Alex Avdeef, in-ADME Reserach, USA
Alex Avdeef, PhD, is an AAPS Fellow, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London, and the author of Absorption and Drug Development, Second Edition, Wiley, Hoboken, 2012. For over 40 years, he has been teaching, researching, & developing methods, instruments, & analysis software for measurement of ionization constants, solubility of practically-insoluble drugs, miniaturized dissolution, & permeability (PAMPA, cell-culture, & animal models). His accomplishments in the development of instrumentation include several well-known instruments currently manufactured by leading companies in the instrument market (e.g., ORION960 Autochemistry System - launched in 1984 and still being sold by ThermoFisher today). He has over 120 technical publications in primary scientific journals & chapters in books, 6 patents. He founded (2011) in-ADME Research (USA) and co-founded pION INC (USA) in 1996 & Sirius Analytical (UK) in 1989. His other positions were at Orion Research (USA), Syracuse University (USA), Univ. of Calif. - Berkeley (USA), & Caltech (Pasadena, USA).
Sabrina Banella, University of Ferrara, Italy
Sabrina Banella graduated in Pharmacy summa cum laude at University of Ferrara in 2019 after 9-months research internship in Pharmaceutical Technology on nasal powders for nose-to-brain drug delivery in neurodegenerative diseases. In May 2023 she got the PhD degree in Chemical Sciences (Pharmaceutical technology) at University of Ferrara. Her PhD project focused on an innovative delivery system for anticancer drug delivery in loco-regional treatments. She was invited at St. John’s University (New York, USA) as visiting scholar for 10 months (supervisor: Prof. Abu Serajuddin), where she started to work on solid amorphous dispersions, hot melt extrusion, 3D printing technologies, and 3D cell models for drug testing. To date, she has developed formulative, analytical and methodological skills necessary for the production and characterization of different pharmaceutical forms and delivery systems for nasal, respiratory and oral drug release.
Christel Bergström, Uppsala University, Sweden
Dr Bergström is Professor in Molecular Pharmaceutics at Uppsala University, Sweden, and adjunct Professor at Monash University, Australia. She is heading a research group of ~25 people focusing on delivery of problematic compounds (poorly solubles, biologics). Her expertise area is within advanced drug delivery systems with focus on biorelevant profiling, computational prediction and novel manufacturing techniques. She is the Center Director of The Swedish Drug Delivery Center – an academic-industry partnership with 16 industrial partners from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Belgium. Dr Bergström has attracted funding to her research program from highly competitive sources, including the European Research Council (3), the Swedish Research Council (7), the National Institute of Health and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. She has published >130 papers and book chapters and has been cited >7100 times (h-index of 46). Dr Bergström is a cofounder of the Nordic Pharma Network and an EXCO member of the Nordic University Hub within patient-oriented products (the Nordic POP initiative). She is also an EXCO member of the Globalization Pharmaceutics Education Network. She has founded three companies supporting companies in the drug delivery and development area. In 2017, she was elected Associate Dean of collaboration (Medicine and Pharmacy) at Uppsala University. In this role, she is engaged in outreach activities, identification and establishment of strategic partnerships, interactions with governmental departments of importance for health and education, as well as increasing the academic awareness of the innovation system. In 2018, she became associate editor for the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics and is a sought for member of grant evaluation panels and scientific advisory boards.
Gaia Colombo, University of Ferrara, Italy
Gaia Colombo, Ph.D., was born in Italy in 1976. In 2001 she graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at University of Parma (Italy), after 8-month research internship at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of South Paris XI (France). From 2002 to 2004 she was granted of a PhD scholarship from University of Parma, allowing her being appointed for 18 months at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) in prof. Robert Langer’s group, where she worked on delivery systems for prolonged local anesthesia. She got her PhD degree in “Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics” from the University of Parma in 2005.Since April 2016 she is permanently appointed as Associate Professor by the Dept. of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (Degree in Pharmacy), University of Ferrara (Italy). She teaches “Pharmaceutical Technology” for the undergraduate Pharmacy program and supervises students for professional internships in pharmacies. In 2016-21 she served as Deputy Rector of Internationalization. She has supervised >100 Master student theses as well as 3 Ph.D. students. Her research interests mainly focus on transmucosal (nasal, buccal), respiratory and oral drug delivery. In 2008-10 she participated in a project funded by CARISBO Foundation on nose-to-brain delivery of antivirals in veterinary viral encephalitis. She was PI of a project “FIRB 2010” funded by Italian Ministry of Research, University and Education. She was funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region for a project on in vitro methods for antiviral drug assessment together with the Lombardy and Emilia Romagna Experimental Zootechnic Institute (IZSLER) and the Universities of Bologna and Parma. Prof. Colombo has published 73 papers, as well as 5 patents and 9 book chapters. She has been invited as lecturer by several academic and non academic institutions in Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Turkey, Australia. In 2006 she founded the “AAPS Italian University Network Student Chapter” (A.It.U.N.), the first European chapter of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, for which she served as Chair in 2006-07. Between 2007-2013, she served the Italian Agency for Medicines (AIFA, Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco) as qualified expert for the evaluation of the Quality section (Module 3) of CTDs. She is currently Associate Editor for Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy and member of the Editorial Board of journals in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy category. In 2018 she received the EUFEPS 2018 Women in Pharmaceutical Sciences Award.
