Maria J. Blanco‐Prieto received her Pharmacy Degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), followed by a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Paris‐Sud (France). She completed a post‐doctoral training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich, (Switzerland) and then joined the University of Navarra where presently she is Full Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology. Her research lay in the field of biomaterials and advanced drug carrier systems including the design and the development of polymer and lipid based micro‐ and nanoscale carriers, their biological evaluation in in vitro cell cultures (toxicity, mechanism of action, intracellular drug release) and also their pharmacokinetic and dynamic impact in vivo (using relevant animal models of the diseases).

Dr Arlene McDowell is a Senior Lecturer at New Zealand’s National School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Arlene graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and in 1999 with a MSc. In 2005 she completed her PhD at the University Otago on designing oral delivery systems for biocontrol agents for the Australian brushtail possum. Arlene has co-authored scientific and research papers, reviews and book chapters in leading pharmaceutical publications. In 2009, Arlene was awarded an Otago University Student Association Teaching Award for her undergraduate teaching in the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme. Arlene’s research interests are in the area of drug delivery wildlife applications and nanomedicines. Arlene currently Chairs the Editorial Board of the Controlled Release Society Newsletter and is on the Board of Scientific Advisors.

Dr. Mu obtained a doctorate (PhD) in Engineering from Lund University in Sweden and a Master of Science in Chemistry from Nankai University in China. Currently Dr. Mu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed scientific papers (H-index 30).

Dr. Dorkoosh has received his PhD in pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics from Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2002. He followed an international training on intellectual property and management of innovation at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland in 2005. He got also his Diploma in management from Chartered Management Institute of London, UK in 2009. He is currently an associate professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He is also the head of Patent office of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Dr. Dorkoosh published more than 80 research articles and held 10 patents and patent applications.

Dr. Kwon is the Jens T. Carstensen Distinguished Chair Professor in the School of Pharmacy at University of Wisconsin. He received the Jorge Heller Journal of Controlled Release/Controlled Release Society (CRS) Outstanding Paper Award (1994) and CRS Young Investigator Research Achievement Award (2003). He is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2012) and a highly-cited researcher by Thomson Reuters in the category of Pharmacology & Toxicology (2014). He is co-founder of Co-D Therapeutics Inc., a start-up company dedicated to multi-drug anticancer nanotherapeutics.

Dr. Murugan Ramalingam is Professor at the Centre for Stem Cell Research (India). Concurrently he is Adjunct Professor at the Tohoku University (Japan). He worked as Associate Professor at the Université de Strasbourg (France) and Assistant Professor at the WPI-Advanced Institute for Materials Research (Japan). He has also worked at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He received his Ph.D. in Biomaterials from the University of Madras. He is the author of over 260 scientific publications.

Alaa A. Aljabali completed MRes in cancer biomarkers from Essex University and a Ph.D. in Bionanotechnology from John Innes Centre (UK). Worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford on the development of nanoparticles as clinical imaging agents. Recently completed a University of California San Diego Fellow in Responsible Conduct of Research. His research interest is in; Biomaterials, Drug delivery and targeting, Material science, and Nanomedicine.

Christine Allen is the GlaxoSmithKline Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery and a Professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and IBBME at the University of Toronto. Allen’s research is focused on the design and development of new materials and technologies for the delivery of drugs and contrast agents. Her research has resulted in well over 100 peer‐reviewed publications, numerous patent applications and book chapters on both lipid and polymer‐based drug delivery systems. She is also the co‐founder and President of Nanovista Inc., a start‐up housed in Johnson & Johnson Innovations JLabs @Toronto, which is focused on the development of multimodal contrast agents to improve the performance of image‐guided high precision cancer therapy.

Prof. Arote Rohidas is an Associate Professor and the director of Nanomedicine Laboratory in the Dept. of Molecular Genetics, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University. His research includes nanotechnology, drug delivery, molecular targeting, nucleic acid delivery, bioimaging and modulation of cell death mechanism has been published in over 50 international journals and also produced various patents.

