Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Daniel Becker earned his PhD at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and worked in the pharmaceutical industry in Searle, Pharmacia, and then Pfizer as a Project Leader and Research Fellow developing new treatments for cancer, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases. He moved from industry to join Loyola University Chicago in 2004 where he serves as a full Professor of Chemistry performing research in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry, especially in the discovery of new antibiotics and treatments for cancer, as well as in supramolecular chemistry. He has published more than 50 scientific papers in various areas of chemistry and is an inventor on over 50 U.S. patents.

Our research is focused on the design and synthesis of metalloenzyme inhibitors and also of serine protease and serine hydrolase inhibitors with antibiotic properties. In addition, we are interested in the synthesis and conformational dynamics of supramolecular scaffolds related to cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) with applications in host-guest chemistry. Other active research areas involve synthetic methodology including cascade reactions and metal-catalyzed functionalization reactions.

Canan Nebigil is a Director of Research at CNRS. After her Pharm.D degree, she obtained her PhD at the University of Tennessee, USA and postdoctoral trainings, including at Duke University, NIH, Bethesda, and IGBMC, Strasbourg. Her team has been created with ATIP/Avenir CNRS, a young investigator award in Strasbourg. Her team has identified several fundamental mechanisms by which prokineticin signaling is involved in heart development and diseases associated with drug discovery. She obtained several scintific awards including, FRM, ESC, and CNRS. She is a coordinator of a EU project. She has 56 publications (H:28) and is editor of several journals. Her team was the first to explore the role of a new hormone, prokineticin, on cardiac physiopathology and metabolic disorders.

Discovery and Cardioprotective Effects of the First Non-Peptide Agonists of Prokineticin Receptor-1 (PKR1)

Dr. Janis Gravitis gained his PhD and DocSci from the the fomer USSR Academy of Science. Author and co-author of more than 300 scientific publications. Visiting Professor at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies, Tokyo, Japan, 1996–2000 Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science Foreign Member of the International Research Centre for Sustainable Materials (Tokyo) Head of the Laboratory of Biomass Eco-Efficient Conversation, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry - recently.

Dr. Janis Gravitis gained his PhD and DocSci from the the fomer USSR Academy of Science. Author and co-author of more than 300 scientific publications. Visiting Professor at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies, Tokyo, Japan, 1996–2000 Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science Foreign Member of the International Research Centre for Sustainable Materials (Tokyo) Head of the Laboratory of Biomass Eco-Efficient Conversation, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry - recently.

Prof. Dr. Max Welling is a research chair in Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam and a VP Technologies at Qualcomm. He has a secondary appointment as a fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). Max Welling has served as associate editor in chief of IEEE TPAMI from 2011-2015. He serves on the board of the Neurips foundation since 2015 and has been program chair and general chair of Neurips in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He was also program chair of AISTATS in 2009 and ECCV in 2016 and general chair of MIDL 2018. He is a founding board member of ELLIS. Max Welling is recipient of the ECCV Koenderink Prize in 2010. He directs the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLAB), and co-directs the Qualcomm-UvA deep learning lab (QUVA) and the Bosch-UvA Deep Learning lab (DELTA). He has over 300 publications in machine learning and an h-index of 68.

Drug Discovery, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical science, neural networks

Karol Bruzik received his BSc. degree (1972) from the Technical University of Lodz, Poland, and his PhD. (1980) and DSc. (1987) degrees from Polish Academy of Sciences. After postdoctoral work at The Ohio State University (1981-83 and 1990-93), he joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago as Assistant Professor, and is now Professor and Associate Head. He is an author of more than 100 peer review publications in the area of organic and bioorganic chemistry, enzyme mechanisms, phosphoinositide signaling and allosteric modulators of ligand-gated ion channels, with emphasis on GABA-A receptors.