Rolf Hilfiker, Solivias AG, Switzerland
Rolf Hilfiker is Head of the Department Solid-State Development at Solvias AG. Solvias AG is a scientific services company focused on leveraging expertise in various scientific disciplines to accelerate the drug discovery and development process. The department of some 20 people does contract research and development in the solid-state area, i.e. polymorphism studies, salt and co-crystal screening and selection, method development, crystallization optimization, etc. Rolf obtained his Ph.D in physical chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland. From 1987-89 he was Post Doc at SUNY, New York and from 1989-1992 Senior Research Fellow at the University of Basel. He has more than twenty years of experience in an industrial R&D environment at Ciba-Geigy, Novartis, and Solvias. Under his guidance, Solvias became one of the leading solid-state service providers in the world. He is author of more than 60 scientific publications as well as numerous patents in various areas of physical chemistry and editor of “Polymorphism – In the Pharmaceutical Industry”, Wiley-VCH, 2006.
Katarina Nikolić, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Pharmacy, Serbia
Katarina Nikolic is professor at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade. Her PhD project, in field of drug discovery, was defended in 2007 at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Serbia.Katarina Nikolic is an expert in pharmacophore modeling, 3D-QSAR, virtual screening, virtual docking, molecular dynamics, computer-aided drug design, lead optimisation, synthesis, and in vitro/in silico physicochemical/pharmacokinetic profiling of novel drug candidates. She is recognized as expert for rational drug design and discovery of novel neuroprotective, antihypertensive and antineoplastic drugs. Since 2017 she is elected as delegate of Serbian Chemical Society at Division of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, European Chemical Society. She is participating in several national and international projects. Additionally, she was mentor for 8 PhD theses and currently is supervising 5 PhD projects. Katarina Nikolic and her team are participating in the joint Master study program Advanced Data Analytics at University of Belgrade. Her academic figures are 108 publications, 3 book chapters, 28 invited oral presentations, 1406 citations, and h-index of 19 (Scopus).
Godefridus Peters, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), The Netherlands
Professor Godefridus (Frits) J. Peters is at the Laboratory Medical Oncology of the VU University Medical Center (VUmc) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied biology and chemistry at the University of Nijmegen, and did his Ph.D. in 1982. He did several post-docs at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and at the VUmc. In 1986 he received a senior research fellowship of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1989 he was appointed as head of the division of (Biochemical) Pharmacology, and was head of the Laboratory Medical Oncology from 2003-2017. He was appointed as associate-professor in 1992 and as full professor in 2003. The research of Prof. Peters is focused on translation of preclinical pharmacology of anticancer agents to the clinic. This included all aspects of drug development of various classes including anti-signalling protein kinase inhibitors, antifolates, antimetabolites, platinum analogs, topoisomerase inhibitors, and taxanes. Prof Peters was involved in several Phase I and 2 studies of drugs now registered for treatment of cancer such as gemcitabine, pemetrexed, erlotinib, while “failed” clinical studies led to the development of successful drugs. Drugs were improved by optimizing drug combinations, proper prodrugs or drug carriers, or by identification of resistance genes. For the latter, analysis of signalling pathways was performed, in relation to expression, mutations and genetic polymorphisms in driver genes, and regulation by miRNAs. Other research interests include regulation of transport (influx and efflux pumps), and metabolism of anticancer drugs, DNA repair, apoptosis and protein processing (proteasome, aminopeptidase, autophagy). These research fields are interconnected by studying the role of phosphorylation by various protein kinases on the function of these pumps (OCTs, MRPs, BCRP). These studies are translated from model systems to the patient and back, in order to provide personalized therapy. Prof. Peters has authored/co-authored >450 refereed research papers and reviews, as well as 171 papers/chapters in books and congress proceedings (H-index 86, citations 36024; Google Scholar), he is/was member of >25 editorial boards, and recently initiated a journal devoted to drug resistance, Cancer Drug Resistance. He was founder and first president of the Purine and Pyrimidine Society (2003-2005) and is currently secretary/treasurer of that group. He was chair of the EORTC-Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanisms (PAMM) Group from 2009-2015, and secretary until 2018 and was member of the EORTC-Translation Research Advisory Committee and of the New Drug Advisory Committee.
