International Journal of General Medicine

Professor Kenneth Adler

Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Dr. Kenneth Adler is the Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor of Cell Biology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Dr. Adler received his PhD in Pathology/Cell Biology from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, remained at UVM as an Assistant professor and moved to NC State University in 1987 as an Associate and then Full Professor (since 1990). Dr. Adler has published over 150 papers in medical journals, and has received continual long-term funding from NIH, including a MERIT award from NHLBI that provided 10 years of R01 level funding for his lab. He has served as Chair of numerous NIH study sections, including Lung Biology and Pathology and Lung Cellular Molecular Immunology, and continues to chair and/or participate in ~ 5-8 NIH study sections per year. He currently is chair of the state of Nebraska Dept. of Health Cancer & Smoking Disease research review panel, and also the State of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program study section. He served as Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for NIEHS for 6 years, and Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology for 8 years. He has reviewed manuscripts for over 120 medical journals and received numerous awards, including the American Heart Association Established Investigator award, The American Thoracic Society Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments, The Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence from North Carolina State University, The O. Max Gardner Award for Service to Humanity from the University of North Carolina system, and the NCSU Risley Entrepreneur of the Year and Research Leadership Academy. He was recently elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Dr Gauri Agarwal

Section: General Medicine

Department of Medicine and Medical Education, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

Gauri Agarwal, M.D., F.A.C.P., is the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She obtained her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Miami (UM) as part of the six-year Honors Program in Medical Education. She completed residency training in internal medicine at Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh and served as chief medical resident at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Agarwal has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School prior to returning to the University of Miami in 2007. She has developed, directed, and taught numerous courses at the medical school.

Dr. Agarwal has an interest in the medical humanities and founded Obliterants, the medical school's first humanities journal. She serves as the faculty advisor for the magazine and for UM’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She has won many school, regional, and national teaching awards, including the American College of Physicians (ACP) Medical Educator Award. In 2017, she received the Leonard Tow Award for Humanism in Medicine. Nationally, she chaired the Cell Biology and Physiology Item Writing Committee for the National Board of Medical Examiners and has led national board review courses for practicing physicians for the ACP. She is also a member of the ACP's national scientific subcommittee.

Dr. Agarwal's research interests are medical education, interprofessional education, and medical humanities, including the impact of visual thinking strategies on medical education. In 2023, she was one of two faculty members nationally to be a Gold Humanism Scholar for the Harvard Macy Program for her work in developing a curriculum on the intersection of artificial intelligence and the medical humanities and was recently awarded a grant from the UM Institute for Data Science and Computing to expand this work. She sees patients at UM’s Human Rights Clinic, writes medical affidavits for patients seeking asylum, and is a physician-volunteer for the medical school's Department of Community Service.

Dr Daniele Castellani

Section: Urology

Urology Division, University Hospital of Ancona United Hospitals, Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

Dr. Daniele Castellani is an attending physician in the Urology Department at the University Hospital Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, Polytechnic University of Le Marche, Ancona, Italy. He is a member of the European Association of Urology. Dr. Castellani received his medical degree from the La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. He was a medical resident in urology, at the University of L’Aquila, Italy. 

Dr. Castellani's research interests include benign prostatic hyperplasia, uro-oncology, lasers in urology, and urolithiasis. Dr. Castellani is member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. He has published 90 papers in index journals.

Dr Ching-Hsien Chen

Section: Oncology

Department of Internal Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

Dr. Ching-Hsien Chen is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and the Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Biobank at the UC Davis School of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and completed postdoctoral training in Molecular Cancer Biology. Dr. Chen's research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of disease progression in cancer and fibrosis, with a particular emphasis on target identification and therapeutic discovery. Her work combines advanced molecular techniques with translational approaches, targeting aberrant cell signaling and metabolic reprogramming. Dr. Chen's research has been continuously supported by prestigious U.S. federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DoD), and has garnered recognition through numerous awards, including her designation as a UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow.

