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OncoTargets and Therapy

ISSN: 1178-6930


Professor Gaetano Romano

Professor Romano

Department of Biology, Centre for Biotechnology, Temple University Centre for Biotechnology, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Dr. Gaetano Romano is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In the course of his academic activities, Professor Romano has been conducting several research projects in the fields of tumor immunology, immunogenic cell death, cancer radiation therapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors, drug discovery and development in oncological programs, cancer stem cells, mechanisms leading to chemo- and/or radiation resistance in malignant cells, viral and non-viral vectors development for gene therapy, oncolytic viruses, viral oncology, detection of tumors markers in solid biopsies and in peripheral blood, isolation and enumeration of circulating tumor cells and/or circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream and characterization of cell signaling systems in the context of cancer research, neurodegenerative disorders and stem cell biology.


Dr Lukas Hawinkels

Dr Hawinkels

Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

Dr. Lukas Hawinkels is an Associate Professor and Head of the research laboratory Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). He obtained his Master's degree in Biopharmaceutical Sciences in 2003, followed by a PhD project on cell-cell interaction in the gastrointestinal tumor microenvironment. Next, he performed a postdoc project on the role of TGF-β (receptors) in cancer progression at the ten Dijke group at the department of molecular cell biology. In 2011 he was awarded a personal grant to start his independent research line on how interactions between cancer cells and CAFs influence metastatic spread. Dr. Hawinkels continued this research as an assistant professor at the research laboratory Gastroenterology-Hepatology in 2015. Since 2018 he is heading the research laboratory Gastroenterology-Hepatology. The current focus of his research team is on understanding how fibroblasts influence IBD and gastrointestinal cancer progression.


Dr John Maher

Dr Maher

School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Dr. John Maher is the scientific founder and chief scientific officer of Leucid Bio. He is also a clinical immunologist who leads the "CAR Mechanics" research group within King's College London. He played a key role in the early development of second generation (CD28) CAR technology while a visiting fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an approach that has achieved clinical impact in haematological malignancies. His research is focused on the development of adoptive immunotherapy using CAR engineered and gamma delta T-cells, with a primary emphasis on solid tumour types. In addition, he is a consultant immunologist at Eastbourne Hospital.


Prof. Dr. Daniel Neureiter

Prof. Dr. Neureiter

Institute of Pathology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Dr. Daniel Neureiter is a full professor at the Department of Pathology at the Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg. Prof. Neureiter is mainly involved in clinical affairs and in medical education from physiology to pathology as well as in scientific programmes.

After completing his specialist training at the Friedrich-Alexander University, he moved to Salzburg, Austria. Prof. Neureiter's main clinical-pathological interests range from malignant diseases of haematopoiesis to all pathological changes in gastroenterology (including the hepato-bilio-pancreatic axis), where he is a national and international specialist. Prof. Neureiter is an active and committed medical teacher in the medical, pharmaceutical and medical-technical curriculum of Salzburg and Linz. Here, new teaching technologies are integrated. The scientific group of Prof. Neureiter deals with the experimental and translational investigation of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone acetylation and miRNA profiling (i) in solid tumours of the gastrointestinal tract (in particular of the hepato-biliary-pancreatic system) (ii) and in haematological malignancies (lymphatic and myeloid). Various local, national and international collaborations are underway to address these complex scientific issues and to identify potential predictive and prognostic biomarkers for future targeted therapies.

In total, Prof Neureiter has published more than 230 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is a regular reviewer for the major oncology journals and international funding agencies.


Prof. Dr. Geoffrey Pietersz

Prof. Dr. Pietersz

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Prof. Pietersz is a Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Baker Institute Melbourne, Australia. He obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD at the University of Melbourne in synthetic organic chemistry in the area of natural products. With a keen interest in working at the interface of biology and organic chemistry he did his postdoctoral work at the Research Centre for cancer and Transplantation (RCCT) at the Melbourne University on drug, toxin, isotope-monoclonal antibody conjugates. During this period he developed many novel immunoconjugates of a number of anti-cancer drugs.

In 1991 the RCCT became the Austin Research Institute affiliated with the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Heidelberg. Prof. Pietersz developed a vaccine delivery system based on bio-conjugation of tumour associated antigen, mucin 1 to the mannose carbohydrate, mannan which targets antigen presenting cells. Successful efficacy studies in animal models led to several clinical trials in cancer and eventually licensing the IP to Prima Biomed Ltd and Ascend Biopharma Ltd. The antigen-mannan conjugates were also able to prime mucosal and systemic responses when administered via the intranasal route and demonstrated for influenza, RSV and rotavirus. Professor Pietersz also designed several small chemical entities using structure-based design that inhibit immune complexes binding to the FcγRIIa receptor for inflammation.