Abu Serajuddin, St. John's university, USA
Abu Serajuddin, Ph.D., is Professor of Industrial Pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University, Queens, New York, USA. He joined academia in 2008 after working for three decades in the pharmaceutical industry, where he formulated and developed numerous products, many with extremely difficult and challenging development issues. Several products that he developed or co-developed attained blockbuster status in the market. In his latest positions in the industry, Dr. Serajuddin served as the Director/Executive Director and the US Head of Drug Product Development (1999-2003) and Executive Director of Science, Technology and Outsourcing (2003-2008) for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. He authored over 90 research papers and book chapters and made over 100 invited presentations in scientific conferences. He is also a co-inventor in 12 patents. In recognition of his scientific and professional contributions, Dr. Serajuddin attained Fellow status in American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and American Association of Indian Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAiPS). AAPS also honored him twice with its Research Achievement Award, first for Formulation Design and Development (FDD) in 2010 and the second for Manufacturing Sciences and Engineering (MSE) in 2014. In 2005, he received the Novartis Leading Scientist Award for extraordinary scientific achievement in research and development. He serves in the Editorial Advisory Boards of several journals, including Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. At St. John’s, Dr. Serajuddin established the Industrial Pharmacy Innovation Laboratory, where the primary focuses of his research are (1) the development of novel drug delivery systems, especially for poorly water-soluble drugs, and (2) the innovation in processing technologies for solid dosage forms.
Kiyohiko Sugano, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Kiyo Sugano is a professor at Ritsumeikan University. He has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including Chugai Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc., and Asahi Kasei Pharma. He then returned to academia. His research interests include the mechanism of oral drug absorption and the physicochemical profiles of active pharmaceutical ingredients in pharmaceutical products. He is the founder of BioavailabilityDesign LLC. Kiyohiko Sugano has respectable experience in pharmaceutical research and development: 1995 Waseda University, MSc (organic chemistry); 1995-2004 Chugai pharmaceuticals; 2002 Ph.D.(pharmaceutical sciences) from Toho University; 2004-2012 Pfizer (Nagoya, Japan); 2007-2012 Pfizer (Sandwich, UK); 2012-2014 AsahiKasei Pharma; 2014-2017 Toho University, Department of pharmaceutical sciences, Associate Professor; 2017- Ritsumeikan University, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor; 2017- BioavailabilityDesign LLC.
Klara Valko, Biomimetic chromatography Ltd. UK
Klara obtained her PhD at School of Pharmacy, Semmerlweis University in Budapest. Since 1995 Klara has been working with the Physico-chemical Characterization Group at GlaxoWellcome and now GSK. Leaving GSK after 22 years of service, now she is director of Bio-Mimetic Chromatography Consultancy providing data analysis, biomimetic HPLC method set up and measurements, in vivo drug distribution modelling and various courses to pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of analytical equipment. She developed several bio-mimetic binding measurements of discovery compounds, such as Human Serum Albumin Binding, Immobilized Artificial Membrane binding and Chromatographic Hydrophobicity Index, etc. She developed in silico models for these and several other ADME properties using QSAR-WB general model building tool. Klara supported over 20 neuroscience and respiratory programs in the lead optimization by building general and local models between structure and properties. Klara is also a honorary professor at University College London, where she has been teaching the Physchem/ADME module for the Drug Discovery MSc students for 10 years. She has published over 100 papers that achieved over 3000 citations. She wrote a book on “Physicochemical and Biomimetic Properties in Drug Discovery; Chromatographic Techniques for lead optimization” published by Wiley in 2014. The book summarizes the methodology and applications of the measurements of physicochemical and biomimetic properties with examples for in vivo distribution models and applications in drug discovery.
Tatjana Verbić, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry, Serbia
Dr Tatjana Ž. Verbić is Associate Professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Chemistry (UB-FC) where she obtained BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees. She was research associate at University of Utah, Iowa State University, postdoctoral fellow at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and Fulbright Visiting Scholar at St. John’s University, New York. Her research is focused on fundamental scientific studies of various types of chemical equilibria in biologically active molecules and physico-chemical compound profiling in drug discovery and development, as well as on properties and application of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). She was the leader of bilateral scientific project between Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the participant of many national and international projects. She was the supervisor for 3 defended PhD and numerous MSc and BSc theses. Dr Verbić is member of the Sebian Chemical Society (member of the Supervisory board), the American Chemical Society, and the International Association of Physical Chemists. She was the Vice Dean of Education at UB-FC (2015-2018). Currently, she is the national coordinator for the Matura exam in chemistry, the head of UB-FC publishing center and the commettee for monitoring and improving the quality of teaching, and the Chair of the Nenad M. Kostić board for chemical sciences.