Dr. R. Jayachandra Babu’s research area is primarily focused on formulation design and development of topical and transdermal dosage forms. Current research projects include the development of transdermal and nanoparticle dosage forms for treating infections and inflammatory disorders. His research is also focused on solubility improvement of insoluble drugs, solid state characterization of drugs and nanoparticles. His experience also includes work on the formulation development of solid dosage forms (tablets, rapid dissolve strips), liquid oral (solution and suspension) and sterile injection (solution) dosage forms. He has published over 70 peer reviewed papers and 80 research abstracts to his credit.

Giulio Caracciolo is Professor at the Molecular Medicine Department of the Sapienza University of Rome. He is mainly interested in understanding the bio–nano interactions between nanodelivery systems and physiological environments. The relationships between synthetic identity, biological identity and physiological response of drug delivery systems will enable researchers to predict their outcome after administration in vivo. This would represent a truly new paradigm in the field of pharmaceutics and nanomedicine.

Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D. FRSC, Director, Life Sciences Institute, University of British Columbia; Chair, Personalized Medicine Initiative; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director, NanoMedicines Research Group, UBC. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the generation, loading and targeting of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems for intravenous delivery of small molecule drugs and macromolecular drugs such as small interfering RNA (siRNA). This work has contributed to three drugs that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of cancer and its complications. Dr. Cullis has co-founded ten biotechnology companies, has published over 300 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He also co-founded the BC Personalized Medicine Initiative in 2012, Dr. Cullis has received many awards and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004 and was awarded the Prix Galien, Canada’s premier prize for achievements in pharmaceutical R&D, in 2011.

Dr. Wei Deng received her PhD degree in Chemistry with nanotechnology background at Macquarie University, Australia, in 2011. She was reward Discovery Early Career Research Fellowship from the Australian Research Council in 2012. She is now a research fellow in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at University of New South Wales. Her research fields were mainly focused on biomedical applications of liposomes and polymer nanoparticles, in particular, light (or X-ray)-controlled drug/gene delivery systems in cancer treatments.

Nunzio Denora received the degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Bari in 2001 and obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Palermo in 2004.After a postdoctoral position at Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the Kansas University (2005-2006), he was appointed as assistant professor and research scientist of Pharmaceutical Technology at the Department of Pharmacy - Drug Sciences of the University ofBari. He has published more than 80 articles, is author of 3 book chapters, more than100 posters and several oral presentations and is inventor of 3 patents.

Dr Christine Dufès is a Senior Lecturer at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom. She obtained a Doctorate in Pharmacy (with Distinction and congratulations of the Jury) and a PhD (with a European Label, Distinction and congratulations of the Jury) from the University of Poitiers (France).Her research interests include the targeted delivery of drugs and therapeutic genes to tumours and cerebral diseases. She has been awarded the Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award (2009) and the Tom Gibson Memorial Award (2012) for her research, in addition to the Best Overall Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Award 2013 for her teaching. She sits on the editorial boards for 17 journals.

Graduating BSc (Pharm) in 1962 and PhD in 1965 from the University of Glasgow and the Royal College of Science and Technology, now Strathclyde University, his first appointment as a lecturer in pharmaceutical chemistry Strathclyde was in 1966 after a year’s postdoctoral work. There followed a year with Karol Mysels in the USA. Returning to Glasgow, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1972 and J. P. Todd Professor of Pharmaceutics in 1975. After spells as Dean of the School of Pharmacy in Strathclyde and Vice‐Dean of the Faculty of Science. he moved to take up the post of Dean of the School of Pharmacy in the University of London, a post he combined with a research role, from 1989‐2006. Research interests are in surfactant systems, colloids, and aspects of pharmaceutical nanotechnology, particularly the material‐biological interface. He is an editor of the International Journal of Pharmaceutics and was founding co‐editor with Vincent Lee of the Journal of Drug Targeting. He has co‐authored a number of books, the first in 1968 on Solubilization by Surface Active Agents, then with David Attwood, Surfactant Systems (1983), six editions of Physicochemical Principles of Pharmacy (the last published in October 2015), and a solo An Introduction to Clinical Pharmaceutics in 2010.