Beyond her research, Dr. Chen actively contributes to the scientific community through her participation in grant review panels (e.g., the NIH, the DoD, and the Nebraska Cancer and Smoking Disease Research Program) and as an abstract reviewer for several international conferences. She has also served as a Guest Editor for Frontiers in Physiology and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. Dr. Chen has authored numerous high-impact publications, holds multiple patents for innovative therapeutic approaches, and continues to play a pivotal role in advancing translational research for disease-targeted therapies.

Dr Sarah Cipriani

Section: Endocrinology

Department of Biomedical, Experimental and Clinical Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Dr. Sarah Cipriani graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence, Italy and successively she obtained a specialization in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the same University. She was then admitted as a PhD Student in the Biomedical Sciences PhD Program (curriculum "Gender Medicine") and she is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Florence, focused on Andrology and Male infertility.

Since her residency period, she has been actively involved in research, participating in and also coordinating many clinical and preclinical studies; her research areas mainly have concerned Female and Male Infertility, Female and Male Sexuality and Sexual Dysfunctions, Sexual Medicine, Andrology and Gynecological Endocrinology. Over the years she has collaborated both as a co-author and first author in numerous papers in accredited international journals and she has participated as a speaker in many national and international meetings.

Along with research activities, Dr. Cipriani currently works as an Endocrinology and Andrology Specialist at the Andrology, Women’s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit at Careggi University Hospital and at the Aware Fertility Unit at Piero Palagi Hospital in Florence. She is a member of several Scientific Committees of Italian and international scientific societies and a Faculty Member of the European Academy of Andrology (EAA) Ultrasound Course, as an expert in male genital tract ultrasound.

Dr Glenn Cruse

Section: Allergy

Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Dr. Glenn Cruse, is an Associate Professor of Immunology at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. Dr. Cruse graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree with the highest honor in Biomedical Science from DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK. He completed his Ph.D. graduate studies in Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at Glenfield Hospital, of the University of Leicester, U.K. Dr. Cruse then moved to Bethesda, M.D. U.S.A., as a visiting postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, NIAID at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2016, Dr. Cruse joined North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2023. Dr. Cruse is a recipient of the NC State University Faculty Scholar award, the NC State University Goodnight Early Innovator award and an NIH Director’s award.

Dr. Cruse runs an NIH- and industry-supported research program aiming to establish novel regulators of allergic inflammation and develop targeted therapeutics for asthma and allergic inflammatory diseases as well as mast cell neoplasia and other mast cell-mediated diseases. Dr. Cruse has authored and co-authored ~50 publications including articles in top journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and Immunity. Dr. Cruse has multiple awarded and pending patent applications for therapeutics development. He also serves as an Associate Editor at Frontiers in Immunology and has actively served to review grants for several NIH review panels for more than 8 years.

Prof. Dr. Gopal Krishna Dhali

Section: Gastroenterology

Gastroenterology, School of Digestive and Liver Diseases, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India

Prof. Dhali is a senior academician and clinician with over three decades of experience in gastroenterology. He serves as Professor and Head of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research, India. He completed MD in Internal Medicine from PGIMER, Chandigarh, and DM in Gastroenterology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

An esteemed researcher, Prof. Dhali continues to author peer-reviewed publications (including national clinical guidelines) in scientific journals, with significant contributions in luminal gastroenterology diseases, and gastrointestinal oncology. His clinical interests span inflammatory bowel disease, advanced endoscopic interventions.

Prof. Dhali also plays an active role in postgraduate education and mentoring, having served in various academic capacities since 1999. His contributions to clinical research, particularly in resource-limited settings, continue to inform best practices in digestive and liver diseases in India and beyond.

