Chromatography Techniques

Dr. Dafny received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem in 1965 and 1969, respectively followed by post-docs at Caltech, UCLA, and Columbia. He is currently a professor of Neurobiology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The main focus of his research is on two topics: pain mechanisms, including pain suppression and electro-acupuncture, and drug abuse mechanisms, involving morphine, cocaine, alcohol, ritalin, ecstasy, and Prozac. Behavioral, neurophysiological, pharmacological, endocrinological, and immunological procedures are used, primarily with the rodent as an animal model. The electrophysiological procedures used include single cell and evoked potential recording, electroencephalography (EEG), and brain stimulation. Computerized techniques are used for monitoring animal behavior. He is also involved with several other studies. These concern connections between the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems; brain regulation of hormonal secretion; mechanisms of obesity and satiety; and the electrophysiology of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, and of peptides, with clinical application to Parkinsonism, Huntington's chorea, and Tardive dyskinesia. In addition, collaborative immunological and endocrinologic studies are conducted with other groups in the Texas Medical Center. Dr. Dafny is a member of several professional organizations including the Society for Neuroscience, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the New York Academy of Sciences, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the American Physiological Society, among others.

Pain suppression and electro-acupuncture, and drug abuse mechanisms

Prof. Dimitris Drikakis is Associate Principal & Executive Dean (Engineering) as well as Professor of Engineering Science. He joined Strathclyde in July 2015. He was previously Head of the Institute of Aerospace Sciences and Director of Research of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing at Cranfield University. Prior to his position at Cranfield University, Professor Drikakis held positions at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Manchester and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Prof. Drikakis expertise is in fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and nanotechnology (fluid/material interface). He is active in both fundamental and applied research, including technology transfer to industry and research establishments. He has received twice (2008 and 2011) the William Penney Fellowship Award by AWE Plc in recognition of his contributions to compressible fluid dynamics. Prof Drikakis also received the 2014 Innovator of the Year Award by the Innovation Institute for a new generation carbon capture technology that uses carbon nanotubes for filtering out carbon dioxide and other gases at low or zero energy cost. This platform technology has the potential to be used across a wide range of applications in the power generation, automotive, aerospace, chemical, marine and built environment sectors. The Faculty of Engineering is on an upward path of continued success and Prof Drikakis's vision is to build on the existing strengths and successes - making a significant contribution to further grow the activities and strengthen the Faculty’s standing nationally and internationally.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Fluid mechanics (particularly compressible flows), and Micro/nanoscale processes at fluid-solid interfaces.

Yavuz is the chairman of Istanbul Consulting Group. ICG(Istanbul Consulting Group) was founded in 2013 and provided guidance to the Turkish ministry of health as part of a World Bank project.Yavuz is currently the Co-Founder of BioCube İstanbul Bioentrepreneurship & Innovation Center and Corporate Communication Director of Sumitomo Group/ Expel İlaç Archem Diagnostices Endmed and Diagen. He previously managed the largest distributor of Siemens Healthcare in Turkey managing 250 employees and director of Avcılar Hospital R&D Center, Chief Medical Officer of Lifematrix GmbH. Previously he worked as the Market Access & Health Policy Director for AIFD in Turkey. Yavuz previously worked as the Vice President of Ipsen pharmaceutical and Director of Teva pharmaceutical in USA managing large clinical trials as well as Investigator Initiated Trials and developing relationships with Key Opinion Leaders. Previously, Yavuz was the Associate Director at KV Pharmaceuticals and Director in Clinical Development department at Forest Laboratories. Yavuz earned his MD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ankara in Ankara, Turkey. He completed a clinical internship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, followed by continued research training at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He recently completed his Executive MBA at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Yavuz currently resides with his wife Dr. Kamile Sılay and their two daughters and one son in Ankara,Turkey.

Clinical Research

Tirasak completed his Ph.D. from Faculty of Microbiology, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. He has his postdoctoral training at NeuroVirology and Cancer biology Center, Temple University, Philadelphia. At present, he is a full professor in Microbiology and Immunology, Graduate Program of Medical Technology, Rangsit University, Thailand. He is interested in various academic subjects of science and liberal arts, in addition of music and sports. His scientific fields mainly focus in viral and cellular interaction, bacteriophage and viral diseases in invertebrate animals. However, his research’s interests expand to viral vaccines, autoimmune disease and cancer biology including the relationship of MHC molecules to some specific diseases and viral vaccines. He enjoys being a reviewer for several journals and an advisor to develop young medical scientists with the wish that they would co-operate and/or succeed to solve all the problematic diseases, now and then, in a proper way with genuine scientific thinking.

Viral and cellular interaction, bacteriophage, viral diseases, viral vaccines, autoimmune disease and cancer biology including the relationship of MHC molecules to some specific diseases and viral vaccines

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he worked on Pt-based antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade in drug Discovery, he later moved on to drug development, in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. For the past 15 years he and his teams have specialized in drug delivery and pharmaceutics, focused at the interface of drug discovery and development. His specific expertise in drug delivery lies in the area of enhancing the solubility of insoluble compounds, where he has successfully introduced a wide range of methods into drug discovery space. His research also spans specific areas such as targeted prodrugs and new functional excipients. He currently is a Senior Principal Scientist and Network Technology Lead of the Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences department at Merck Research Labs. He is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of many diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry as well as drug delivery.

Organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery

After graduating from Tongji Medical University in Wuhan in 1983, Dr. Tan became a graduate student and studied liver pathology. Then he went to Essen University in Germany, sponsored by the Volkswagen scholarship, to study mesothelioma (1987-1990). After that, he participated in the Human Genome Project at Columbia University in New York (1990-1994). Subsequently, Dr. Tan was a resident and then a chief resident at Yale University Medical Center (1994-1998). He continued as an oncologic pathology fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York (1998-1999). Dr. Tan was certified in AP and CP in 1998. He became an assistant professor at Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo (1999-2004). He then worked as an associate professor at the University of Texas Health Center in Houston for two years before I joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2006. Dr. Tan was promoted to professor at MD Anderson in 2010, and became the first physician with Asia-heritage holding joint appointments in two clinical disciplines at MD Anderson . Sixty percent of his time is devoted to clinical services, and the rest is committed to research, education, and extramural activities. Dr. Tan’s research is focused on solid tumors, investigating potential biomarkers to assess survivorship and guide personalized medicine. Two of his \English books, Principles of Molecular Diagnostics and Personalized Cancer Medicine and Advances of Surgical Pathology in Gastric Cancer, have been translated into Chinese. Dr. Tan has published 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters. Jointly, Dr. Tan has held three patents. He has frequently been invited to present at national and international conferences and seminars. Additionally, he has been invited to chair and co-chair conferences and sections of congresses. Furthermore, Dr. Tan has mentored numerous residents, fellows, and junior pathologists. As the senior medical consultant of Kingmed Medicine, Dr. Tan introduced ASCP to China in 2014, and he has been the honored director of the ASCP Training Center there. He serves on the CAP Committee of Molecular Marketing Panel. Dr. Tan has also served on the editorial board of eight peer-reviewed journals.

Solid tumors, investigating potential biomarkers to assess survivorship and guide personalized medicine

Mircea Ciuca, MD is currently Global Head of Medical & Clinical Drug Safety at Vifor Pharma in Switzerland. He is leading a team of scientists and physicians involved in all aspects of pharmacovigilance, in both development and post-marketing settings. Mr. Ciuca has about 13 years of experience in drug safety. Prior to join Vifor Pharma he held various positions (Deputy QPPV, Senior Pharmacovigilance Medical Manager, Drug Safety Advisor) at large pharmaceutical companies in The Netherlands, after successfully establishing and leading the medical- scientific department of a medium-size CRO in Rotterdam.

Clinical Drug Safety, clinical practice,Pharmacovigilance

Dr. Pawan Saharan, with a vision to provide Health for all, Invented World’s 1st Immunity Enhancement Drug to treat HIV and host of other Immunity problems via Broad Spectrum Antiviral and New Generation Immuno-modulator- RECEPTOL®. Prestigious Who’s Who American Historical Society (Boston) nominated Dr. Saharan as a World.Leader in healthcare industry responsible for changing the destiny of nations & human race via the creative contribution in the healthcare sector via Receptol that builds body’s own immune system, providing hope to most disenchanted terminally ill patients globally. He has global experience in running healthcare industry, including the Pharmaceuticals MNCs and hospitals at the top management level in India & USA.He created the first truly Nano-Bio-IT Helix via inventing Radha 108 Nano-Peptides for AIDS therapy : RECEPTOL® along with reusable micro-chip diagnostics for AIDS, Cancer, TB and other infections, costing a fraction of current tests creating a paradigm shift in healthcare & bringing smile on Billion Faces who could not afford modern treatment.Late Dr. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, nominated Dr. Saharan for India’s new drug discovery with a funding of Rs 120MM (US$ 3MM), by Dept of Science & technology, Govt. of India.He has a Ph.D. Major in Medicine West Virginia Medical Center, USA & topped First Rate Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi while pursuing Master in Life Sciences and has several International Publications / Presentations including in Top Scientific Journal_ Nature. He has organized several global conferences and lead the Global Impact of Nanobiotechnology in Healthcare. Canadian and UK Govt. invited Dr. Saharan as the state guest in recognition for his contribution to healthcare and technological alliances between North America and India via Canada India. Business Council. UK Prime Minister invited Dr. Saharan in March, 2011 as a key note speaker at the UK India. Business Council for the key note address on affordable health care. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington DC nominated him for the best US Graduate Student Scientist Award.

Dr. Saharan created the first truly Nano-Bio-IT Helix via inventing Radha 108 Nano-Peptides for AIDS therapy : RECEPTOL® along with reusable micro-chip diagnostics for AIDS, Cancer, TB and other infections, costing a fraction of current tests creating a paradigm shift in healthcare & bringing smile on Billion Faces who could not afford modern treatment.