Redefining Cancer Therapeutics with Emerging Drug Strategies and Molecular Insights

Dr. Pranav Kumar Prabhakar is currently working as a Professor at Department of Biotechnology, School of Engineering and Technology, Nagaland University, Meriema, Kohima, Nagaland, India. He is among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (list published by Stanford University, USA, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024). His research focuses on elucidating molecular mechanisms and strategies for oral insulin delivery and mimicking signaling pathways in metabolic disorders (diabetes) using natural products. Dr. Pranav is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society. He serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for many reputed national and international journals. His honors include a travel grant from IIT Madras and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to attend ATTD 2009 in Greece, approved by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). He has published over 100+ research articles, authored 8 books, and 25 book chapters, and delivered 9 oral and poster presentations at scientific meetings.

Dr. Tarun Kumar Upadhyay is expert in the area of Biotechnology and Computational biology and well versed in the areas of polymers based drug delivery systems, host-pathogen interaction, Immunology and cancer drug discovery. He is currently working as Associate Professor (Biotechnology) at Department of Life sciences and Research and Development Cell, Parul University (NAAC A++), Vadodara.  He has more than 8 years of teaching & research experience at University levels excluding 4.5 years full time PhD researcher and 6 months industrial experiences. Dr. Upadhyay is actively engaged as Editor of Scientific reports, BMC infectious diseases, Discover molecules and associated with many national /international journals as reviewers.

 Farrukh Aqil is an Associate Professor at the University of Louisville, specializing in cancer prevention and therapy. His research focuses on utilizing exosomes for drug delivery in cancer treatment and developing combinatorial approaches with natural compounds and chemotherapeutic agents. The delivery technologies developed in Dr. Aqil’s lab are protected by multiple U.S. patents issued to the University of Louisville. Dr. Aqil serves as the section editor-in-chief of the journal Cancers, as well as an associate editor and editorial board member for various other journals. Dr. Aqil is a recognized leader in his field, particularly for his innovative use of milk-derived exosomes to target cancer and neurological disorders.

Dr. Bonglee Kim, Professor at Kyung Hee University, specializes in natural products research, focusing on anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory mechanisms. He has published over 225 SCI-indexed articles, with more than half in the top 25%, and holds 50 patents, including 6 PCTs. His work includes international collaborations on drug resistance and functional food development. Dr. Kim actively mentors students and serves as a reviewer for prestigious scientific journals.

Dr Dhiraj Bhatia obtained his PhD from NCBS-TIFR in Bangalore, India, in DNA nanotechnology. Post PhD he went to Curie Institute in Paris to join the team of Ludger Johannes initially as a Curie fellow and later as an HFSP long-term fellow where he learnt the cellular and biological applications of DNA nanodevices. In 2018, he moved to India to start his own laboratory at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar where he is an Associate Professor and was Ramanujan fellow till 2023. His lab focusses on translational aspects of DNA nanotechnology to develop tools to program biological systems for biomedical applications. He is currently the member of INYAS-INSA and also scientific advisor for the startup company Q-Nano-Sol Biotech (QNANOSOL Pvt Ltd).