Professor Jagat R Kanwar is the Head and team leader of Nanomedicine-Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Biomedical Research (NLIMBR), School of Medicine, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia. Professor Kanwar has an international reputation and expertise in investigating fundamental and applied molecular signalling aspects of pathogenesis of cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, thereby, leading to the development of treatment strategies from bench to bedside. He has more than 150 research publications in high impact factor and peer reviewed international journals, 27 book chapters and 3 edited books. Prof Kanwar’s research has generated several patents/PCTs with more than five licensed patents for commercialization to BioPharma industry. His group is currently working on drug discovery and nanomedicine for oral and systemic drug delivery of a range of natural bioactive and biomacromolecules (proteins/peptides, siRNAs and aptamers) for targeting survivin, HIF-1α and other apoptotic and inflammatory cell signalling molecules in cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders. His research combines Immunology with state of the art and cutting edge techniques in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Nanobiotechnology and visualization to investigate the pathways in which key molecules are regulated in both normal and disease states. A number of in vitro human cell/tissue based co-culture models for cancers, microbial infections; autoimmune diseases; chronic inflammatory diseases (osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease), gut health, neurodegeneration and immunomodulation have been developed by his group. Kanwar’s main research objective is to understand and target the mechanisms involved at the molecular and sub cellular level which gives us an edge over the prevalent targeting techniques. He carries out both academic and commercial research projects and develops new approaches for the diagnosis, treatment, and nanomedicine based new generation delivery systems. His recent research focus on locked nucleic acid (LNA) LNA-modified aptamers conjugated "double targeted nano-bullet nanocapsules" with natural anti-tumour proteins which specifically target cancer cells. University, Australia. Professor Kanwar has an international reputation and expertise in investigating fundamental and applied molecular signalling aspects of pathogenesis of cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, thereby, leading to the development of treatment strategies from bench to bedside. He has more than 150 research publications in high impact factor and peer reviewed international journals, 27 book chapters and 3 edited books. Prof Kanwar’s research has generated several patents/PCTs with more than five licensed patents for commercialization to BioPharma industry. His group is currently working on drug discovery and nanomedicine for oral and systemic drug delivery of a range of natural bioactive and biomacromolecules (proteins/peptides, siRNAs and aptamers) for targeting survivin, HIF-1α and other apoptotic and inflammatory cell signalling molecules in cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders. His research combines Immunology with state of the art and cutting edge techniques in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Nanobiotechnology and visualization to investigate the pathways in which key molecules are regulated in both normal and disease states. A number of in vitro human cell/tissue based co-culture models for cancers, microbial infections; autoimmune diseases; chronic inflammatory diseases (osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease), gut health, neurodegeneration and immunomodulation have been developed by his group. Kanwar’s main research objective is to understand and target the mechanisms involved at the molecular and sub cellular level which gives us an edge over the prevalent targeting techniques. He carries out both academic and commercial research projects and develops new approaches for the diagnosis, treatment, and nanomedicine based new generation delivery systems. His recent research focus on locked nucleic acid (LNA) LNA-modified aptamers conjugated "double targeted nano-bullet nanocapsules" with natural anti-tumour proteins which specifically target cancer cells.

Cancer and inflammatory autoimmune diseases;Cancer cells;stem cell capture;Disease specific biomarkers and Exosomes.

James R. Mansfield is a scientist with over 25 years of experience in spectral imaging, in-vivo spectroscopy and applied data analysis, directed towards finding of novel optical methods for the diagnosis and monitoring of medical conditions. He is currently the Global Head of Imaging, Quantitative Pathology Solutions, at PerkinElmer where he is a senior application scientist for their Quantitative Pathology products, including the Vectra Automated Quantitative Pathology Imaging System and the Mantra Quantitative Pathology Workstation. Before PerkinElmer he worked at Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, where he helped develop their multispectral imaging systems. Prior to that he worked at the National Research Council of Canada as a research scientist and at several small companies developing non-invasive spectroscopic methodologies. His research has included projects ranging from the development of the first of several spectral imaging systems able to map out skin oxygenation levels to developing methods for the non-invasive determination of the severity of rheumatoid arthritis and is currently focused on developing methods for simultaneous phenotyping of multiple subsets of immune cells in-situ in FFPE tissue sections. He is an associate editor of the American Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, holds 6 patents, has over 50 publications and has served as an invited speaker, session chair and organizer at a variety of international conferences.

Cancer Immunology; Cancer Immunotherapy

Okamura completed his doctorate in medical genetics in 1988. From 1989 to 1991, he was a research fellow at the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, under a famous researcher of bladder carcinogenesis, Dr. Samuel M. Cohen. Dr. Okamura studied bladder carcinogenesis and molecular biology. Over the past 30 years, he has continued to conduct clinical and translational research, mainly on BCG immunotherapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. He has published more than 25 papers as a first author.