Advances in Medicinal Chemistry

Dr Laurent Désaubry is a CNRS research director in the University of Strasbourg in France (website: http://desaubry.u-strasbg.fr/) and adjunct professor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST) in China. After a Ph.D. degree in medicinal chemistry at Strasbourg University and postdoctoral internership at SUNY at Stony Brook, USA and he Strasbourg he got a CNRS Research Senior Scientist at CNRS. He was promoted CNRS research director (corresponds to full professor) in 2014, and became also adjunct professor at TUST in 2015. He has published more than 90 publications and has been serving as an editorial board member of Frontiers in Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Current Chinese Chemistry and The Open Medicinal Chemistry Journal.

Our research is focused on the design and synthesis of metalloenzyme inhibitors and also of serine protease and serine hydrolase inhibitors with antibiotic properties. In addition, we are interested in the synthesis and conformational dynamics of supramolecular scaffolds related to cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) with applications in host-guest chemistry. Other active research areas involve synthetic methodology including cascade reactions and metal-catalyzed functionalization reactions.

Dr. Sarker is the CEO and CTO of Waste Technologies, LLC (WTL) since 2013 and he is the sole owner of the company. WTL has been working on any waste turning into green fuel especially building 1st commercialization facility in Bridgeport, CT on Waste Plastic to Low Sulfur Diesel (Patent # US 8,927,797 B2) and he has 5 more patent is pending stage since 2011. Dr. Moinuddin Sarker received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester, UK. He also has a Masters and a Bachelors degree, both in Chemistry, from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Sarker is the inventor of the technology and product entitles: “Method for converting waste plastics to lower – molecular weight hydrocarbons, particularly hydrocarbon fuel materials and the hydrocarbon material produced thereby.” (Patent # US 8,927,797 B2). Dr. Sarker has more 115 research publications and written 6 books including chapters. He is a Chief, Full Editor, Co-Editors, Associate Editors and Reviewers in more than 100 peer review journals in around the globe. Dr. Sarker is a distinguished member of the more than 40 organization or associations such as, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), UK, American Chemical Society (ACS), American Physical Society (APS), American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), Cleantech Forum International, Connecticut Technology Council, Alliance for Clean Energy of New York (ACENY), Society of Automobile Engineering (SAE) International, Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Vermont Renewable Energy, Sierra Club, Greenpeace International, Bangladesh Chemical Society (Life Member), Dhaka, Bangladesh and many more. Dr. Sarker also heads a humanitarian effort in Bangladesh “The Moinuddin and Anjuman Foundation, Inc.”, helps provide essentials for the poor and underprivileged (www.moinandanjufoundation.com).

Method for converting waste plastics to lower – molecular weight hydrocarbons, particularly hydrocarbon fuel materials and the hydrocarbon material produced thereby

Rashid Mahmood has Master Degree in Analytical Chemistry and MS in Total Quality Management. He has 15 years of experience of Pharmaceutical Quality Operations and has attended many international conferences as a keynote speaker. He has presented various talks in USA, Canada, UK and UAE on Cleaning Validation, cGMP Guidelines, Quality Risk Management, Role of Mass Spectrometry in Pharmaceuticals and on new Drug Delivery Systems. Currently he is working as a General Manager Technical Operations for Surge Lab.(Manufacturer of Microencapsulated APIs, Liquid & Dry Powder Parentrals) which is the best export oriented organization of Pakistan.

Rashid Mahmood studied Analytical Chemistry and has completed his MS in Total Quality Management from Punjab University Lahore-Pakistan. He joined Surge Laboratories Private Limited in 2004 and immediately excelled in his executive career track. He is working as DGM Technical Operations in one of the leading pharmaceutical company in Pakistan. His research interests include New Drug Delivery Systems, Quality Risk Management, Cleaning Validation, Microencapsulation, Pharmaceutics & Novel Drug Delivery Systems, Polymer Chemistry, Pharmaceutical cGMP & Hot Melt Extrusion.

Head of Applied Photochemistry LabMember of the editorial board of ISRN Physical Chemistry Member of the scientific advisory committee for Internet Photochemistry and Photobiology, Anglia Local treasurer of Polish Section of European Photochemistry Association (from 2009) Member of Polish Fulbright Alumni Association (from 1999) Member of British Alumni Association (od 1996).

