Coutsoudis is a public health scientist and a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She obtained her PhD in 1993 from the same university, and made important contributions on child nutrition, breastfeeding and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Her awards include: the 2004 Nutrition Society of South Africa Award for her contribution to nutrition research in South Africa; the 2005 Amnesty International South Africa for protecting human rights in South Africa; the 2006 Convocation of University of KwaZulu-Natal for her outstanding contribution to medical science and society; and the 2009 Science for Society Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, of which she is a Fellow. She is also a Fellow of of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2000, she established the first community-based breastmilk bank in South Africa to provide donor breastmilk to AIDS orphans, and was one of the founding members of the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa, which she chairs. She is involved in putting in place low-cost technology for human milk banks.

Crombet (PhD,2004) is a Medical Doctor and Immunology Specialist (1997). Since 2009 she has been Medical Director of the Center of Molecular Immunology of Havana. She is Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences; Senior Faculty of the Superior Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana; Member of the Board of Directors of Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance, a joint venture between US and Cuba; Member of the Cuban and Latin-American Societies of Immunology; Member of the Cuban and American Societies of Oncology. She has published more than 100 papers and participated in more than 200 international congresses as speaker. Crombet has received several times the annual National Award of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, the Technological Innovation Award of the Cuban Ministry of Science, and the TWAS Prize for Young Scientists in Developing Countries (2007). Crombet's main area of expertise is cancer immunotherapy and her work has contributed to the registration in Cuba and abroad of two cancer vaccines and two monoclonal antibodies for several epithelial tumors, autoimmune diseases and COVID-19. She is member of the international panel of experts on COVID-19 of the InterAcademy Partnership.

Daar is Prof. of clinical pub. health/global health/surgery at the Univ. of Toronto (UofT). He is member of UN Sec General's Sci Adv Brd. Went to med such in Uganda and London and obtained his PHD (DPhil) in transplant immunology/immunogenetics at Oxford U. In the Middle East, he helped start two med. schools. He has recently been found. chair, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (2009-11) and was chair, Adv. Board, UN Univ. Intl. Inst. for Global Health. He was member, UNESCO Intl. Bioethics Comm. He holds the world record for performing the youngest cadaveric donor kidney transplant. His awards include UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, Hunterian Prof., Roy Col. Surgeons and Anthony Miller Prize for Research Excellence at UofT. He chairs the Sci and Strategic Adv Brd of AESA. His current research studies how to avoid knowledge divides and the exploration of how genomics and other biotechnologies can be used effectively to ameliorate global health inequities.

Dalkara is a Professor of Neurology and a member of the Faculty of Medicine and the Director of the Neuroscience PhD programme and Institute of Neurological Sciences and Psychiatry at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. He received his MD, Neurology and PhD (Pharmacology) training at Hacettepe University, and did his Postdoctoral fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. He held a joint appointment at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston between 1992-2020. Dalkara’s research focuses on the basic mechanisms of ischemic brain injury and migraine and on targeted brain drug delivery. He received 2013 TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences and has been awarded with several scientific honors in Turkey. He is a principal member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Turkish Academy of Sciences.

De Mello obtained his BSc in biochemistry in 1968, MD in 1972, MSc in biophysics in 1973 and PhD in 1980. He is professor of biophysics at the Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho since 1993 and head of the Laboratory of Neurochemistry since 1982. He was previously: Fogarty visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health from 1973-76; assistant professor, vice director, and director at the Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho between 1978-97; research associate professor at Northwestern University between 1984-86; and Guggenheim fellow in 1984. He was awarded the Gustavo Lessa Award from the Brazilian-American Institute in 1982. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences. In April 2015 he became Emeritus Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Dikshit has made significant contributions to molecular pharmacology with special emphasis on redox/NO biology and metabolism. In the area of neutrophil biology she enhanced our understanding of how nitric oxide modulates neutrophil differentiation, survival, free radical generation, NETosis, chemotaxis, and microbicidal activity. She has investigated the role of iNOS in metabolic regulations and insulin sensitivity. She led the anti-thrombotic drug discovery team at Central Drug Research Institute, and one of their new chemical entities has received permission for phase I clinical trial in India. She initiated a programme on drug and biomarker discovery in the area of fatty liver disease at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, with significant contributions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, under a Department of Biotechnology - Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) project, she undertook preclinical and pharmacokinetic evaluations of AYUSH herbal formulations for mitigating SARS- CoV2 and associated pathologies. Dikshit has published 200+ papers, 23 reviews, and 8 patents, edited 3 books, and has supervised 37 PhD and 10 MD theses.

Prof. Jian Ding is a renowned Chinese cancer pharmacologist and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and he’s made extraordinary contributions to research and development of new drugs. He is currently a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, and was Director of SIMM(2004-2013). Prof. Ding serves as the editor-in-chief of Acta Pharmacologica Sinica and editorial board member of several international academic journals such as Eur J Pharmacol and Mol Pharmacol. Focusing on biomarkers and drug resistance mechanisms of anti-tumor drugs, Prof. Ding is the co-inventor of more than ten innovative drug candidates, and all of which are currently at clinical trials with one of them has been conditionally approved in China and Japan and 4 of them running additional clinical tests in U.S, Japan & Australia. More than 340 papers have been published in journals including Cell、Cancer Cell etc. Over 150 patents have been authorized. Multiple awards have been bestowed to Prof. Ding to acknowledge his tremendous contribution to the area of cancer treatment, including but not limited to, 2 Second degree of National Natural Science Award.

Djimde received a pharmacy doctoral degree from the Ecole Nationale de Médecine et de Pharmacie of Bamako, Mali in 1988. He conducted post-doctoral research at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the supervision of Thomas E. Wellems in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases. While at the NIH, he started new training under the supervision of Christopher V. Plowe for a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA, which he obtained in 2001. During his PhD project he conducted seminal studies describing the first reliable molecular marker for chloroquine resistance and proposing a model for field monitoring of drug resistance using molecular markers, resulting in first-author publications on the New England Journal of Medicine and on The Lancet. He returned to Mali to start his own laboratory at the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC-Parasito), at the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali. The primary goal of his research is antimalarial drug resistance, genetics, antimicrobial resistance and clinical drug development. With his team and collaborators he conducts field and laboratory based studies.

Professor Shah Faruque works in the School of Life Sciences at Independent University Bangladesh (IUB). Previously he was a Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology in BRAC University. He was also the director of the Genomics Centre at International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), and formerly director of the Centre for Food and Waterborne Diseases in icddr,b. He maintained a research team in Life Sciences for over two decades, and while staying in Bangladesh conducted cutting edge research. He obtained research grants from prestigious institutions including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harvard Medical School, USAID, Swedish International Development Agency, and the Wellcome Trust. Prof. Faruque obtained BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in Biochemistry from Dhaka University, and a PhD. in Molecular Biology from the University of Reading in the UK. Prof. Faruque has authored numerous original research papers, reviews, and book chapters, and has edited a number of text books. His works have been published in top ranking international journals, including Nature, PNAS and Lancet. He was awarded the TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences in 2005.

Gamboa Vilela (PhD, 2008, Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and University of Maastricht, The Netherlands) is professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science and Philosophy (FACIEN), Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), and member of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander Von Humboldt (IMTAvH-UPCH). She is director of the Malaria Laboratory, belonging to both FACIEN and IMTAvH-UPCH. Her group carries out multidisciplinary studies on the dynamics of malaria transmission in the Peruvian Amazon with over 90 articles published, and more than 40 under and postgraduate students who have graduated with a thesis within her group. She has been a member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) since 1996. She received the L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship in 2003, the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Latin America & Caribbean (2013), and the L'Oréal-UNESCO-CONCYTEC-ANC National Award For Women in Science - Peru in 2015. She is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and since 2013 she has also been a member of the Peruvian National Academy of Sciences (ANC).

Garruto is prof. of biomedical anthropology and neurosciences and Dir. of the Biospecimen Archive Facility, State Univ. of New York, Binghamton. He received his PhD from Penn State Univ. and joined the Natl. Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1973 as a research scientist. He has done fieldwork in Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Latin America. His honours include: Commendation Guam Legislature, 1987; Alumni Fellow, Penn State Univ., 1987; NIH Directors Award, 1993; Gorjanovic-Krambergeri Medal, Croatian Anthropological Society, 2000; Burroughs-Welcome Foundation Visiting Professorship, Basic Medical Sciences, 2001; Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award, Human Biology Assoc., 2005; National Honor Plaque of Panama, National Secretariat for Science,Technology and Innovation, 2011. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Sciences and a fellow of AAAS.

Gaye is Professor of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar; Director of the Malaria Research and Capacity Development Programme in West and Central Africa; Coordinator of the Network for Malaria Surveillance in West and Central Africa; a member of the Senegalese Academy of Sciences and Techniques, and a member of Malaria Consortium's Board of Trustees. He was: Head of the Department of Parasitology; Coordinator of the PhD training in human biology and pathology; Scientific Adviser on Malaria in WHO Regional Office for Africa, and a member of WHO headquaters' Expert Panel on Malaria Management; Malaria Technical Advisor at the Gates Foundation; and Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Health, Senegal, for many years. Gaye has coordinated research on malaria and several parasitic diseases in Africa, as the seasonal malaria chemoprevention, and the use of antimalarial and diagnostics tests at community level. He is a founding member of the West Africa Roll Back Malaria Network. He received the Senegal Presidential Award for Science in 2012, and International Distinguished Fellow by American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2021.