Professor Arthur E. Frankel

Section: Hematology

Chief of Hematology & Oncology, Department of Medicine, West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, West Palm Beach, FL, USA

Arthur E. Frankel, MD was born in Austin, Texas, attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and completed medical training at Yale University, the National Institutes of Health and Stanford University. He practiced and taught at Duke University, the Medical University of South Carolina, Wake Forest University, Texas A&M, the University of Texas Southwestern, and the University of South Alabama. He is now Chief Hematology and Oncology at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center.

His clinical focus is malignant hematology, cutaneous malignancies and GU cancers. He has done research including the discovery of the first mammalian oncogenes, the generation of the first Her2 and PSA monoclonal antibodies, the finding of one of the first second site revertant enzyme mutations, discovery of a third lectin binding site on the plant toxin ricin, production of anti-leukemia fusion proteins, and reporting the first gut microbes critical for melanoma immunotherapy response. His interleukin 3-directed fusion protein was approved by the FDA in 2018 for a rare type of leukemia. His current goal is to provide outstanding and cutting edge clinical care to veterans.

Dr Brian C. Gilger

Section: Ophthalmology

Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Dr. Brian Gilger received his veterinary degree from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. After an ophthalmology residency and master’s degree at Auburn University, Dr. Gilger returned to The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology in 1992. In October 1995, he joined the faculty at North Carolina State University as an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and is now a Professor of Ophthalmology. He is board-certified in Veterinary Ophthalmology and Toxicology, and a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He was recognized as a distinguished alumnus of both The Ohio State University and Auburn University and, in 2018, was awarded the American Veterinary Medical Association Clinical Research Award. In 2025 he was awarded the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal, the highest academic award presented to faculty at North Carolina State University.

Dr. Gilger is Associate Editor of Veterinary Ophthalmology and a member of the Editorial Board for Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. Gilger’s research is focused on ocular drug delivery, immunomodulation, and innovative therapies for ocular disease, including the use of gene and cell therapy. He is the ophthalmology consultant for the CRO Powered Research and co-founder of Bedrock Therapeutics and Astro Therapeutics. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and is the editor of seven textbooks, including Ocular Pharmacology and Toxicology (2014), Standards in Ocular Toxicology and Inflammation (2018), and four editions of Equine Ophthalmology.

Dr Ke Huang

Section: Regenerative Medicine

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX, USA

Dr. Ke Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). With a dual background in clinical medicine and biomedical sciences, Dr. Huang leads an NIH R01-funded research program dedicated to the development and translational application of next-generation biotherapeutics for cardiovascular regeneration. His scientific expertise encompasses stem cell-derived nanovesicles, extracellular vesicle engineering, and the integration of biomaterials and nanotechnologies for precision-targeted cardiac drug delivery.

Before joining Texas A&M University in 2025, Dr. Huang held faculty appointments at Columbia University and North Carolina State University. He completed his postdoctoral training in cardiovascular tissue engineering and gene therapy at Duke University. Throughout his academic career, he has led interdisciplinary teams and collaborated extensively with academic, clinical, and industry partners to advance preclinical biotherapeutic platforms using rodent and large animal models. Dr. Huang’s research portfolio has been consistently supported by competitive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Heart Association (AHA), and various institutional innovation programs. His work has yielded high-impact publications in prominent journals and has contributed to the development of novel therapeutic strategies aimed at enhancing cardiovascular regenerative medicine. He also serves as an active grant reviewer for NIH and AHA, and is deeply committed to fostering translational research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the mentorship of emerging scientists in the field of cardiovascular regenerative medicine.

Dr Dana Kristjansson

Section: Oncology

Department of Genetics and Bioinformatics / Center of Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

Dana Kristjansson, MD, PhD is an internationally trained cancer epidemiologist with an extensive background in register-based epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, fertility, and mitochondrial DNA studies. Currently a Senior Scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Dr. Kristjansson leads a project on cancer within the Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study and holds the role of Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Oncology's section on Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.

