V Samuel Raj Editor

Dr. Ramendra Pati Pandey is a professor in the department of biotechnology and microbiology at SRM University, Sonepat, India. He was a FAPESP Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2019) at the Department of Medicine-InCor/HC-FMUSP, University of Sao Paulo, School of Medicine, Brazil. He worked on new therapies for Chagas disease: repurposing of drugs acting on the cell invasion and autophagy progression of host cells and potentiation of drug effects using biopolymeric nanoparticulate drug delivery systems against Trypanosoma cruzi. He was a Research Associate (2013-2015) at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, India. He and his group have identified transcription factor Foxo1 as essential for IL-9 induction in T helper cells, and this work has been published in Nature Communications Journal. Prior to joining as a research scholar for his Ph.D., he got a fellowship from the National Science Council of Taiwan to work at Chang Gung University (2007 to 2009), where he, along with the Taiwan group, was able to conclude that the phenotype of tolerized autoreactive CD8+T cells is context-dependent in the murine model. He was an executive council member of the Indian Immunology Society (2014-2016). He has been awarded with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India Young Scientist Award (2010), Indian Immunology Society Young Scientist Award (2013), European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) Travel Award (2012), British Society of Immunology Travel Award (2012), Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia Oceania Young Scientist Award (2012 and 2015), American Association of Immunologists Travel Award (2013), International Union of Immunological Societies Travel Award (2013), and The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies Travel Award (2017). He has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, India (2021), and selected as an Associate Member of the esteemed Academy "International Academy of Physical Sciences, Prayagraj (2022), elected as a member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (2022), elected as a member of the National Academy of Biological Sciences (2023), National Environmental Science Academy (2023), Sigma Xi the Scientific Research Honor Society (2023), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (2023). He has been appointed as an Ambassador of the Royal Society of Biology, UK, London (2023). Recently, he has been awarded the NESA Scientist of the Year Award 2023 by the National Environmental Science Academy, India, and selected for the Shri. Om Prakash Sharma Award from the Indian Academy of Biomedical Sciences 2023 for his outstanding contributions in the field of biomedical sciences, especially in basic translational research. Polyfeenolix-IIS Best Mid-Career Immunology Teacher Award 2023, in the 50th IMMUNOCON in October 2023. Recently, he received the Best Debut Award, an Excellence Award for outstanding academic and scientific contributions in the UPES, held in March 2024. Recently, he has been selected for the NESA Distinguished Scientist of the Year Award 2024 based on his teaching and research in microbiology and immunology.

Prof. Chung-Ming Chang has a Ph.D. degree in Animal Genetics from Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, France, and a Master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine National Taiwan University, Taiwan. He is also a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine National License of Doctor Veterinary Medicine, Taiwan. He has expertise in Virology and Human Molecular Genetics; Avian Influenza; Human endogenous retrovirus: copy number and insertional polymorphism study of human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K in rheumatoid arthritis patients. He has published several articles and review papers in international journals of high repute and also presented a dozen papers in national and international symposia/conferences.

Prof. V. Samuel Raj is a Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology and Director of the Centre for Drug Design Discovery & Development (C4D) at SRM University Haryana since 2014. Prior to that he had 10 years of R&D experience with 2 major pharma companies, Ranbaxy and Daiichi Sankyo, and 15 years of international research experience in Taiwan, Japan, and USA. He has a special interest in neglected diseases (TB, Leishmaniasis, malaria, and dengue) and initiated the open innovation and international collaboration between academia and industry to discover new drugs to fight infectious diseases with a special focus on neglected diseases. He has the experience as Group Leader of Microbiology at Ranbaxy Research Laboratories and has led many drug discovery projects against infectious diseases. Before joining Ranbaxy, he was a visiting scientist (faculty) in the Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.