Gevers is emeritus professor of Medical Biochemistry, U. of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. He qualified in medicine at UCT (1960); was a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford U. (DPhil, 1966) under Sir Hans Krebs, and research associate of Fritz Lipmann, Rockefeller U. He was pres., exec. officer and gen. sec., Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf); senior deputy vice-chancellor, UCT. He directed MRC Research Units, universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, and established the Inst. of Infectious Disease and Mol. Medicine at UCT. Honours include: 3 hon. doctorates; Wellcome Gold Medal for Medical Research; Gold Medals, South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, MRC, Southern Afr. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, and ASSAf. He was inducted into the Natl. Order of Mapungubwe in Silver in 2008. He is a member of 3 science academies and life fellow, UCT.

Gonzales has been professor for 42 years of the Faculty of Sciences and Philosophy of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (1979-2021) with a wide and recognized scientific career at national and international level from 1977 to the present day. Physician and biologist by profession, he is the first Doctor of Science at the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (1985) and also holds a PhD in Medicine (1999) with a post-doctorate at Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia (1987-1988). He is an Academic of Number at both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. During his 44 years of scientific life, he has devoted himself to research on the endocrine aspects of adaptation to high altitude, in particular to the hormonal mechanisms that regulate erythropoiesis. In Peru, residents above 2000m account for 30% of the Peruvian population. Gonzales is the author of 355 scientific publications, including 12 books and 14 book chapters. He has received 72 national and international awards during his scientific career. He is a referee of more than 60 international journals. He has advised 30 Bachelor's, 19 Master's and 8 Doctor´s thesis.

Gray is President/CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, Research Professor in Paediatrics at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Member (Professor) in the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, in Seattle. A Medical Doctor, specialising in Paediatrics, she started her research career in the field of preventing mother to child transmission of HIV-1 (PMTCT). She was awarded a Fogarty Fellowship to study clinical epidemiology at Cornell and Columbia Universities (1999), enabling her to broaden her investigative interests to include: clinical trial design; vaccine. She developed her research in post-natal transmission, focusing on breast-feeding, infant survival and post-exposure prophylaxis. Gray collaborated in multi-country efforts to find short-course and affordable antiretroviral interventions for PMTCT. She co-founded with James McIntyre the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) at Baragwanath Hospital, which is now a world-renowned research unit focused on HIV prevention and treatment with grants awarded through competitive international processes from the NIH, USAID, amongst others, amounting to over R120 million pa.

Guillen is currently Biomedical Research Director at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana. He received his Bachelor in Science degree in Chemistry and his Master in Chemistry in 1986 in Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, and his PhD degree in Biological Sciences in 1995 from Havana University. He joined the CIGB in 1986. For more than 25 years, he was supervisor of several projects related to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine developments on hepatitis, dengue, meningitis, pertussis, cancer and COVID as well as drug development against infectious diseases, cancer, cardio protection, neuro-protection and wound healing. Guillen is a Senior Researcher at CIGB, Full Professor at the Havana University and Latino American School of Medicine, Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the University of Science and Technology of China and has been a Member of the Cuban Academy of Science since 2012. He is also member of several scientific societies, editorial boards and advisory committees. He has published 226 scientific papers and holds 56 patents. He has been honored with 52 National Awards for Scientific Results from the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

Hong is the head of (Hong Tao) Acadamician’s Lab, Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC; director, Inst. of Biology and Biotech., Beijing Jiaotong University; professor, Peking Union Medical College; and member, Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1995. His contributions include: 1) discovery of the Adult Diarrhoea Rotavirus (ADRV), which has been genetically characterized and classified to be the unique human group B rotavirus; 2) discovery of the morphology and identification of Hantavirus; and 3) pioneering study on Prion diseases in China. His 18 awards include the Meritous Service Award and WHO National Nature Science Awards. His memberships include: Chinese Society of Microbiology; Chinese Medical Association; American Society of Virology; Intl. Soc. of Electron Microscopy; and president, Public Health and Medicine, Pacific Science Association.

Huang (M.S, 1986, Zhejiang University, China) is Academician, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Fellow Honoris Causa, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist.She is working in Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University; she was the president, International Peace Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai; Director, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Embryo Original Diseases; Director, Institute of Embryo-Fetal Original Adult Disease Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; Chair Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Distinguished Professor, Zhejiang University; Honorary Professor, Hong Kong University; Visiting Professor, the University of Adelaide. She was awarded the National Science and technology progress award, China. She is the Chief scientist of National 973 Program, National 12th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Support Project, National 863 Program, National Key Research and Development Program of China, International Cooperation Project of China and Canada (National Natural Science Foundation of China).