Dr. Kristjansson was previously a resident in Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Healthcare. She has held research positions at institutions like Mount Sinai Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, and the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Her ongoing efforts also extend to mentoring and teaching, notably at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Georgetown University, and she has contributed significantly to public health awareness through media coverage and blog posts. Her work has been featured in outlets such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Public Radio (NPR), and Reuters, among others.

Dr Vinay Kumar

Section: Cardiovascular AND General Medicine

Heart and Vascular Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA

Dr. Vinay Kumar holds a master's degree in biotechnology from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India, as well as a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Presently at Pennsylvania State University, he conducts thorough studies of dysregulated innate and adaptive immunological networks and their function in modulating the pathophysiology of myocardial infarction (MI) and chronic heart failure (HF).

Dr. Kumar is especially interested in determining the function of T-cell subsets and the time-dependent phenotypic changes that these cells endure during chronic HF. In addition, he is interested in identifying and devising novel strategies to reverse pathological changes in immune cells in preparation for their transition from the laboratory to the clinic. His training in physiology, immunology, and molecular biology equips him with unique perspectives to research heart failure and develop mechanism-based, clinically applicable immune-therapeutic strategies.

Dr Woon-Man Kung

Section: Neurology AND General Medicine

Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Woon-Man Kung received his M.D. degree from the School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University (TMU), Taipei, Taiwan in 1999. In 2012, he received his M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the College of Medicine and College of Engineering, National Taiwan University (NTU), Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Kung now serves as a Consultant Neurosurgeon in the Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital (TCH), Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City, Taiwan, as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Health Promotion, College of Kinesiology and Health, Chinese Culture University (CCU), Taipei, Taiwan. He further participates as an International Membership of the professional association at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), USA. He currently works in the Editorial/Advisory Board of several indexed journals and involves acting as an ad-hoc reviewer for a number of prestigious scientific journals.

Professor Hyam Leffert

Section: Hepatology

Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Professor Leffert attended the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (B.A., Intellectual History, 1965), where he studied Necturus blood cells with Professor Ernst Caspari; Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass (M.A., Biology, 1967), where he reconstituted a primary immune response in vitro with Professor Gordon Sato; and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (M.D.,1971), where he discovered a lecithinase-producing Bacillus cereus in a newborn suffering from Meningitis and bacteremia after ventriculoatrial shunt-revision (he identified the organism by its GC-base composition with Professor Julius Marmur). His internship at UCSD (La Jolla, CA, 1972) was split between Pediatrics, and Biology, where he developed selection methods to culture proliferation- and differentiation-competent primary hepatocytes for use as model systems of liver development and regeneration.

Dr. Leffert continued basic research at the Salk Institute, where, as an NCI/NIH/Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow and an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, he directed liver growth control studies alongside many students, postdocs, and sabbatical visitors through 1980. Several growth factors were discovered (insulin, glucagon and epidermal growth factor; thereafter, insulin-like growth-factors IGF-I and IGF-II and TGF-α). Later studies provided molecular understanding of relationships between growth factors, regeneration and the expression and biochemistry of cyclins D1, B, A and E. Drs. Koch and Leffert, and Stewart Sell, UCSD Professor of Pathology, also observed expression of α-fetoprotein, a clinical marker of human hepatocellular carcinoma, in neonatal hepatocytes undergoing liver development in vitro and in vivo, and in normal long-term primary hepatocyte cultures simulating liver regeneration. Further work revealed that primary hepatocytes enzymatically converted chemical procarcinogens like N-Acetyl-2-Aminofluorene (AAF) into carcinogenic metabolites -- research that enabled precision drug metabolism studies by the pharmaceutical industry. In 1987, with Professor Ted Friedmann (UCSD Pediatrics), Dr. Leffert introduced genes into hepatocytes using retroviral vectors (initiating hepatic gene therapy research). Dr. Leffert was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and a Morton Grossman Research Scholar Award by the American Gastroenterological Association, to study Molecular Cancer Genetics with Sir Henry Harris at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University.

