Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman is credited with unraveling how functional alterations in brain immunity induce metabolic changes and ultimately lead to neural cell damage across a broad range of infectious, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders. These discoveries have had broad implications on developmental therapeutics aimed at preventing, slowing, or reversing neural maladies. He is also credited with demonstrating that AIDS dementia is a reversible metabolic encephalopathy. His work has led to novel immunotherapy strategies for Parkinson's disease that have been successfully tested in early clinical trials as a result of translational investigations.

Prof.Linheng is an international renown scientist in studying stem cells and their associated niches in hematopoietic and intestinal tissues. He was among the first to identify the endosteal niche in supporting hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), the first cellular component of niche identified in a mammalian system. He was also among the first to propose a model of co-existing reserve (a quiescent pool) and active adult stem cells in the same tissue in mammals. This concept not only provides an explanation for controversial observations of both quiescent and cycling stem cells in several tissues including bone marrow, intestine, and hair follicle in mammals, but also accounts for some aspects of drug resistance in cancer. Linheng has contributed to the field by characterizing and demonstrating the roles of several developmental signaling pathways in the regulation of stem cells. These include FGF, IGF, and Notch, BMP, and Wnt signaling pertaining to self-renewal; the PTEN-controlled PI3K-Akt signaling, in coordination with catenin to promote HSC self-renewal, and the role of non-canonical Wnt signaling in maintaining quiescent stem cells. He shows a critical role in epigenetic (via DNA methylation and non-coding RNA) regulation of H19 Igf2 and Gtl2 maintains primitive stem cells via suppression of mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism; as well as the Hoxb cluster that maintains normal stem cells but also contributes to leukemogenesis. His recent works open possibilities of translational medicine including 1) Robust expanding human umbilical cord blood (UBC) HSCs by targeting Ythdf2, 2) Identification of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) that facilitates cartilage regeneration, 3) Identification of cancer stem cells immune escaping mechanism mediated by catenin, 4) Tumor-initiating stem cell shape their microenvironment into an immunosuppressive barrier. 5) Development of drugs that target immune escape and immunosuppression. He has filed 6 patterns with 2 pending and 4 granted

Dr. Elena Poverenov received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science and performed her postdoctoral training in the field of materials chemistry and polymers. In 2011, Elena received an independent research position at Volcani Institute, ARO. Elena's agenda is to introduce advanced materials chemistry and nanotechnology approaches in the field of agriculture, food, and the environment. Her research lab developed several new concepts that made a high general impact on the material and agricultural sciences worldwide. Elena has published more than 50 articles in leading international journals among them the top scientific journals in her research fields and multidisciplinary journals (JACS, Nature, Green Chemistry, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ChemComm, Food Chemistry, Food Hydrocolloids, and more). Elena presented her research at numerous conferences (24 invited lectures) and organized 5 international and 5 local conferences/sessions. For introducing new research directions, Elena received "the Excellent Young Researcher Prize, ARO (2015), "Young Scientist Awardee for Research in Food and Agriculture" International Agropolis and Olam Foundation (2017), Mashov Agriculture Prize (2019), and Igal Alon Prize (2020). Elena was one of the establishers and currently serves as a Head of the Multidisciplinary Agro-nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Research Centre, ARO.