His research interests focus on spectroscopy and both pure photochemistry and its applications. A special commitment is given to photophysics and electronic structure of biologically important flavins. The expertise of our group in pure photochemistry and photophysics enables us to efficiently study systems of practical importance, including for example beers, edible oils in general and olive oils in particular, kraft pulps, and dental materials. Our group is interested in light resistance of such materials and in usage of modern spectral, photophysical and statistical techniques, developing methods allowing to certify product origin and to monitor the effects of light on their consumer value.

Scientist Doctor Alaa Y. Ghidan, I received my PhD. in Nanotechnology, recently I've finished a training for professional in Pharmaceutical industry. I have published about 40 scientific papers including chapter in a book about bionanotechnology. I am the head of Innovation and Creativity Sector in Arab World and Academics union. Moreover; I do my researches at The Higher Council for Science and Technology. Research Interest, Nanomaterials Synthesis, Nanomaterials, Characterization, Natural Products Research, Nano-medicine, Diabetes and its prevention, Anti-cancer, Antimicrobial Activity, Academic awards, Internships Award and Best Researcher Award in Nanomedicine, 2020, India. Innovation in Education Award, 2019,International Award , India. Leadership Award and Best Researcher Award in Nanomedicine, 2019, International Award, India. Guinness Record, Nanosatellite Project at Kingdom Saudi Arabia. Awarded for Scientific Day (Best Student in Research) presented by Prof. Azmi Mahafzah, Head of the institution, The University of Jordan, 2018. Outstanding student award presented by Prof. Waleed Al-Ma'ani, Head of the institution, The University of Jordan- 2001. Friendship Award presented by England Government Under supervision of Prof. Sawsan Al-Majali, 2001. Awarded best for (School student in volunteering) Alsabelah Award, presented by his Highness Prince Al-Hassan. 1997. I have a Funded Project, Shoman Foundation, 20,000 JD, (2020-2022),Nanomaterials as Anticancer.

Nanotechnology

Daniela Andrei earned her Ph.D. at Florida International University in Miami, Florida and after her graduation in 2006, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Cancer at Frederick, Maryland. She joined Dominican University in River Forest in 2008 where she serves as a full Professor of Chemistry performing research in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. Her research work is on nitric oxide chemistry. She has been working on the synthesis of small biological active molecules known as diazeniumdiolate or NONOates with the goal of expanding the availability of primary amine diazeniumdiolates. She has published several scientific papers in different areas of organic chemistry and is an inventor of 2 U.S. patents.

Medicinal Organic Chemistry

Dr. Bharat Bhushan is an Ohio Eminent Scholar and the Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Bhushan came to OSU in 1991 after a 15-year career in industry, working primarily for IBM Almaden Research Center. A professor with diverse interests, Dr. Bhushan’s works in biomimetic interface science, surface engineering, nanotribology, and materials research. His research has focused on scanning probe techniques in the interdisciplinary areas of bio/nanotribology, bio/nanomechanics and bio/nanomaterials characterization and applications to bio/nanotechnology, and biomimetics. Dr. Bhushan spent the 2013-2014 year working as an ASME Science Fellow in Congress. His work there focused on policy and funding of various scientific government agencies, setting science and engineering goals for the country, and STEM education. Dr. Bhushan is a prolific author (h-index – 76+; ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science since 2007 and in Biology and Biochemistry since 2013; ISI Top 5% Cited Authors for Journals in Chemistry since 2011), influencing many different fields. He has authored 8 scientific books, 90+ handbook chapters, nearly 900 scientific papers, and 60+ scientific reports. He has also edited 50+ books and holds 20 U.S. and foreign patents. He was honored and awarded with 22+ (BITS (Pilani) Distinguished Alumni Award to recognize and honor for bringing laurels to their alma mater(2015) , Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) Global Award for oil-water separation using durable green coatings(2015), Top Ten Science Stories of 2015 - Nanocoated- mesh for Oil-Water Separation (2016) , Ohio State University - Innovators Award for Translation of Research into New products and Technologies (2017).

Research Interest Fundamental studies in the interdisciplinary areas of bio/nanotribology/nanomechanics and nanomaterials characterization in bio/nanotechnology and biomimetics with a focus on scanning probe techniques.