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K. Christopher Garcia, Ph.D is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Structural Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Tulane University, and his Ph.D in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Garcia was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2016.
Kun-Liang Guan, a biochemist and cell biologist, is a chair professor at Westlake University. He received his BS (1982) from Hangzhou University and PhD (1989) from Purdue University. Dr. Guan was a faculty at the University of Michigan between 1992-2007 and at the University of California San Diego between 2007-2023. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship (1998), the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Young Investigator Award (1999), and AAAS Fellow (2011). His research focuses on cellular signaling in cell growth, organ size control, and cancer. Dr. Guan’s group has made key contributions to mTOR and Hippo signaling pathways. He is the most and second most cited investigator in Hippo and mTOR, respectively. Dr. Guan has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and is one of the most highly cited researchers in Molecular Biology and Genetics.
Professor Yang-Xin Fu is an endowed Professor at Tsinghua University. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology form University of Miami (1990). He was endowed professor and attending physician in the University of Chicago from 1998 to 2015 and then UT southwestern medical center.
Professor Lixin Zhang is the Director of National Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology. His research focused on taxonomy-guided diversification of marine microbial natural product library: mining synergistic medicines through high throughput screening and increasing their production titers through synthetic biology strategy. His Avermectin project received The National Award for Excellence in Science and Technologies. In addition, he was an Awardee of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and was awarded the Chief Scientist of a “973 Program”, “Roche Young Investigator Award” etc.. His academic achievements and technological innovations are highlighted by 7 books, over 300 papers published in Nature Biotechnology and other international journals and 44 patents (28 Chinese patents and 16 PCT patents). In 2024, he was elected as Foreign Member of Academia Europaea.
Alberto Mantovani, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Pathology at the Humanitas University in Milan, Scientific Director of the Istituto Clinico Humanitas and Chair of Inflammation and Therapeutic Innovation, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University, London, UK. His attention has been focused on molecular mechanisms of innate immunity and inflammation and on the role in the tumor microenvironment and cancer progression of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). He has contributed to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Immunology formulating new paradigms and identifying new molecules and functions.
For his research activity he has received several national and international awards, such as the Triennial OECI Award from the Organization of the European Cancer Institutes, the Robert Koch Award for his contribution to tumor immunology and immunotherapy, the American-Italian Cancer Foundation (AICF) Prize for Excellence in Medicine, the American Association for Cancer Research International Pezcoller Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research and, most recently, the CIMT Lifetime Achievement Award. The broad impact of his contributions is testified by citations. As of June 2023 he has over 161,000 citations and an H-index of 184 (Scopus).
David Gandara, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. He is the co-director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics in Cancer and Senior Advisor to the Director at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was recently appointed Adjunct Clinical Professor, Translational and Clinical Research Program at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and Chief Medical Officer for International Society of Liquid Biopsy (ISLB) a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science and clinical application of liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis and therapy. He is an internationally known clinician-scientist and lung cancer thought leader, and has published over 450 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Gandara has been selected for many awards and honors including the lifetime Scientific Award from the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Team Science Award from the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and the Trajectory Achievement Award from the ISLB. He is current principal investigator for a National Cancer Institute UG1 award to UCDCCC for cancer clinical trials, co-leader of Lung MAP, a unique NCI-sponsored public-private partnership for new drug development in lung cancer, and is founding co-chair and current member of the NCI-directed Investigational Drug Steering Committee (IDSC). Dr. Gandara is past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Clinical Lung Cancer. He served as president of the IASLC from 2009-2011 and as treasurer from 2013-2017. He is a prior member of the board of directors and secretary-treasurer of ASCO. In 2017, Gandara received the Giants of Cancer Care Award in lung cancer.
Prof. Wei Tao is the Farokhzad Family Distinguished Chair for Innovation (Endowed Chair) and Principal Investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is also the first Distinguished Chair professor as an assistant professor in his institution. His research focuses on biomaterials, nanotechnology and drug delivery, as well as their various applications in translational medicine. He has published over 180 high-impact papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology, etc.
