Recent Patents on Anti-Infective Drug Discovery

Michael R Hamblin Ph.D. is a Principal Investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, an Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the affiliated faculty of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. His research interests cover photodynamic therapy, photobiomodulation, and nanomedicine. He directs a laboratory of around a dozen post-doctoral fellows, visiting scientists and graduate students. He has published 344 peer-reviewed articles, over 150 conference proceedings, book chapters and International abstracts and holds 8 patents. Dr Hamblin has an h-index of 75 and his work has been cited over 20,000 times. He is Associate Editor for 11 journals, on the editorial board of a further 20 journals and serves on NIH Study Sections. He has edited 11 SPIE proceedings volumes and seven other major textbooks on PDT and photomedicine. In 2011 Dr Hamblin was honored by election as a Fellow of SPIE. He is a Visiting Professor at universities in China, South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Athanassios Tsakris is currently Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Medical School, University of Athens, Greece. He graduated as an MD from the Medical School of University of Athens, Greece, and completed his training in Medical Microbiology at North Middlesex Hospital and the Central Public Health Laboratory, London. He received his PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a Fellow in Medical Microbiology at the Royal College of Pathologists, London. His research interests include the development of diagnostic methods for detecting antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and infection control activities. Prof. Tsakris is an evaluator of grant applications in several international organizations and serves as editor or on the editorial boards in microbiology/infectious diseases scientific journals.

Dr. Glen D. Armstrong is Professor and past Head of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary, Canada. His academic career spans 33 years during which his research focused on virulence strategies employed by gastrointestinal pathogens including, enterovirulent Escherichia coli with an emphasis on enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic E. coli, Campylobacter spp. and, Clostridium difficile. The practical applications of his research include the discovery of pathogen-targeted anti-infective drugs as well as vaccine development. Dr. Armstrong holds a M.Sc. in biology and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. He has authored 86 articles in the peer-reviewed literature and over 38 patents.

Dr. Bukrinsky obtained medical degree (M.D.) from the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute in Moscow, Russia, and a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Molecular Biology from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Currently Dr. Bukrinsky is Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine in the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He has published more than 150 scientific publications and is a named inventor of 12 issued U.S patents. Dr. Bukrinsky is currently a member of Editorial Advisory Board of the Recent Patents On Anti-Infective Drug Discovery, published by Bentham Science Publishers.

Tianhong Dai is an assistant professor with the Harvard Medical School. He is considered a world leader in antimicrobial blue light therapy for infections, and a world expert in animal models of wound infections using bioluminescent microbes. He is the author and coauthor of more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Dai’s research has been supported by the NIH (R01 and R21), DoD and other funding sources.

Antonio Di Biagio is currently holding the position of physician in the infectious diseases clinic of IRCCS San Martino-IST, Genoa – Italy. He teaches infectious diseases and public health in School of Medicine at University of Genoa He is involved in the clinical and therapeutical management of HIV-infected patients care at the inpatient and outpatient clinic of the hospital. As part of his academic work, she has developed clinical research programmes in Europe, on the issues of HIV-chronic hepatitis B and C, as well as co-morbidities associated with the use of antiretrovirals. He is involved in the development of HIV Guidelines with Italian Society of Infectious Diseases. He is the main authors of over 180 peer-reviewed publications on these subjects. He is member of PENTA, CISAI, ICONA scientific committee.

Dr. Diamond is Chair and Professor of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope in Duarte, CA. With over 30 years of experience in vaccine research, his expertise is sought after by many federal agencies. Dr. Diamond has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications, 20 patents, and conducts both Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials using CMV and cancer vaccines. His current portfolio includes Salmonella delivery of cancer vaccines to develop an oncologic therapeutic to control the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Dr. Diamond is responsible for a multi-disciplinary department comprised of 34 faculty, physicians, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and graduate students.

Dr. El Solh is a Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is the Director of Research at the VA Western New York Healthcare System. He holds a MPH in Health Administration from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has published more than 250 publications between peer reviewed original papers, abstracts, and book chapters. He holds three patents on screening and diagnosis of sleep disorders.

Sobhan Ghafourian is an Assistant Professor of Medical Microbiology at the Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University OF Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran. His previous experience was head of Health Technology Development Center, Ilam University of Medical sciences. He is recognised by his peers as an expertise in his field with his appointments as internal and external examiner at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and had been invited as speakers at seminars and conferences. He is actively involved in research as evident by securing several research grants, having many postgraduate students and extensive publications. His research interests are in bacteriology (particularly Persister cells, Toxin antitoxin systems and antibiotic resistant bacteria).

Dr. Aditya Gupta is a practicing dermatologist and medical director of Mediprobe Research in London, Ontario. In addition, Dr. Gupta is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), lecturing on topics such as mycology, fungal infections and antifungal treatments. He is also a visiting professor in the Department of Dermatology at Tel Aviv University and an adjunct professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Rome “G. Marconi”. Dr. Gupta has published over 600 articles with 15 original studies in mycology in the last 3 years.