Khaled Greish is Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, and head of the Nano-research unit, at Princes Al-Jawhara Centre, Arabian Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of Utah, USA. He Published > 70 peer reviewed papers, and 10 book chapters in the field of targeted anticancer drug delivery. Controlled Release Society (CRS) awarded him the CRS Postdoctoral Achievement award in 2008 and in 2010; he was elected as member of the CRC College of Fellows. in 2014 University of Otago.

Professor Zhongwei Gu graduated from Peking University in 1981 and served as a senior visiting scholar in the Research Triangle Institute, RTP and the University of Utah, USA, respectively from 1984 to 1986 and 1991 to 1993. He was appointed as a Professor in 1994, and has thrice been the Chief Scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (the 973 program) since 1999. He is a Fellow of International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE). His current research activities focus on the biomedical polymers, nano-biomaterials and drug delivery systems and tissue engineering.

Dr. Jianfeng Guo, Ph.D., is a Professor of Nanomedicine at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jilin University, China. He received his PhD in 2011 from University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. He was a Research Fellow at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, followed by industrial working experience at the Viva Biotech Ltd., Shanghai, as a Project Manager. He then spent three years at UCC as a Senior Research Fellow, prior to joining in Jilin University in 2016. He was awarded the Embark Initiative Postgraduate Scholarship, Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad. Dr. Jianfeng Guo has published 24 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Dr. Umesh Gupta, currently working as Assistant Professor at Department of Pharmacy, Central University of Rajasthan, India, did Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Dr. H. S. Gour University, Sagar, India under the mentorship of Prof. NK Jain. He has recently been awarded “DAAD Research Stays for Academics and Scientists” at Leibniz-institut fur Polymerforschung Dresden, Germany. He has the past experience of working as Research Scientist at Ranbaxy Research Laboratories, India and Post-Doctoral Research Associate at South Dakota State University, USA. He joined the Central University of Rajasthan in the year 2013.

Professor Lisbeth Illum was the founder and Managing Director of DanBioSyst UK Ltd a drug delivery technology company, sold successfully to West Pharmaceutical Services and now Archimedes Lab Ltd. She was the CEO of Critical Pharmaceuticals Ltd a drug delivery company (sustained release injectable and nasal technologies). She now works as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry and exert witness in patent litigations. She was awarded her M. Pharm, Ph. D and D.Sc. from the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy in 1972, 1978 and 1988, respectively. Her research expertise is in the area of novel drug delivery systems for difficult drugs such as hydrophilic and insoluble drugs, peptide and proteins. She has published more than 350 scientific papers, co-edited four books and filed more than 45 patent family applications on novel drug delivery systems, of which a large number of patents has been granted. She has lectured extensively throughout the world at conferences and workshops. She is a Fellow of the AAPS and CRS. She is or has been on the Editorial Boards of eleven scientific journals.

Dr. Tae-il Kim is associate professor at Department of Biosystems & Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University (Republic of Korea). He obtained his Ph.D. in Department of Chemistry in 2006 from Seoul National University. He was a post doctor in Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah, prior to joining Seoul National University in 2010. His research is focused on the development of drug/gene delivery systems, nanomedicine, and biopolymers for biomedical applications.

Tamara Minko, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers University. Her current research interests include nanotechnology; drug delivery; personalized nanomedicine; molecular targeting; nucleic acids delivery; mechanisms of multidrug resistance; bioimaging; preclinical evaluation of new therapeutics; and modulation of cell death mechanisms during hypoxia. Professor Minko is author and coauthor of more than 400 publications. Dr. Minko is an elected Fellow of CRS, AAPS, and AIMBE; recipient of numerous awards. She also is an Executive Editor of Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Editor of Pharmaceutical Research, President-Elect of the Controlled Release Society.

Teresa Musumeci is assistant professor and research scientist at the Department of Drug Sciences of the University of Catania, since 2008. Teresa Musumeci received her Pharmacy degree from University of Catania (Italy) in 2001. She received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from University of Palermo (Italy) in 2007. She is author of 30 papers peerreviewed publications, 2 book chapters. Her scientific activity is focused on design and characterization of nanocarriers for delivery of drugs.

