Dr Gueorgui Maximov (MD, PhD, MPA, MHM, MSL)
Dr. Gueorgui Maximov, a member of a family of prominent physicians, pursued his medical education from La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris, France) and the Medical University (Sofia, Bulgaria) with distinction. He also has received additional degrees including: Master of Public Administration, Master of Healthcare Management, and Master of Strategic Leadership. As a physician-scientist, he was awarded several prizes including the Khalifa Award from the International Medical Students’ Congress (Cairo, Egypt; 2006), the Young Scientific Researcher Award from the International Congress of Medical Sciences for Students and Young doctors (Sofia, Bulgaria; 2003) and the Union of Scientist of Bulgaria Award at the FameLab 2011 meeting (organized by the British Council). Dr. Maximov has published numerous articles in scientific journals and proceedings, as well as co-authored a monograph in pharmacology, and is a reviewer and editorial board member for several medical journals. He is also a guest lecturer on several occasions at various medical and scientific venues. He is a member of several societies including the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions, the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences, the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Medical Association, the Bulgarian Microbiology Union and the Union of Chemists in Bulgaria. Dr. Maximov holds the position of state expert in the Department Medicinal Information and Non-interventional studies, and heads the Division of Medicinal information in the Bulgarian Drug Agency. He has been a Bulgarian delegate in the Quality Revision of Documents Plenary of the European Medicines Agency (London, UK). He is also a clinical academic staff in the Faculty of Medicine, Medical University (Sofia Bulgaria). Furthermore, Dr. Maximov is a Neurologist who also has expertise in Pathophysiology, Healthcare Economics, Medical policies, Medical administration and applications of Medical Pharmacology such as in clinical genetics (pharmacogenomics / pharmacogenetics).
Dr. Harish Joshi (PhD)
Dr. Joshi is an emeritus professor at the Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University (USA), Atlanta. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy from Delhi University (India), and undertook postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University (USA), as well as the Michigan State University (USA). As an expert Medicinal chemist and Molecular Biologist, the highlights of his scientific contributions include tubulin isotypes and tubulin in axonal elongation, gamma-tubulin biology and the discovery of noscapine as microtubule assembly modulator and as an anti-cancer agent. Dr. Joshi has over 40 years of scientific experience and has published over one hundred research articles, some of which implemented the use of genome biology. He was awarded five US patents, in which a compound from his drug screen was licensed to Johnson and Johnson for clinical development. He is regularly invited to speak and chair sessions at international scientific conferences. Dr. Joshi received the Dean’s award at Emory University (USA) in the year 2000 for excellence as an exemplary mentor for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
Dr Collin E Willoughby (MD, FRCOphth(UK))
Professor Willoughby received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Liverpool, then undertook his Medical Residency training in Ophthalmology from Mersey Deanery (Liverpool, United Kingdom). Dr. Willoughby has also trained as a Post Doctoral Fellow in Clinical and Ocular Laboratory genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, Canada) and spent 9 years as Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Ophthalmology at the Centre for Vision and Vascular Science of Queen’s University Belfast (Belfast, Ireland). Dr. Willoughby has over 30 years of experience as an expert Ophthalmologist and Ocular Geneticist, and is currently a Full Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom). He is also part of the corneal and glaucoma service of the St Paul’s Eye Unit from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital (United Kingdom). Dr. Willoughby has a distinguished career with a research program which applies Genomic medicine in the discipline of Ophthalmology to develop molecular therapies for eye diseases. The main goal of his biomedical research is to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of two major worldwide blinding disorders: corneal blindness and glaucoma. Dr. Willoughby has published numerous articles in the field of Ocular Genetics including topics on keratoconus, cataract and glaucoma, and further has numerous scholastic contributions such as being a prominent member in Medical Advisory Board of the United Kingdom Ectodermal Dysplasia Society.
Dr. Kumar Somasundaram (DVM, PhD)
Dr Somasundaram is a Full Professor of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India with distinguished achievements. He obtained his Veterinary Medicine degree from Madras Veterinary College (India), as well as a Masters Degree in Biotechnology and a Doctorate in Philosophy in Bacterial genetics from Madurai Kamaraj University (India). Subsequently, he undertook post-doctoral training at Northwestern University (USA) and the University of Pennsylvania (USA) in the discipline of Oncology. Dr. Somasundaram has over 40 years of experience as an expert Molecular and Genome Biologist who implements the most recent and state of the art genomics platforms in both basic and translational applications of his biomedical research. In fact, his research studies a type of brain tumors known as gliomas, which are the most common type of brain tumors. Dr. Somasundarams’s research emphasizes on developing new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to better understand biological pathway(s) in gliomas, in addition to using advance high throughput genomics and proteomics approaches to identify new serum biomarkers and molecular targets for more effective drug responses. He has published numerous articles with seminal findings in the field of basic and translational Neuro-oncology and has served as the chair, organizing committee member and an invited lecturer at numerous scientific venues worldwide.
Dr Santos Herrera (MD, MSc)
Dr. Herrera is a Urologist and Surgeon at the Víctor Lazarte Echegaray Hospital in Peru. He obtained his former medical academic trainings at the National University of Trujillo (Peru) and at the Cedar Medical Center, Miami (USA). He further has a Magister in Medical Education (Peru) and is frequently invited as a clinical instructor at the Cesar Vallejo University (Peru). Dr. Herrera has over 40 years of hospital based experience, which includes hospital-based management and surgical expertise in urological complicated cases, kidney transplantation, Lithotripsy and Laparoscopic surgery. He was a former President of the Peruvian Society of Urology and serves as an adviser to various pathology and clinical molecular genetics laboratories in Peru, which include implementing new and emerging technologies for molecular diagnostic testing.
