Alex is an internationally-known authority on solution chemistry, with outstanding academic credentials and an extensive list of publications (110 technical publications in primary scientific journals & chapters in books, 6 patents and over 300 invited lectures). For over 40 years, he has been teaching, researching, & developing methods, instruments, & analysis software for measurement of ionization constants (pKa), solubility (practically-insoluble molecules), dissolution (small-volume, mechanistic, pH-dependent), & permeability (pH-dependent PAMPA, cell-culture, & animal models). He founded (2011) in-ADME Research (USA) and co-founded pION INC (USA) in 1996 & Sirius Analytical (UK) in 1989. He is the author of Absorption and Drug Development, Second Edition, Wiley, Hoboken, 2012. His accomplishments in the development of instrumentation include several well-known instruments currently manufactured by leading companies in the instrument market (e.g., ORION960 Autochemistry System - Launched in 1984 and still being sold by ThermoFisher today). In the rich career he took several position in academic and industrial settings (pION INC (USA), SIRIUS ANALYTICAL (UK), ORION RESEARCH (USA), SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY (USA), CAL BERKELEY "go Bears" (USA), & CALTECH (PASADENA, USA)).Biserka Cetina-Čižmek, PLIVA, Croatia
Biserka has been working in GR&D PLIVA pharmaceutical company in Croatia, member of Teva group for last twelve years. Her current position is Senior Director and head of Preformulation Department. She is pharmacist by education. She finished Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciencie and worked as Senior Lecturer in field Pharmaceutical Analysis and since 2007 she has become Professor in the field of Pharmaceutical sciences at Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry University of Zagreb. Her scientific background is the field of preformulation studies in drug development of solid dosage forms, semisolid and liquid, development of in vitro methodology to predict in vivo drug behavior, IVIV correlation, characterization of drug molecules, and BCS classification. She is author and co-author of 30 scientific papers, 47 posters and 12 oral presentations, 3 patent applications and mentor of 22 graduated and 3 postgraduate students.
Rolf Hilfiker is Head of the Department Solid-State Development at Solvias AG. Solvias AG is a scientific services company focused on leveraging expertise in various scientific disciplines to accelerate the drug discovery and development process. The department of some 20 people does contract research and development in the solid-state area, i.e. polymorphism studies, salt and co-crystal screening and selection, method development, crystallization optimization, etc. Rolf obtained his Ph.D in physical chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland. From 1987-89 he was Post Doc at SUNY, New York and from 1989-1992 Senior Research Fellow at the University of Basel. He has more than twenty years of experience in an industrial R&D environment at Ciba-Geigy, Novartis, and Solvias. Under his guidance, Solvias became one of the leading solid-state service providers in the world. He is author of more than 60 scientific publications as well as numerous patents in various areas of physical chemistry and editor of “Polymorphism – In the Pharmaceutical Industry”, Wiley-VCH, 2006.Jasna Padovan, Fidelta d.o.o, Croatia
Jasna Padovan is Head of DMPK in Fidelta. She obtained a degree in biochemistry from the University of Colorado, was trained in PK/PD within the Leiden/Amsterdam Centre for Drug Research and obtained her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Zagreb. Jasna started her industrial career in 1998 working in the pharmaceutical and biotech companies PLIVA, GlaxoSmithKline and Galapagos mainly in the areas of anti-infectives, anti-fungals, inflammation and CNS, holding the position of head of DMPK. During her career she has worked on projects which have delivered seven development candidates. She has over 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, has over 10 scientific publications and has presented at several international conferences.
Christos Reppas, University of Athens, Greece
Christos is Professor of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian (N&K) University of Athens, Greece. He received his B. Pharm degree in Pharmacy from the N&K University in Athens in 1982 and his Ph.D in 1986 from the same University. From 1988 to 1989 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pharmaceutics at the University of Michigan (USA) and then he joined the N&K University of Athens in 1989 as a Lecturer. He has held research positions with the University of London (UK), the University of Michigan (USA), Glaxo R&D (UK) and the University of Frankfurt (Germany). Research interests focus on the effects of gastrointestinal physiology on intralumenal performance of xenobiotics and the development of in vitro tests that are predictive of the intralumenal dosage form and drug performance. He is coauthor of more than 95 peer reviewed papers in international journals, two books and one patent.