Currently, Drs. Leffert, Koch and Sell, are focused upon determination of pharmacokinetic growth cycle-dependent metabolic and covalent binding parameters of AAF, and the implication these new findings have with respect to translesion hepatocyte DNA synthesis and the chemical induction of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Dr Jacopo Manso

Section: Endocrinology

Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism Specialist, Endocrinology Unit, University-Hospital S. Maria della Misericordia, Udine, Italy

Dr. Jacopo Manso graduated in Medicine at the School of Medicine of University of Bologna, then completed his residency in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at University of Padua. He obtained PHD degree in "Clinical and Experimental Sciences" curriculum, "Clinical Methodology and Exercise Medicine, Endocrinological, Diabetological and Nephrological Sciences” at University of Padua. He subsequently commenced his career as an established researcher at the University of Padua focused on Endocrinology.

Dr. Manso currently works as an Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism Specialist at the Endocrinology Unit of University-Hospital S. Maria della Misericordia at Udine, Italy. During his career, he has conducted numerous molecular and clinical studies on thyroid disease, thyroid oncology and thyroid eye disease. He is also interested in adrenal disease, multiple endocrine disease and bone metabolism. He is a member of the Pediatrics, Adolescence and Transition Commission of Italian Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AME) and a member of the Multidisciplinary Oncological Group for Thyroid Tumors at University-Hospital S. Maria della Misericordia, Udine.

Prof. Dr. Héctor Mora-Montes

Section: Infectious Diseases

Department of Biology, Division of Natural and Exact Sciences, University of Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

During his post as a clinical analyst, Prof. Mora-Montes developed a system for the differentiation of Candida species, based on in-house zymograms and colony morphology in cornmeal agar. As a postgraduate student, he generated a new and innovative method for in situ determination of glycosyl hydrolase activities and received the “Summa Cum Laude” distinction from Universidad de Guanajuato. Among the most important achievements during his time as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), he set up most of the immunological techniques within the Aberdeen Fungal Group and developed and standardized protocols for the isolation and purification of chitin, phospholipomannan, N-linked and O-linked mannans from fungal cells. Those protocols have not only benefited the Aberdeen Fungal Group, but other international groups dedicated to the study of the fungal cell wall, and are considered among the most popular and standardized methods for isolation and analysis of fungal cell wall components.

In 2010, he established the Laboratory of Fungal Glycobiology at Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico), with the main goal to understand the mechanisms behind the fungal cell wall synthesis and the interaction of medically relevant fungal pathogens with the host. This laboratory is characterized by its facilities to perform chemical, immunological, genetic, molecular and cellular analyses of human fungal pathogens. Therefore, it is among a handful of research facilities within Mexico and Latin America offering a multidisciplinary and integral approach to understand these pathogens. Currently, the group is developing molecular tools for genetic manipulation of medically relevant fungi, in particular Sporothrix and Candida species. Our group has a solid international reputation in the genetic study of these organisms, in the immune sensing of fungal cells, and the development of alternative models to analyze fungal virulence.

Since 2016, he was awarded the level III distinction by SNI, the highest distinction awarded by the Mexican Government for Mexican Researchers under 65 years old. He currently holds editorial appointments in several peer-reviewed international journals and is the Deputy President of the Latin-American Society of Glycobiology.

Dr Franco Musio

Section: Nephrology

Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Dr. Franco Musio has been very active in multiple realms of the medical profession: clinical and academic medicine, administrative responsibilities, and humanitarian work. Dr. Musio attended Georgetown University undergraduate and medical school followed by a Transitional Internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), a two year post Internship Army Group Surgeon position at Hellenikon Air Force Base Hospital (Athens, Greece), residencies in General Surgery and Internal Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center (San Antonio, TX), and nephrology fellowship at WRAMC where he remained on staff with multiple clinical roles. Dr. Musio was in private practice from 1998 until 2022 during which time he wore many 'hats' in medical leadership and directorship roles.