Tumor, Cancer, Vaccines

Mark S. Kindy, Ph.D. is Professor of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Clemson University, Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina, Adjunct Professor of Management and Entreprenurialism, School of Business, College of Charleston. He received his BA in zoology from the University of Massachusetts in 1980. Dr. Kindy received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine from 1982-1987. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute from 1987-1989 in Molecular Biology and Virology. From 1989-2002, Dr. Kindy was a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky and rose from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. Dr. Kindy is currently the Admiral Pihl Endowed Professor in the Department of Neurosciences. Dr. Kindy is also a Research Career Scientist at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston. Dr. Kindy has served on many NIH, AHA, AA review panels, has reviewed for many journals and is currently on the editorial board of 10 journals. Dr. Kindy has over 140 peer reviewed publications and is funded by the NIH, VA , NSF and several foundations.

Cancer Immunology; Cancer Research; Neurological disorders; Biotechnology Bioengineering Inflammation Immune function in disease Vaccines

Prof. K.N. Leung received his B.Sc. Degree in Biochemistry from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and obtained the Ph.D. Degree in Microbiology and Immunology from The Australian National University. After two years of postdoctoral work at the Pathology Department of the University of Cambridge, he returned to the CUHK as a Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry in 1983. Prof. Leung was the former Dean of General Education in Chung Chi College, the Associate Dean of Science (Education) of CUHK and the Chairman of the Hong Kong Society for Immunology. He is now an Adjunct Professor in the School of Life Sciences, CUHK and the School of Science and Engineering, CUHK (Shenzhen).

Cancer immunotherapy; Nutrition; Immunity and cancer;

The translational research team at the Department of Cellular Therapy headed by Prof. Gunnar Kvalheim participates in developing new immunotherapy treatments for cancer. This includes the clinical development and testing of improved cancer vaccines and adoptive T cell therapy.

Immunology and Immunotherapy; New immunotherapy treatments for cancer

After obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in Gastroenterology at the Fourth Military Medical University of China in 1992, he did post-doc research on molecular biology at University of Louvain, Belgium, 1994, then at Stanford University, 1996. He moved to the Georgetown University and developed a novel non-viral tumor-targeted delivery system for cancer therapy, which is in Phase II clinical trials. In 2002, he joined the faculty at University of Michigan to discover the novel small molecule inhibitors of anti-apoptotic proteins. He is a co-inventor of the first Bcl-2 inhibitor that entered into clinical trials. In 2010, he obtained a Rising Star Award and became an Associate Professor with Tenure at University of Kansas Cancer Center. He has >25 patents with four INDs in advanced clinical trials. He is now a Professor of Cancer Biology at University of Kansas and has been funded by NIH, DOD and Komen Foundation. He is now working on cancer drug discovery and immunotherapy targeting cancer stem cells.

Cancer; Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy; Cancer Stem cells; Cancer Antibodies

Research Scientist at the Wayne State University and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, MI. Research interests include elucidating novel targets for therapy in aggressive breast cancers with special focus on key signaling pathways and microRNAs-mediated regulation of metastases and drug-resistance.

Cancer Metastasis; Pathology/ Medicine

In 2001, Dr. Han obtained his Ph.D degree in clinical hematology from Chinese PLA Postgraduate Medical School, and worked in Dept. of Molecule & Immunology of Chinese PLA General Hospital. In 2003, he did postdoctoral work at the University College London. In 2006, he was promoted to professor of molecular and cellular biology. Now, he is the Director of Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Director of Clinical Translational Ward, the General Hospital of PLA. Since 2001, he focused on mechanism research involved in cancer-treatment resistance and clinical translation of cell therapy. He has published over 80 articles.

Cancer- Treatment resistance, Clinical translation of cell therapy

Rupinder K Kanwar completed her PhD from PGIMER, India. Since then she has worked in India, New Zealand and Australia, in a variety of positions supporting and building new research programs related to interdisciplinary research, international collaborations and large-scale initiatives ranging from biomedicine to nanomedicine. She has 15 years’ experience in drug discovery targeting cancer and chronic inflammation, and delivered both academic and industry-oriented research with 75 peer reviewed publications. Dr Kanwar is a key inventor in more than 20 published and live patents/ applications. Her current research focuses on targeting molecular pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer with nanodrug and nanodiagnostic developments. At Deakin University, she is providing leadership to her research team on deciphering novel molecular targets for protein biodrugs to treat cancer and cardiomyopathy. She serves as an editorial advisory board member and reviewer of several international journals. Dr Kanwar has been invited as a speaker, and chair in national & international conferences, and her research presentations won awards at conferences

Targeting molecular pathogenesis of chronic inflammatatory diseases and cancer with nanodrug and nanodiagnostic developments, nanoencapsulation of proteins and other biomacromolecules, in particular lactoferrin to target inflammation, cancer.

Ammu K Radhakrishnan is a Professor of Pathology, School of Medicine, International Medical University, Malaysia. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. She was a post-doc at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, before returning to Malaysia. Her main area of research is developing novel cancer immunotherapy approaches to harness the potential of host immune system with the help of natural bioactive agents. She has supervised many postgraduate students and has many publications in Tier 1 and 2 journals. She is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy