PROFILE OF SPEAKERS

Prof. Timothy J. Kieffer,
Diabetes Research Group, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Prof. Dr. Kieffer is a professor of the Diabetes Research Group in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is a pioneer in diabetes and obesity research and a recognized expert in the field of gut endocrinology. An awardee of Senior Scholar Award, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Career Development Award, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Scholar Award, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Dr. Kieffer serves on the editorial, review committees for several national and international journals and organizations in the field of Diabetes research. In 2010 he received the CDA Young Scientist Award and in 2018 was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2016/17 he spent 1 year on sabbatical at The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Japan. He has co-authored >175 peer reviewed publications in addition to several book chapters and patents and given >100 invited presentations in his field of expertise. His team is working on the development of novel gene and cell therapy approaches to treat diabetes including physiological Insulin Replacement, gene editing of cultured insulin producing beta-cells, gut K-cells based gene therapy to function as surrogate beta-cells, novel bioassays that report activity of endocrine hormones and generating Zebrafish cell lines which are highly amenable to genetic engineering to probe gene function and facilitate new research. https://cps.med.ubc.ca/faculty1/kieffer/

Prof. Pushkala Subramanian - (Moderator)
Department of immunology, The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, India.

Dr. Pushkala Subramanian is a Professor & Head of the department of immunology at the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University in Chennai, India. She is also the Controller of Examinations for the medical and para-medical courses of the Medical colleges of the State of Tamilnadu, India. She has completed her Undergraduate medical degree in Kilpauk Medical College, India and her post-graduate degree in Microbiology at the Madras University, India. She is the Member secretary for HIC and NABH accredidation at SSSIHMS, India. Her research interests include serosurveillance of antibodies, auto-antibodies, HLA patterrns and transplant rejection.

Prof. Kazutoshi Mori
Professor, Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Japan

Kazutoshi Mori, is an eminent Japanese molecular biologist known for research on unfolded protein response. Currently, Professor at the Department of Biophysics in the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Japan, he has numerous publications in cellular and molecular biology. He has extensively worked on how millions of proteins are created and secreted in the cell after undergoing folded and other functional modifications, for which he was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award along with Peter Walter in 2014. A recipient of many prestigious prizes in Science including the Osaka Science Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award, Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan, Uehara Prize and Asahi Prize, Dr. Mori's lab is performing extensive research in the field of Protein Quality Control, focusing on the biological and physiological importance of the Unfolded Protein Response http://www.upr.biophys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/.

Prof. Dr. Jurgen Hescheler - (Moderator)
Head, Neurophysiology, University of Cologne, Germany.

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Hescheler is Chairman and Director of the Institute of Neurophysiology at the University of Cologne. Prof. Hescheler is one of the most eminent and the most productive stem cell researchers worldwide averaging more than 1000 citations of his publications per year. Hescheler has been working with embryonic stem cells since the late 80’s. He became the first researcher to accomplish an electrophysiological characterisation of stem cells and was also among the first scientists in Germany obtaining permission to do research on human embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, he is founder and chairman to the German Society for Stem Cell Research (GSZ).

Prof. Dr. Gary A Levy
Senior Scientist, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI), Canada.

Prof. Levy is a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI). He is an eminent immuno-biologist and virologist who has done extensive work on immune-mediated mechanisms of organ injury due to viruses, alloantigens and xenoantigens. His research and clinical focus presently is on finding a way to achieve immunological tolerance, which could allow patients who have undergone solid organ transplant to discontinue their long term need for immunosuppression. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, books and book chapters, and has trained over 60 masters and PhD students. He was an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1988. Having been awarded the Canadian Liver Foundation Commemorative Medal for the Queen's Jubilee, the Dr Richard Hunt Outstanding Service Award from the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, the Dean's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Medical Science, and many other awards, in 2015, he was appointed to the Order of Ontario. Dr. Levy co-founded and directed the Multi Organ Transplant Program at the University Health Network and the U of T Transplantation Institute in Canada. https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/gary-levy.

Of particular relevance on his contribution to virology and to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic is his book on "Corona- and Related Viruses", which he co-edited along with Pierre J Talbot in 1995 in which they detail the Current Concepts in Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of the Coronavirus, long before the potential of the virus to initiate one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, was well-known. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461357759

Prof. Naoki Yamamoto - (Moderator)
National Center for Global health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Prof. Yamamoto is an eminent virologist whose expertise in Virology is on investigations into the mechanisms of viral replication and pathogenesis induced by various viruses, especially human retroviruses HIVs and HTLVs. After his MD in Kumamoto University School of Medicine, he completed his PhD at the Post Graduate School of Kumamoto University School of Medicine, Japan. He is Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Med. Dent. Univ. Sch. of Med and the Specially Appointed Director, Genome Medical Sciences Project, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Ichikawa, Japan. He was the Director of AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases. He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Research and the 8th Altmark Award (The Japanese Society for AIDS Research) for “Basic and clinical research in HIV and AIDS. He serves as the editorial member of several prestigious journals.

Dr. Stanley Jeremiah
Yokohama City University, Japan.

Dr. Jeremiah is working on advances in medical virology and immunology. After completion of his undergraduate in Medicine and post-graduation in Microbiology at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in India, he is pursuing his PhD at the Yokohama City University, Fukuura, Japan. He had ventured into entrepreneurship by starting DigiTech, an enterprise involved in the development of innovative web-based learning solutions for medical students. He also founded ilearnlabs, a novel website for learning basic microbiology laboratory procedures required for undergraduate students through interactive animations. His current research interests include Diagnostic Tests for SARS-CoV-2, Anti-viral agents for SARS-CoV2, Highly specific monoclonal antibodies and epitope identification and Engineering Cellular Biosensors with Customizable Antiviral Responses.

Dr. Tomohiko Kisaka
Hiroshima University, Japan.

Dr. Tomohiko Kisaka, is an Associate Professor at the Hiroshima University, Office of Research and Academia-Government-Community Collaboration, Japan he had recently completed a meritorious Fellowship at the Stanford-. India Biodesign (SIB) Center. Dr. Kisaka completed his MD in Faculty of Medicine at Hiroshima University, Japan and then his PhD at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Hiroshima University. Dr. Kisaka also has been on a research fellowship at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, California, USA. Dr. Kisaka has won several academic awards and scholarships and has more than 28 publications in high impact indexed international scientific journals.

Dr. K. Raghavan
JAICARE, Madurai, India.

Dr. Raghavan is a developmental paediatrician who established the Kenmax Integrated Special Needs School along with Neurology Clinic with special interest in rare neurological diseases and developmental and behavioral issues. After his under graduation in medicine, Dr. Raghavan completed his MD Paediatrics. Dr. Raghavan has taken up several clinical fellowship position in Neonatology and Paediatrics at several centres in Australia and the UK. He was also the Clinical Director at Bedford General Hospital NHS, England U.K. Dr. Raghavan recently administered the first exon skipping genetic therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in India. He is also in the process of formation and leading a specialized centre for Muscular Dystrophy in Madurai. Dr. Raghavan has authored and co-authored various scientific research works in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and in Behavioural issues in children.

Dr. K. Ramesh Shankar
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.

Dr. Shankar is an eminent Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Clinical Services within Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom. He is an advisor at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK. He is also a visiting professor at Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research (BIHER), India. His interests are focused around service development in mental health and clinical management.