Currently, Dr. Musio is avidly involved in many ongoing projects to include local and national radio broadcasts involving medical and human-interest topics, expert opinion work in the fields of nephrology and internal medicine, medical assignments in treating patients in multiple referral hospitals throughout the United States.

Dr. Musio has a passion for teaching medical students, residents, fellows, and physicians at all levels since 1994 in the capacity of his academic appointments at various medical schools to include Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine (Inova Fairfax Campus), and currently the University of Virginia School of Medicine (Inova Fairfax Campus). He enjoys writing, mentoring, academic teaching projects, national and international lecturing, and reviewing/editing medical articles from over twenty medical journals.

Dr Satish Nair

Section: Public Health

College of Medicine, Tawam Hospital, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Professor Satish Chandrasekhar Nair has the unique distinction of serving at senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry and, at academic medical centers in the USA, India and the United Arab Emirates, for over 25 years. He obtained his PhD (faculty of medicine) following graduation from the TN Medical College. In addition, he is American Board certified in medical quality, and informatics. He further obtained MBA in healthcare management from the University of Nebraska. He has proven expertise in clinical trials, designing clinical trails, research ethics, medical ethics, joint commission hospital accreditation, patient safety, medical quality and public health.

He has over 100 international peer reviewed PubMed indexed publications. His publications include Lancet, Breast Cancer, International Journal Public health and other reputed publications. He serves on the editorial board of several international journals, and was awarded several global awards such as the Technology Pioneer, Marcus Evans best speaker, and innovative professional awards from the USA, Switzerland, Japan and the UAE. He has authored several COVID-19 publications recently. He is currently the associate professor, college of medicine, UAE University, and the Director for clinical research at Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, UAE. He is involved in medical residency research training.

Dr Daniela Opriș-Belinski

Section: General Medicine

Rheumatology and Internal Medicine Department, 'Carol Davila' University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Daniela Opris-Belinski is an Associate Professor at the 'Carol Davila' University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania and a Senior Physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the 'Sfânta Maria' Clinical Hospital. Her research interests focus on inflammatory rheumatologic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's disease, spondyloarthritis and various forms of vasculitis.

Dr. Opris-Belinski has authored and co-authored over 100 papers in national and international journals and has contributed to several books and book chapters. She has served as principal and sub-investigator in more than 50 international phase II-IV clinical trials in the field of rheumatology and was the Romanian coordinator for the Horizon 2020 grant "GLORIA - The Glucocorticoid Low-dose Outcome in Rheumatoid Arthritis Study." Additionally, she is Section Board Member of Medicina, member of the Reviewer board of Biomedicines, Guest Editor for Journal of Clinical Medicine, Biomedicines and Guest Associate Editor for Frontiers in Immunology. She also reviewed more than 100 Web of Science indexed publications.

Professor Reynold Panettieri Jr

Section: Pulmonary Medicine

Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., MD is Professor of Medicine, Vice Chancellor for Translational Medicine and Science at Rutgers University, and the Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Science. This Institute fosters translational studies in health and disease, and integrates the expertise of the disciplines of epidemiology, pharmacology, cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, health economics and informatics across the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) network. Dr. Panettieri is the Principal Investigator of New Jersey’s only CTSA Hub entitled ‘New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science’. Previously, he was the Robert L. Mayock and David A. Cooper Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division of the Department of Medicine, and served as Deputy Director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where he remains Professor Emeritus. He developed expertise in human exposure to ozone, toxicants and particulate matter in the modulation of airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness. Dr. Panettieri also focuses on proteomic and genomic studies to identify unique proteomic signatures in COPD and asthma. His translational science interests use state-of-the-art cellular and molecular techniques to characterize airway smooth muscle as an immunomodulatory cell, and in the study of cell signaling mechanisms inducing glucocorticoid insensitivity and excitation-contraction coupling. His fundamental studies also focus on translational targets for new therapeutics and bench-to-bedside testing of novel approaches in the treatment of severe asthma and COPD.