In 2006 the Austin Research Institute merged with the Burnet Institute and he was appointed the Head of the Bio-organic & Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory until 2016 and now a Honourary Research Fellow. His current research is still focussed on applying bio-conjugation strategies to solve biological problems in inflammation, drug delivery and vaccine delivery and application in translational research. He has 176 peer-reviewed publications and many granted patents in the areas of cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases. He is the Chief Technology officer at Ascend Biopharma Ltd and on the scientific advisory board of Avipep Pty Ltd. Prof. Pietersz holds professorial appointments at Melbourne University, Monash University and Victoria University.


Dr John Riches

Dr Riches

Centre for Haemato-Oncology, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

Dr. John Riches is a Clinical Reader at Barts Cancer Institute and Honorary Consultant Haemato-oncologist at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. He undertook his undergraduate degree in medical sciences at the University of Cambridge before qualifying from Oxford University Medical School in 2003. He subsequently trained in haematology on the Imperial College training rotation based at Hammersmith hospital. He developed his research interest during his CRUK Clinical Research Fellowship with Professor Gribben at Barts Cancer Institute where he studied the defects underlying impaired T-cell immunity in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) focusing on the impact of lenalidomide, being awarded a PhD in 2013. He stayed in this laboratory for a period of post-doctoral work investigating the expression and function of integrins on CLL cells. He was awarded the Hamblin prize by the UK CLL forum in 2015 for his work documenting the particular differences associated with the presence of trisomy 12. In 2016 he joined the Centre for Haemato-Oncology at Barts Cancer Institute as a Clinical Senior Lecturer funded by a fellowship from the Wellcome Trust. He leads the cancer immunometabolism research group which focuses on investigating the alterations in metabolism that accompany B-cell activation and how this is reflected in the metabolism of low- and high-grade lymphomas. In addition he remains clinically active at Barts where he is the principal investigator on several clinical trials.


Dr Nagashree Seetharamu

Dr Seetharamu

Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, NY, USA

Dr. Nagashree Seetharamu is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, U.S.A. In addition to being a nationally and internationally renowned thoracic and head and neck oncologist, with a busy clinical practice, she is a very active academician. She has conducted several research projects in the fields of lung cancer prevention, early detection, predicative and prognostic biomarkers as well as novel therapeutics in in thoracic and head and neck oncology. Dr. Seetharamu is passionate about mentoring the new generation of oncologists and plays an active role in the fellowship program at Northwell Health. She also serves as a mentor for trainees in other institutions through the ASCO mentorship program.


Dr Sanjay Singh

Dr Singh

Division of Biological and Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, India

Dr. Singh is currently an Associate Professor at the Division of Biological and Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, India. During his PhD thesis research in Nanobiotechnology at CSIR – National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, Dr Singh demonstrated "Safe by Design" approach for the synthesis of biocompatible nanomaterials, particularly the preparation of metallic and magnetic nanoparticles using bio surfactants. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA, he worked with the cerium oxide based antioxidant nanozymes. During his research fellowship at the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey in Pennsylvania, he demonstrated the co-encapsulation of multiple anticancer drugs in nanoliposomes for synergistic treatment of melanoma.

Dr. Singh's research at Ahmedabad University focused on developing novel inorganic nanozymes exhibiting better catalytic activities than corresponding natural enzymes. His research group is also developing strategies to apply these nanozymes in selective identification as well as prevention and treatment of cancer cells. Applications in bio-sensing and approaches to improve the bio-catalytic as well as chemical catalytic activities of the developed nanozymes are some of the other major research thrusts.

Dr. Singh's current research also include the identification of new biological targets for efficient cancer treatment. His research group also works on the preparation of novel nanoliposomal formulations for the efficient delivery of anticancer drugs and tumor suppressor genes (plasmids and siRNAs) to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.

Dr. Singh is the author or co-author of over 65 international peer reviewed scientific publications, 6 book chapters, and 1 edited book in the area of Nanobiotechnology and Nanomedicines. Dr. Singh has been bestowed with several international awards including the prestigious Endeavour Research Fellowship by Government of Australia, Yamagiwa-Yoshida (YY) Memorial international grant award by Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Scientist Medal, and EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) fellowship.