Professor Kamla Pathak, Professor and Head, Department of Pharmaceutics, Pharmacy College Saifai, U. P. RIMS&R, Saifai, Etawah, India has a teaching and research experience of more than 26 years. Actively engaged in research on oral controlled /modulated/targeted and topical drug delivery systems has over 200 publications in journals of international and national repute, 3 patents, authored book chapters and more than 180 abstracts of the papers presented in scientific forums to her credit. She has supervised Ph. Ds, 120+ postgraduate theses and has a h-index of 21.

Dr. Qiang Peng obtained his B.S. degree (2006), M.A. degree (2009), and Ph.D in pharmaceutics (2012) from Sichuan University, China. He joined West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University as a lecturer in 2012 and promoted as an associate professor in 2014. Dr. Peng once worked in Keele University from 2010 to 2011 and in University of Copenhagen during 2015. His research focuses on nanomaterials‐based advanced drug delivery. As a young scientist, he has published more than 20 publications. He won the Sichuan Provincial Award of Outstanding PhD Dissertation in 2014 and the First Prize of Chinese Outstanding Young Investigator Award, IADR‐China Division in 2014.

Stefano Salmaso is associate professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova (Italy), where he teaches Technology of delivery and controlled release of drugs. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2004 and the Master degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Padova. He held positions as assistant professor at the University of Padova and associate scientist at Northeastern University - Boston (USA) in 2005 and 2008. He is author of 58 peerreviewed publications, 3 book chapters, and inventors of 3 international patents. His scientific activity is focused on the development of responsive “smart” nanocarriers for the delivery of drugs and biopharmaceutics.

Dr. Santos obtained a doctorate (D.Sc.) in Chemical Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland. Currently Dr. Santos is an Adjunct Professor in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has published more than 150 scientific publications. Dr. Santos serves as Editor and is in the Editorial Board of several international journals.

Dr. Andreas G. Schätzlein obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Medical Biophysics, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany and became a full professor in 2014. Dr. Schätzlein is Professor of Translational Therapeutics at the UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, London, UK. His research interests focus on the discovery and translational preclinical and clinical development of nanomedicines and biomaterials (nano-enabled therapies in particular). His record of accomplishments includes development of medicines and translational research in industry and academia. Dr. Schätzlein has a sustained research output with over 90 authored/co-authored publications (having a significant number of total citations, i.e. over 5,045), and 17 patent applications.

Sevda Şenel is Professor at the School of Pharmacy at Hacettepe University, Ankara Turkey. Numerous international (NATO‐CRG, NATO‐CLG, British Council, EU‐7‐SME) and national (TUBITAK, SAN‐TEZ) projects led her group to the development of non‐invasive systems for drugs and vaccines via various mucosae (buccal, sublingual and nasal) in human and veterinary field. Dr. Şenel and her research group has been awarded a number of prestigious honors including AAPS‐PharmSciTech Best Poster Award (2015), Hacettepe University Science Award (2011), The Distinguished Scientist Award ‐ by the Academy of Science of the Turkish Pharmacists Association (2010), CRSIntervet Best Veterinary Paper Award (2005) and the Novartis Pharmaceutical Technology Research Award (2004). Dr. Şenel is the author of more than 150 research publications, which includes original research and book chapters.

Prof. Juergen Siepmann obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany. Since 2004 he is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at University of Lille, France. He has published more than 160 articles, is editor of 3 books, author of 16 book chapters, 280 poster and 120 oral presentations and is inventor of 9 patents. Since 2010, he is heading the INSERM research group "Controlled Drug Delivery Systems and Biomaterials" (> 40 scientists) and serves as president of the APGI (International Society of Drug Delivery Sciences and Technology). Prof. Siepmann is currently the Editor‐in‐Chief of the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

Amanda K. A. Silva obtained a Pharmacy degree in 2005 at UFRN, Brazil, and a PhD on Pharmaceutical Technology in 2008 in the domain of gastro-resistant magnetic microcapsules. She obtained a second PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2010 at Université d’Evry, France concerning polysaccharides for thermo-controlled cell culture in 3D. In 2013, Amanda obtained a tenured CNRS researcher position at Matter and Complex Systems lab in Paris. She works on physical approaches for regenerative medicine, extracellular vesicle engineering, theranosis and photo-activated therapies. Amanda published 37 papers and is inventor in 4 patents.