Dr. Panettieri is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Robert E. Cooke Memorial Lectureship at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Meeting, the Joseph R. Rodarte Award for Scientific Distinction and the Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments from the American Thoracic Society (ATS). He is also an active member of national professional and scientific societies including the American College of Chest Physicians and ATS; in 2013, he was elected Chair of the Respiratory Structure and Function Assembly of ATS. Dr. Panettieri served as chair of the NIH Lung Cellular, Molecular, and Immunobiology Study Section, is a member of the NIH Distinguished Editorial Panel, and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. He serves as Editor of Respiratory Research and the British Journal of Pharmacology and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. He has trained over 200 postdoctoral fellows and undergraduates with 95% of these trainees remaining in scientific investigation. He is principal investigator on several NIH-sponsored grants and industry-sponsored clinical studies, and is the author of over 525 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Panettieri manages the comprehensive clinical care of patients with asthma and is engaged in clinical investigations focused on the management of asthma and COPD.

Dr Redoy Ranjan

Section: Cardiovascular AND Neurology

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Stroke Scientist, Royal Holloway University Of London, London, UK

Dr. Redoy Ranjan is a consultant cardiac surgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Bangladesh. He is currently pursuing a PhD in cerebral venous thrombosis at the Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) in the United Kingdom. Dr. Ranjan has been a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh since 2016 and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons since 2020. He graduated with an MBBS in 2009 and was awarded a postgraduate MS in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery in 2017. He trained as a Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgeon at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Bangladesh. Later, he pursued a second master's degree in vascular and endovascular surgery at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he graduated with Distinction in 2020.

At RHUL, he works as a research fellow, initially looking into risk factors for cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) and later at the genetics of hereditary thrombophilia associated with CVT. His primary clinical interest is in surgical myocardial revascularisation, specifically total arterial CABG, minimally invasive CABG, and coronary endarterectomy. He is also interested in stroke, particularly cerebral venous thrombosis and atrial fibrillation (AF). His research focuses on the risk factors associated with persistent AF and the long-term outcomes of convergent ablation with left atrial appendage exclusion.

Dr. Ranjan has been honoured with the Bangladesh University Grant Commission Gold Medal and has also received the prestigious "Bangabandhu Science and Technology Fellowship" to pursue his PhD at the RHUL, UK. He is an academic editor and serves on the editorial board of various scientific journals. Dr. Ranjan has published numerous outstanding peer-reviewed articles on adult cardiac surgery and cerebral venous thrombosis.

Prof. Dr. Leonardo Reis

Section: Oncology AND Urology

UroScience, School of Medicine, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas and University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

Leonardo Oliveira Reis is Professor of Urology and Uro-Oncology at the State University of Campinas, Unicamp and the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, PUC-Campinas, Fulbright Visiting Professor at Harvard University, Urology Fellow at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA (American Urological Association, 2011). Postdoctoral Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA (CAPES, 2014-2015). Research Productivity 1 of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, CNPq, aimed at researchers who stand out among their peers according to normative criteria. Has experience in Urology, with emphasis on Urological Oncology. He is the author/co-author of >200 scientific articles indexed by PUBMED, >40 Chapters of National and International Books, Top Reviewer @Publons, CAPES Theses Award 2012 Medicina III (Surgery). National and International Ad hoc advisor. Executive Member of the World Urologic Oncology Federation (WUOF). AUA International Member and Scholar. Handling Editor for the World Journal of Urology (Springer), ex-official journal of the Société Internationale d'Urologie (SIU), and Associate and Section Editor, International Brazilian Journal of Urology (IBJU), the official journal of the Brazilian Society of Urology (SBU), and the American Confederation of Urology (CAU). Scientific Director (2018-19) of the Brazilian Society of Urology (SBU), São Paulo Section. President of the Human Ethics Committee for Research (2016-2019) of the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, PUC-Campinas. Latin America Top Scientist (AD Scientific Index 2021, 2022). 

Dr Hossam Eldin Shaaban

Section: Hepatology

Gastroenterology and Endoscopy consultant, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, Carlisle, UK

Dr. Hossam El-Din Shaaban is currently a gastroenterology and endoscopy consultant at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. Graduating from Cairo University Faculty of Medicine in 2001, he got his Masters Degree in Internal Medicine in 2009, and then his Medical Doctorate in Internal Medicine in 2018 both from Cairo University. He is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

Dr. Shaaban has authored 40 peer reviewed journal publications. He serves as a peer reviewer for multiple journals. His current H-index is 7 in Google Scholar, and 6 in Scopus and Clarivate Web of Science. 

Prof. Dr. Yuriy Sirenko

Section: Cardiovascular

Department of Arterial Hypertensions, National Scientific Center, National Academy of Medical Science, Kyiv, Ukraine

Professor Yuriy Sirenko is Head of Department of Arterial Hypertensions in the National Scientific Center "M.D. Strazhesko Institute of Cardiology, Clinical and Regenerative Medicine" of the National Academy of Medical Science. His research interests include primary and secondary arterial hypertension, cardio-vascular prevention, pulmonary arterial hypertension, heart failure, right heart catheterization, hemodynamic changes, role of RAS, coronary artery disease, drug and non-drug therapy, emergency and intensive care in cardiology, and coronary artery disease. He has completed more than 600 publications in the fields of cardiology and hypertension.

Professor David E. Stec

Section: Hematology AND Nephrology

Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA

Dr. David E. Stec is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He is also the director of the Cardiovascular-Renal Research Center.

Dr. Stec's research focuses on the mechanisms by which metabolic diseases result in the development of cardiovascular and renal disease. His lab has also discovered novel signaling properties of bilirubin and developed the first conditional knockouts of biliverdin reductase to study its role in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and it role in the regulation of blood pressure.

Dr. Stec has received research awards locally, nationally, and internationally for his research. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Dr Sandul Yasobant

Section: Infectious Diseases AND Public Health

Centre for One Health, Education, Research & Development (COHERD), Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Sandul Yasobant is working as a Technical Officer (Research) at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPHG), India; a Postdoc fellow at the Institute for Hygiene & Public Health, University Hospital Bonn, Germany; an Associate Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany; an Adjunct Faculty at the Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (DMIMS), India. He also holds editorial affiliations with Springer Nature, Frontiers, PLOS, and Taylor & Francis.

Originally from Odisha (eastern India), Dr. Yasobant has completed his health education and public health training at Utkal University, Sri Ramachandra University in India, and the University of Bonn in Germany. He has completed the Doctoral Program 'One Health & UrbanTransformation' at ZEF and obtained a public health doctoral degree from the medical faculty, University of Bonn, Germany, in 2020.

Dr. Yasobant's research incorporates health policy and system research, One Health and disease prevention, and environment and occupational health. Dr. Yasobant has conducted extensive research in Southeast Asia and is currently engaged in research activities in India and Ghana. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed international journal articles and three book chapters and edited one volume of a book.

Dr Xudong Zhu

Section: Gastroenterology

Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

Dr. Xudong Zhu obtained his BMed, M.D., and PhD from China Medical University (Shenyang, China). Now, he is an Assistant Professor at the Cancer Hospital of Dalian University of Technology and a Post-doctoral Scholar at Markey Cancer Center of University of Kentucky. 

His research is mainly focused on the pathogenesis of endocrinology-related diseases including endocrinology-related cancer, especially breast cancer, and gastroenterology-related disease including hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric carcinoma and others. He is also focused on screening and validating small molecular compounds which could effectively target and kill endocrinology-related and gastroenterology-related solid cancer cells.

Dr. Zhu has published more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals with a total impact factor of nearly 200. He is a regular peer reviewer for manuscripts submitted to SCI journals and is a member of the Editorial Board of 7 English journals.