At national and international levels, Dr. Singh has served as reviewer of multiple grants and several international peer reviewed journals of nanoscience and nanotechnology area.

 


Professor Yong Teng

Professor Teng

Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

Dr. Yong Teng, PhD, is an associate professor of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory School of Medicine, USA. He is the inaugural recipient of Winship Cancer Institute Wally Award and a member of the BME Program Faculty, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech. Dr. Teng is an active member of the International Head and Neck Scientific Group, the Royal Society of Medicine, American Association for Cancer Research and other associations. His research interests lie primarily in bridging three major research themes, tumor metabolism, microenvironment, and metastasis, with a special emphasis on several molecular determinants, and translating these discoveries into better therapeutics by integrating novel treatment strategies and drug delivery systems. His team has authored more than 150 articles and chapters relating to the mechanistic understanding of cancer progression, treatment responses, and anticancer drug action, providing a balanced mix of basic and translational science to shed new light on cancer management and research. His research has been funded by National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, the industry, and other funding agencies. Dr. Teng also serves on a number of grant review panels, journal editorial boards and international conference committees, demonstrating his exceptional commitment to serving the scientific community.


Dr Tohru Yamada

Dr Yamada

Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA

Dr. Tohru Yamada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine. Dr. Yamada was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the school's Department of Microbiology & Immunology. He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. His research interests and expertise are the discovery and development of new class of peptide-based anticancer agents and carriers for imaging agent targeting cancers on the basis of molecular biology, protein/peptide chemistry, cell biology and cancer biology. Dr. Yamada is also Director, Drug Development of CDG Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company (Chicago, IL) engaged in the development and commercialization of proprietary peptides derived from pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and green plants. He holds ~25 issued and pending US and international patents, and has authored a number of original research/review/news articles featured in Nature Medicine, Nature Review Clinical Oncology, Science, Lancet Oncology, etc. Dr. Yamada is currently a member of the Editorial Board of several peer-reviewed scientific journals such as International Journal of Nanomedicine.


Dr Arseniy Yuzhalin

Dr Yuzhalin

Department of Molecular & Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Dr. Arseniy E. Yuzhalin obtained his bachelor's degree in Genetics at Kemerovo State University, Russia. His early studies under supervision of Prof. Elena Brusina were devoted to the investigation of the impact of gene polymorphisms on a risk of onset of diseases such as cancer and atherosclerosis. In 2012-2013 he worked at the Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases, Kemerovo, Russia as a junior researcher, where he explored the role of calcium-phosphate bions in eliciting endothelial dysfunction and development of atherosclerosis. In 2013 he joined the laboratory of Prof. Ruth Muschel at the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, UK, where he earned his Master by Research and subsequently Doctor of Philosophy degrees. During this time he elucidated the influence of the extracellular matrix on the progression of colorectal cancer liver metastasis utilising high-throughput approaches such as quantitative proteomics. In 2018 he joined Dr. Anton Kutikhin lab at the Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases as a lead research scientist to pursue his research interest in endothelial biology with relation to various pathophysiological conditions. He is also studying brain metastasis biology with Professor Dihua Yu lab at the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA.


Editorial Board

Professor Josep M. Argiles, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Fung-Lung Chung, Professor, Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

George Ding, Department of Radiation Oncology, Biomedical Research Education & Training, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

Muthusamy Kunnimalaiyaan, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Tulane University-School of Medicine, New Orleans, USA.

Axel S. Merseburger, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Shakeel Modak, Member and Attending, Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

Rakesh Naidu, Associate Professor, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia.

Gianmaria Pennelli, MD, Assistant Professor in Pathology, Department of Medicine (DIMED), University of Padova, Italy.

Dr Rituraj Purohit, Principal Scientist at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India.

James A Radosevich, Professor, Experimental Pathology, Center for Molecular Biology of Oral Diseases, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, USA

Alessandro Rizzo, M.D. Department of Medical Oncology, John Paul II" Cancer Institute, Viale Orazio Flacco, Bari,Italy.

Prof. Dr. Jean Rommelaere, Professor in Tumor Virology, Department of Infection, Inflammation and Cancer, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Stefania Staibano, Professor in Pathology, Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University Federico II of Naples, Naples, Italy

Nurdan Tacyildiz, Professor, Medical School, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

Guang-Hong Tan, Dr, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Medicine, Hainan Medical College, Xueyuan Lu, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China

Dinesh Vyas, Chair, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, California NS University, USA

Ping Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Precision Health Program, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA