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First Round of Abstract Submission Ends: Nov 30, 2026
Extended Early Bird Ends: Apr 28, 2026

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Zhiling YU
Hong Kong Baptist University, China
Title: Metabolic Reprogramming and Mitochondrial Dysfunction as Therapeutic Targets in Toxicology and Disease
Dr. Zhiling Yu holds a BSc degree in traditional Chinese medicine and a PhD degree in biochemistry. Dr. Yu is known for his research in herbal pharmacology, focusing on anti-atopic dermatitis, anti-rheumatic, and anticancer herbs. He is also interested in processing of Chinese medicinal materials.
Prof. Douglas B. Kell
University of Liverpool, UK
Title: How Drugs Really Get Into Cells: Why Passive Bilayer Diffusion is a Myth
Top Scholar, Bradfield College, Berks (1996-1970). B.A. (Hons) Biochemistry at St John's College, Oxford (1975) (Class 21 with Distinction in Chemical Pharmacology). Senior Scholar of St John's College, Oxford, M.A. (Oxon), D.Phil. (Oxon) 1978. SRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow (1978-1980), Postdoctoral Research Assistant (1980-81) and SERC Advanced Fellow (1981- 1983), and 'New Blood' lecturer in Microbial Physiology (1983- 1988), all at the Department of Botany & Microbiology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Reader in Microbiology, Dept of Biological Sciences, UCW, Aberystwyth, 1988-1992, and Founding Director, Aber Instruments Ltd, Science Park, Aberystwyth. Personal Chair, The University of Wales, 1992. Director of Research, Institute of Biological Sciences, UWA 1997-2002. Founding Director, Aber Genomic Computing, 2001-. EPSRC/RSC Research Professor of Bioanalytical Science, UMIST 2002- , The University of Manchester 2004-2019. University of Liverpool 2019-present. 2005-8 Director, BBSRC Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology. 2008-2013 (0.8 FTE secondment), Chief Executive, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council. 2020-present, Cofounder and Non-Exec Director, PhenUTest Ltd.

1986 Recipient of the Fleming Award of the Society for General Microbiology.
1998 Aber Instruments received a Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.
2004 Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Science Award
2005 FEBS-IUBMB Theodor Bücher prize. 2005 Royal Society/Wolfson Merit Award.
2005 Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Chemical Biology
2006 Royal Society of Chemistry/ Societry of Analytical Chemistry Gold Medal
2000-2006 Member, BBSRC Council, BBSRC Strategy Board, NERC Environmental Genomics Committee
2008-2013 Chief Executive BBSRC (0.8 FTE)
2012 Honorary DSc, Cranfield University
2012 Fellow of the AAAS
2013 Fellow, Aberystwyth University
2014 CBE, New Years Honours
2015 DSc, University of Aberdeen
2015 DSc, University of East Anglia
2019 Science Advisory Board, Daye.

He has published over 500 scientific papers, 109 of which have been cited over 100 times (as judged by WoK). His H-index is 105 (WoK) or 134 (Google Scholar). Total citations >40,000 (WoK) or >60,000 (GS). http://dbkgroup.org/publications/. Top 25 in UK for Biochemistry https://research.com/scientists-rankings/biology-and-biochemistry/gb. Twitter/X @dbkell. Bluesky @dbkell.bsky.social. For a free book on why people believe crazy things, see http://osf.io/pnxcs/.

His Wikipedia page is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Kell.
Prof. Ülo Langel
Stockholm University, Sweden
Title: Cell-penetrating peptides for new pharmacology
Ülo Langel is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, and at the Institute of Technology, Tartu University. Prof. Langel graduated from Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia, as bioorganic chemist in 1974; he has received his PhD degree twice: in 1980 from Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia (bioorganic chemistry), and in 1993 from Tartu University/Stockholm University (biochemistry/neurochemistry). His professional experience includes a career at Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia (from junior research fellow to Associate Professor, Visiting Professor, and Professor 1974-now); The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA (Associate Professor, and Adjunct Professor 2000-now); and Stockholm University (from research fellow to Associate Professor, Professor and Chairman, 1987-now). He is a Honorary Professor at Ljubljana University, Slovenia. He is/was a Chairman of the Board of small companies Pepfex (Stockholm) and Cepep (Estonia). SelfDiagnostics, Glasspearl, and member of the Board of Orexo (Sweden). In 2013 he was elected a member of Academia Europaea and in 2015, a foreign member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Langel has been selected as a Fellow Member of International Neuropeptide Society (1995), and is a member of International Society for Neurochemistry, European Peptide Society, Swedish Biochemical Society and Estonian Biochemical Society. He has been awarded a White Star Order, 4th class, by Estonian Republic. He has been invited lecturer at numerous international conferences, and is a coauthor of more than 480 scientific articles and 20 approved or pending patents. His research interest is in neurochemistry where his research is aimed to study peptides, particularly neuropeptide receptors, and in drug delivery by cell-penetrating peptides.
Prof. Brian S. J. Blagg
The University of Notre Dame, USA
Title: To be confirmed.
Brian Blagg is the Charles Huisking Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Notre Dame. After earning a B.A. in Chemistry and Environmental Studies at Sonoma State University, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah (Dale Poulter), he received an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship and performed research at The Scripps Research Institute with Dale Boger. Blagg started his independent career in medicinal chemistry at The University of Kansas is 2002. In the Fall of 2017, he moved to The University of Notre Dame wherein his lab continues to focus on chaperone proteins and protein folding in relation to cancer and neurodegeneration. Cancers are inherently more dependent on chaperone proteins because of their constant division and cellular stress. Consequently, Blagg’s team works to selectively inhibit chaperone proteins to halt cancer growth. In contrast, his lab also studies the potential for utilizing chaperones to re-fold malfunctioning and/or aggregated proteins for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and glaucoma. Brian Blagg is married to Leah Blagg and has three children, ranging in ages from 14 and 27. When not thinking about science, he can be found with his family and friends.

Brian Blagg has produced more than 333 publications/ patents and was formerly an Associate/Senior Editor of The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. He is also an inventor of KU-596 (cemdomespid) a drug currently undergoing phase II clinical trials for the treatment of neuropathy via Biogen/Reata Therapeutics. Blagg is also a founder of Grannus Therapeutics, which plans to introduce a new oncology drug into trails in 2026.
Prof. Andrzej Pilc
Jagiellonian University, Poland
Title: To be Confirmed
Professor Andrzej Pilc (MD; PhD, D.Sc.) works as the Full Professor at the Neurobiology Department; Jerzy Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
His research interests include the role of amino-acidergic transmission in the mechanisms of mental diseases (depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia). Hi was one of the discoverers of GABAB receptor up regulation after antidepressant drugs, he proposed an involvement of metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors such mGlu5 and mGlu7 receptors in the action of antidepressants and of mGlu4 receptors in the action of antipsychotic drugs. Currently he studies the interactions between hallucinogenic substances and mGlu receptor agents in order to get an enhancement of antidepressant properties of such combinations.
He published more than 370 papers in reputable journals with over 15.000 citations and remains one of the most frequently cited Polish pharmacologists. He is a member of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and of Polish Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Thomas J. Webster
Brown University, USA
Title: Using Nanomedicine, Not Drugs, To Improve Mobility In Over 45,000 Patients
Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 137) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health in over 45,000 patients. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Brown University, Saveetha University, Hebei University of Technology, UFPI, University of the Basque Country, and others. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies. Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society for Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 55,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prof. Webster also recently formed a fund to support Nigerian student research opportunities in the U.S.