Stefaan C. De Smedt is Director of the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines (Belgium); He served as dean of his faculty and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Ghent University. He has been elected as member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. Dr. De Smedt serves as the Editor of the Journal of Controlled Release (for Europe- the Middle East & Africa). For his research, which is at the interface between drug delivery, biophysics & material sciences, he received the CRS Young Investigator Award 2006 and the APV Research Award 2010 for Outstanding Research Achievements in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a scientific founder of Memobead Technologies and a member of the Drug Delivery Advisory Panel of Santen.

Dr. Nanasaheb Thorat, MSc, PhD, (Gold Medal) MRSC, is an outstanding Researcher currently working in Bernal Institute, University of Limerick Ireland. He is a recipient of various prestigious fellowships including Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (IF), Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship, Government of Ireland IRC fellowship Ireland. Dr. Thorat has published ~42 peer reviewed journal articles and 2 book chapters (total citations ~1000, H index: 20), presented 1 Keynote Speech, 4 Invited Talks and 2 oral presentations at prestigious scientific peer-conferences, received international acclaims and awards for research contribution.

Vladimir P. Torchilin, Ph.D., D.Sc. is a University Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Northeastern University, Boston. His interests include drug delivery and targeting, nanomedicine, multifunctional and stimuli-sensitive pharmaceutical nanocarriers, biomedical polymers, experimental cancer therapy. He has published more than 400 original papers, more than 150 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 12 books, and holds more than 40 patents. Google Scholar shows more than 44,000 citations of his papers with H-index of 96. He is Editor-in-Chief of Current Drug Discovery Technologies, Drug Delivery, and OpenNano, Co-Editor of Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and on the Editorial Boards of many other journals. He received more than $30 M from the governmental and industrial sources in research funding. He has multiple honors and awards and in 2011, Times Higher Education ranked him number 2 among top world scientists in pharmacology for the period of 2000-2010.

Dr. Wagner is professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and member of the Munich Center for Nanoscience. He coordinates ‘Biomedical Nanotechnologies’ of the Excellence Cluster ‘Nanosystems Initiative Munich’. After a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Technical University of Vienna and a postdoctoral stay at the ETH Zurich, he was Group Leader at the IMP Vienna and Director for Cancer Vaccines at Boehringer Ingelheim Austria. Dr. Wagner has authored more than 390 publications (h-index 70). He has been Board member of the German Society for Gene Therapy, Committee member of ASGCT, and BSA member of the CRS.

Professor Walker completed his Ph.D. degree in Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He is the former Dean and Head of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes and is currently the Professor of Pharmaceutics and is the current Chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences in South Africa. Professor Walker has published and presented over 200 scientific outputs and serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals. Professor Walker undertakes research studies in all aspects of drug delivery and product development.

Zimei Wu is an Associate Professor at School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, New Zealand (NZ). She holds a PhD from University of Otago (NZ) and a Masters from China Pharmaceutical University. Her ‘liposomes’ research which has attracted wide collaborations. She received a NZ-China Scientist Exchange Award from the Royal Society of NZ. She also researches transdermal delivery with successful stories featured on NZ TV3.  Zimei also serves on editorial boards of Journal of Liposome Research, and Pharmaceutical Development and Technology and a referee for >20 journals.  Zimei was past President of NZ Local Chapter of Controlled Release Society.

Dr. Yanmin Zhang is a full professor of School of Pharmacy, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University of China. Yanmin Zhang received his B.S. in chemistry and Ph.D. in Pharmacy.He is currently the director of molecular pharmacology program.He has holden more than 10 national projects, published 117papersincluding Pharmacol Therapeut, Advanced Science, Semin Cancer Bio, Cell Death Dis, Sci Rep, J Cell Mol Med, Cancer Lett, et al. and holden 26 patents.