Dr. Saeed Khan is currently a senior regulatory research scientist and head of the shelf life extension program of pharmaceutical drug products at FDA. He is also Adjunct Professor of Oncology and Radiology and Adjunct Director of Drug Discovery Center at Johns Hopkins Oncology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He received his MS and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences from M.D Anderson Cancer Houston. Dr. Khan has been involved in 60 plus publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 10 international patents on cancer drugs. He is a recipient of numerous awards such as Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute.

Graduated from Mendeleev University, Moscow. PhD and DSc Theses awarded by MU-Sofia. Editor: METAL-BASED DRUGS; ASIAN CHEM LETT; INT J DRUG DISCOV; INT J CURR CHEM; REC PAT ANTI–CANCER DRUG DISCOV; J PHARMA & PHARM SCI. Member of Editorial Boards: ANTI-CANCER AGENTS MED CHEM; WORLD J VIROL; IND J PURE & APPL PHYS; THE OPEN CANCER JOURNAL; REC PAT ANTI-INF DRUG DISCOV; INFECT & DRUG RES; BRIT J MED MED RES; INT J CHEM; INT J ENVIR SCI; DATASET PAPERS CHEM; PEERTECHZ J MED CHEM RES. Published over 130 papers (citations>3000; IF>140; h-index: 27).

Dr. Vikas Kumar, Assistant Professor (Pharmacognosy) at the, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shalom Institute of Health and Allied Sciences, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (SHUATS), Allahabad, India has been working on traditional medicine in drug discovery leading to the development of therapeutic leads from natural resources. His research work is highlighted on screening, evaluation, formulation and standardization of herbal drugs with their validation to ensure quality, efficacy and safety. He has made innovative, outstanding and original contributions both in research and education in the area of natural products.

Prof. Lee is a director in the National Leading Research Laboratory and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Myongji University. He has more than 25 years of experience of inr reseaech fiels such as antimicrobials, multidrug resistance, and biochemistry and X-ray crystal structure of ESBLs (extended-spectrum β-lactamases) and carbapenemases as well as structure-based drug design, and stem cells (regenerative medicine). He has authored more than 100 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals, many of which were the first in the field of Infectious Diseases and Drug Resistance.

Dr. Manzin received his Medical Degree in 1983. He is Specialist in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, and in Microbiology. Since 2006 he is a Full Professor of Microbiology and Virology at the Medical School at the University of Cagliari, Italy. He is currently leading a lab active in clinical microbiology and virology, study of pathogen-host interplay, use of molecular tools in diagnosis of infectious diseases, and study of the human virome and microbiome. He is the Director of Specialization School of Microbiology and Virology at the University of Cagliari. He authored nearly 100 scientific manuscripts on various aspects of basic and clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.

Prof. S.I. Ofoefule is a Professor of Pharmacy. He has nearly 23years of experience as a Pharmacy Educator and Researcher, 13 years as a Professor. Previously Prof. Ofoefule served as Dean of Faculty at university of Nigeria and university of Uyo respectively. He is currently a Head of Department and Coordinator, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology Research Unit at The University of Nigeria, Nsukka.He has authored more than 100 research publications, two Pharmacy books and one technical report. Prof. Ofoefule is also an adjunct faculty member at University of Uyo and University Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Dr. Rodriguez obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (1990). Then, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (1992-1993) He was appointed Assistant Professor (1997), and then Professor (2005) both at the Department of Organic Chemistry, Universidad de Buenos Aires. He has published more than 70 scientific publications and is a named inventor of 5 U.S. patents. His fields of interest are the design of antiparasitic and antiviral agents as well as total synthesis of compounds of pharmacological importance.

Dr. Syed Sarim Imam earned his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. Dr. Imam has more than 10 years of total experience in teaching and research, and is presently is working as Associate Professor at Glocal School of Pharmacy, Glocal University, Saharanpur, India. His research interests include drug delivery, brain targeting, formulation optimization, and lipid based delivery systems. Dr. Imam has contributed 12 book chapters in different publishers, such as Elsevier, CRC and Springer. Furthermore, he has a list of more than 50 research/review manuscripts in journals of international repute.

Dr Da-Yong LU, born in July, 1962 in Shanghai. oc/professor; ed/ph D Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2005, MS, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1986, BS, Shanghai Medical University (Now Fudan University affiliated) in1982; He is working as an associated professor at Shanghai University, Shanghai200444, PR China. Undergo the studies of cancer pathology, biochemistry, pharmacology and clinical therapeutics, especially on the pharmacological studies of new Chinese anticancer agent probimane and MST-16 and antimetastatic targets of fibrinogen and sialic acids and individualized cancer chemotherapy (ICC) since 1982. His interest is focused on the basic studies of cancer biology, pathology, treatment, origins of life, human suicide study, human viral infectious diseases, human metabolic diseases and other field of science disciplines. He is serving as an editorial member of several reputed international journals. He was the first author of more than 100 original scientific articles in international journals and three books published by UK, US and Germany-based publication companies.