 2011.

Botany, chemistry, biological activity, technology of medicinal and aromatic plants, essential oils and natural products.

Pei-Yuan Qian is currently a Chair Professor in Division of Life Science, member of University Court, and Director of Environmental Science Programs in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He was funding director of Marine laboratory of HKUST and former member of University Senate and University Council. His laboratory focuses on 1) larval omics of marine invertebrates, 2) marine molecular microbial ecology, and 3) marine natural products for non-toxic antifouling compounds and drug leads. He published over 360 SCI papers and delivered over 60 plenary/keynote talks and over 260 oral presentations in international conferences. He serves as editor or editorial board members of many national and international journals and holds adjunct professorship in 10 top Chinese marine institutions. He is an elected council member of several international societies. He served as the founding chair of Gordon Research Conference on Marine Molecular Ecology and the Chief Editor of Frontiers in Marine Molecular Biology Ecology. He also holds a number of USA and China Patents on bioactive compounds.

His laboratory focuses on 1) larval omics of marine invertebrates, 2) marine molecular microbial ecology, and 3) marine natural products for non-toxic antifouling compounds and drug leads.

Vanderlan da S. Bolzani, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry is full professor at São Paulo State University, Brazil. Fellow of the RSC (UK), member of the Brazilian Academy of Science, has received several awards, most recent: 2014 CAPES-Elsevier Award, Distinguished Woman in Science Chemistry from ACS & IUPAC (2011); Simão Mathias Medal, the highest honor conferred by Brazilian Chemical Society (2011). In 1993-1995, had a post-doctorate training at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPISU-USA) with Professor David Kingston, and in 2011 visiting professor at Paris VI, UPMC. Current is member of the L’Oreal-SAB, and TWAS. Research field is plant science, focused on isolation, bioactivity, metabolomics of secondary metabolites and peptides from plants. Published 203 articles, 1 book, 5 book chapters and 4 patents issued. She is member of Biota-FAPESP biodiversity program, since its creation in 2003.

Prof. Rama Swamy Nanna has completed his PhD at the age of 26 years from Kakatiya University, Warangal- Telangana State, India and Post Doctoral Studies from Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is Coordinator, UGC-SAP-DRS-Phase-II, Dept. of Biotechnology, Kakatiya University. He has published 126 research publications in National and International reputed journals. He has been serving as editorial board member and Reviewer of reputed Journals and he has authored/ edited fifteen Textbooks and Research monographs. He visited Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Srilanka, Brazil and USA on various Research Fellowship Programs and also to deliver plenary Lectures in International Conferences.

Plant Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and In-Vitro Culture Technology

Dr. C. Nirmala is a Professor in the Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh. A post doc from the Department of Molecular genetics, University of Hannover, Germany, she has worked on various aspects of bamboo like taxonomy, tissue culture, micropropagation and food and nutrition. The main focus of her research work is on the nutritive value and phytochemicals in bamboo shoots. She was the Chair, Technical Committee of World Bamboo Congress, 2015 (September 17-22, 2015) which was held in Damyang, Korea. She has more than 60 papers to her credit. Presently, she is a World Bamboo Ambassador and her aim is to promote bamboo as Wood and Food for the 21st century.