Samir Mehndiratta Editor

Dr. Sachin Kumar Singh is working as professor and head of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, India and visiting professor Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia and School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, 47500 Sunway City, Malaysia. He has 15 years of teaching and research experience. Dr. Singh has published more than 500 research papers and has authored 15 book chapters and 4 books. He has filed 43 Indian patents and out of them nine have been granted. He is expert in developing synbiotics based oral colon targeted delivery system. He is also featured under top 2% scientists of world as per the list of 2021, 2022, 2023, published by Stanford University, USA. In January 2020, he received “Dr. B.C. Deb memorial award for popularization of science” by Indian Science Congress Association at 107th Indian Science Congress held at UAS Bengaluru. He is the first recipient from the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences to receive this award. He is also a recipient of 2014 “Bharat Shiksha Ratan Award” given by Global Society for Health and Educational Growth, Delhi, India and 2022 “Bharat Gaurav Puraskar” given by KTK outstanding achievers and education foundation, New Delhi. His notable contributions include development of nanoparticle formulation for glyburide, polypeptide-k, curcumin, quercetin for the management of diabetes mellitus, development of polysaccharide based oral colon targeted delivery systems for the treatment of ulcerative colitis, solidification of liquid nanoparticles using probiotics and polysaccharides for improving their stability and biopharmaceutical properties. He has expertise in developing lipid and surfactant-based nanoparticles such as SLNs, NLCs, SNEDDS, nanoemulsion and formulation of complexes, solid dispersions and liquisolid formulations. Analytical and bioanalytical method development and their application in pharmacokinetic studies are his core area of interest.

Dr Samir Mehndiratta is a senior researcher, actively involved in highly challenging areas of biomedical research with prime focus on anticancer drug design and development. He has a proven record of research activities including reviewing research work, research promotion, multi-functional research teams’ management, liaising with research collaborators, and teaching and promoting STEM. His recent research focuses on developing therapies targeted towards resistant gliomas and prostate cancer along with use of photodynamic therapy for the treatment of melanomas. He has numerous awards to his name including being awarded as Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow, and Young Research Scientist. Having over 6 years of experience in research/academic field and is currently working as Associate Lecturer in the Graduate School of Health at UTS. He is currently an Associate Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.

Dr. Gabriele De Rubis holds a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology ("La Sapienza" University of Rome, Italy) and a Master's degree in Genetic Sciences and Technologies (University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy). He completed a PhD in Pharmacy at the Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He has a strong background as an industry-based researcher, particularly in the setup and evaluation of animal (mouse and rat) models of cancer and inflammatory diseases and in the preclinical in vivo testing of the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetic properties of novel anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs. His current research focuses on the use of advanced drug delivery systems to deliver phytoceuticals with therapeutic potential for respiratory disorders. He also has experience in working under ISO and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) quality standards and in the setup and coordination of Formulation laboratories for the preparation of experimental drug formulates.

Dr Keshav R Paudel is a senior researcher at the Centre for Inflammation, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He completed his Ph.D. (August 2017) from Mokpo National University, South Korea and started his first position (2018) as an early career researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston (UTH, Texas, USA) in NIH funded project. He is an emerging scientist with a good scientific track record demonstrated through my publications and successful grants in a short period. After joining UTS in 2019 for his second postdoctoral training, his research trajectory is continuously upraising in the field of translational research with a major focus on life sciences specially related to pulmonary diseases. He is currently leading multiple projects with his research expertise to carry in vitro experiments on human broncho epithelial cells and macrophage as well as in vivo mice model of chronic respiratory diseases. He has been awarded by various funding agencies with fellowship and research grants (totalling> $1Milllion), including IASLC ECR fellowship-2019 (lead CI) and TSANZ grant-in-aid-2021 (lead CI). He has been invited as a speaker on various conference including the recent TSANZ-2023 conference (March 2023, Christchurch, New Zealand) supported by HEAL travel grant award. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles (>150 in respiratory diseases and drug delivery), six book chapters (> 40% as first/senior author), and one book in leading journals.

Prof. (Dr.) Harish Dureja currently holds the position of Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Head, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Director of the Centre for IPR Studies along with the Director of Professional Consultancy Cell at M. D. University, Rohtak. He is also a Visiting Professor at ARCCIM, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Centre for Research Impact and Outcome, Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, India. He is actively involved in drug delivery and regulatory science, including improved oral bioavailability of BCS classes II drugs, nanoparticulate drug delivery systems, in silico ADME modeling, and pharmaceutical regulatory affairs. He has filed four Indian patents and has published 280 publications in various International and National Journals of repute. He has an h-index of 38 and more than 5400 citations to his credit as per Google Scholar and an h-index of 32 and more than 3100 citations per Scopus bibliometric data. Dr Dureja has written/edited eight books from reputed Indian and International publishers. Prof. Dureja has been awarded research projects worth 1.5 Crore from AICTE, UGC, and Haryana -DST as Principal Investigator, including Co-PI in UGC-SAP. He has been bestowed with several honors, a few of them worth mentioning include the MDU Research Award -2021; MDU Best Researcher of the Year Award- 2020 by Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Dr. R.L. Nicore award for the Best article published in 2018 in Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Young Pharmacy Teacher of the Year Award - 2014 by Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India, Haryana State Branch, Best Paper Award “Prof. M.L. Khorana Memorial Prize Award – 2005” during the 58th IPC at Mumbai for the publication in Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Kamal Dua is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Pharmacy at the Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. He has research experience of over 12 years in the field of drug delivery systems targeting inflammatory diseases. Dr. Dua is also a Node Leader of Drug Delivery Research in the Centre for Inflammation at Centenary Institute/UTS, where the targets identified from the research projects are pursued to develop novel formulations as the first step towards translation into clinics. Dr. Dua researches in two complementary areas; drug delivery and immunology, specifically addressing how these disciplines can advance one another, helping the community to live longer and healthier. This is evidenced by his extensive publication record in reputed journals. Dr. Dua’s research interests focus on harnessing the pharmaceutical potential of modulating critical regulators such as Interleukins and microRNAs and developing new and effective drug delivery formulations for the management of chronic airway diseases. He has published more than 80 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals and authored or co-authored four books. He is an active member of many national and international professional societies.