Abu Serajuddin, St. John's University, New York, USA
Abu Serajuddin, Ph.D., is Professor of Industrial Pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University, Queens, New York, USA. He joined academia in 2008 after working for three decades in the pharmaceutical industry, where he formulated and developed numerous products, many with extremely difficult and challenging development issues. Several products that he developed or co-developed attained blockbuster status in the market. In his latest positions in the industry, Dr. Serajuddin served as the Director/Executive Director and the US Head of Drug Product Development (1999-2003) and Executive Director of Science, Technology and Outsourcing (2003-2008) for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. He authored over 90 research papers and book chapters and made over 100 invited presentations in scientific conferences. He is also a co-inventor in 12 patents. In recognition of his scientific and professional contributions, Dr. Serajuddin attained Fellow status in American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and American Association of Indian Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAiPS). AAPS also honored him twice with its Research Achievement Award, first for Formulation Design and Development (FDD) in 2010 and the second for Manufacturing Sciences and Engineering (MSE) in 2014. In 2005, he received the Novartis Leading Scientist Award for extraordinary scientific achievement in research and development. He serves in the Editorial Advisory Boards of several journals, including Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. At St. John’s, Dr. Serajuddin established the Industrial Pharmacy Innovation Laboratory, where the primary focuses of his research are (1) the development of novel drug delivery systems, especially for poorly water-soluble drugs, and (2) the innovation in processing technologies for solid dosage forms.
Kin Tam, University of Macau, Macau
Kin Tam holds a DPhil in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK. He is currently Associate Professor in Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, China. Before moving back to China in 2013, he worked for AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, UK, for 12 years, progressing from Senior Scientist, to Associate Principal Scientist, and working as a DMPK Design Leader from 2011. He contributed to a number of drug discovery projects in the areas of oncology and led the development of high-throughput physicochemical assays. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he developed new instruments with Sirius Analytical Instruments, UK, for 5 years and commercialised UV-based devices for pKa determination. His current research interests include permeability and physiochemical studies of drug molecules, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics as well as drug development. He has authored or co-authored over 70 articles in peer review journals. Dr. Tam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is currently the Editor-in-chief for ADMET & DMPK.
Gordana Turkalj, is by basic education an engineer of chemical technology. She gained a Master of Science in chemistry at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Zagreb, Croatia. She has over 15 years of experience in intellectual property matters, particularly patents, working both as patent attorney and patent examiner. Gordana spent 20 years at large & medium sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, first as a scientist and then as a patent attorney. Her career in the field of intellectual property started at Pliva d.d. back in 2002, continued in GlaxoSmithKline’s and then in Galapagos istraživački centar d.o.o. in Zagreb which she left from the position of Senior Patent Counsel. In 2013 she co-founded CALLIDEA Ltd, IP office in Zagreb together with her colleague and then at the beginning of 2017 moved to Croatian SIPO where she now holds position of senior advisor in the field of chemistry and biotechnology working as patent examiner. During her carrier, she was dealing with various IP aspects of innovative and generic pharmaceutical products. She has experience in drafting and prosecution commercially important patents in complex and crowded areas of technology, in creating patenting strategy, patentability & freedom to operate opinions, and providing IP training for scientists and management. She is guest lecturer at the School of Medicine and at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia.Klara Valko, Biomimetic chromatography consultancy, UK
Klara obtained her PhD at School of Pharmacy, Semmerlweis University in Budapest. Since 1995 Klara has been working with the Physico-chemical Characterization Group at GlaxoWellcome and now GSK. Leaving GSK after 22 years of service, now she is director of Bio-Mimetic Chromatography Consultancy providing data analysis, biomimetic HPLC method set up and measurements, in vivo drug distribution modelling and various courses to pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of analytical equipment. She developed several bio-mimetic binding measurements of discovery compounds, such as Human Serum Albumin Binding, Immobilized Artificial Membrane binding and Chromatographic Hydrophobicity Index, etc. She developed in silico models for these and several other ADME properties using QSAR-WB general model building tool. Klara supported over 20 neuroscience and respiratory programs in the lead optimization by building general and local models between structure and properties. Klara is also a honorary professor at University College London, where she has been teaching the Physchem/ADME module for the Drug Discovery MSc students for 10 years. She has published over 100 papers that achieved over 3000 citations. She wrote a book on “Physicochemical and Biomimetic Properties in Drug Discovery; Chromatographic Techniques for lead optimization” published by Wiley in 2014. The book summarizes the methodology and applications of the measurements of physicochemical and biomimetic properties with examples for in vivo distribution models and applications in drug discovery.