Hung, PhD, is president for China Medical University and chancellor for China Medical University - Asia University System in Taichung, Taiwan. He was vice-president for basic research and professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas. Hung is a basic scientist with a keen translational vision and especially his recent research effort has significantly contributed to understanding the biology of cancer and to developing combinational cancer therapies to overcome resistance. Up to date, Hung has published more than 600 peer-reviewed articles, of which over 160 were published in journals with impact factor 10 or above. His lifetime h-index reaches to 163 (Google Scholar). He is one of the members of the selection committee for Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science category, and is one of the founding editorial members for Cancer Cell (2002–2020). He serves as member, Molecular Cell Advisory Board (2020–present); senior editor, Cancer Research (2018–2021); editor-in-chief, American Journal for Cancer Research (AJCR) (2015–2017; 2020–present); editor, Cancer and Metastasis Reviews (2018–present).

Nancy Ip is currently the President of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and is also The Morningside Professor of Life Science and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at HKUST. She received her PhD degree in Pharmacology from Harvard University, after which she held the position of Senior Staff Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New York. Since joining HKUST in 1993, she has served as the Vice-President for Research and Development, Dean of Science, Director of the Biotechnology Research Institute, and Head of the Department of Biochemistry. Ip is world-renowned for her significant contributions to the field of neuroscience. Her outstanding research has resulted in 328 scientific papers and 70 patents. She has been elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, and received numerous awards and honors including the National Natural Science Awards, the L’OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award and the 10 Science Stars of China by Nature.

Prof. Emerita Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail is a woman of many firsts. She was the first female Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia,the country’s first female Director-General of Higher Education, first female President of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and the first woman to be the National Science Advisor to the country. She has a BSc (Biology) from the University of Nevada Reno (UNR), USA, M.A. (Microbiology) from Indiana University, USA and a Ph.D (Cellular and Molecular Biology) from UNR. She was also awarded Honorary Doctoral Degrees from the University of Glasgow, Keele University and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS). She was elected to the Academy of Sciences Malaysia in 2003, The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) in 2010 and The Islamic World Academy of Sciences in 2016. Asma has 16 patents and commercialized world-wide the rapid diagnostic test for typhoid called TYPHIDOT. She received numerous awards including the National Academic Laureate, the most prestigious national award to a Malaysian academic in 2022.

Jaye (DVM, PhD) is a Professor of Global Health Education and Researcher Leadership at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, and Head of Research Training and Career Development at the Medical Research Council (MRC), The Gambia Unit at LSHTM. He was HIV Immunology Group Leader at MRC (1998–2018) and Interim Head of the Viral Diseases Program (2008). He headed the MRC West Africa HIV Collaboration Platform from 2010–2015 based at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. He coordinated two major capacity building network programs (WANETAM & WAPHIR) for the West African region for multi-centre clinical trial collaboration in HIV, TB and Malaria. He is a member of the MRC Leadership Board. He received professional recognition awards: Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation Leadership Award (2007); Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (2015); MRC Director’s Award for Inspirational Research Leader (2013); Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Science and Technology Award for outstanding contribution in the field of Viral Immunology and Research Training (2017); LSHTM Directors award for Excellence and Innovation in Developing Students as Researchers.

Jia is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a professor, and an endocrinologist. She works in the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, as director of the Shanghai Diabetes Institute and of the Proactive Healthcare Institute, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She focuses on the prediction, prognosis, and care of diabetes and related metabolic disorders. She has revealed the prevalence of diabetes and its complications in China, identified diabetes-susceptible genes in Chinese, established reference values of CGM, discovered the associations of FGF21 with NAFLD in humans, innovated AI screening systems on diabetic retinopathy, and developed a diabetes integrated care model with digital medicine. She has published over 300 original articles in journals, including BMJ, Nat Med, Nat Metab, Cell Metab, Sci Transl Med, Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol, Diabetes Care and Diabetes. She has received the Xiaoren Pan Distinguished Research Award for Epidemiology of Diabetes in Asia, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Science and Technology, and the National Science and Technology Progress Award.

Kabir earned his MSc in biochemistry in 1983 from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), University of Dhaka (DU), Bangladesh and his PhD in nutritional biochemistry in 1990 from the Laboratory of Nutrition, Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Japan. He then held a postdoctoral position under a joint fellowship with the United Nations University and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan (April 1994-April 1995). He was a professor at BMB, DU from December 1997 to January 2023, when he retired. Previously he was associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Life Sciences, Kuwait University, Kuwait (September 2004–June 2009, on leave from DU); associate professor, BMB, DU (December 1991–December 1997); assistant professor, BMB, DU (April 1990–December 1991); and lecturer, BMB, DU (April 1984–March 1990). He was a visiting scientist as a JSPS Fellow at Tohoku University, Japan (December 2003–May 2004); and at Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Karlsruhe, Germany (August 1998–March 1999).

Jorge Kalil is Professor of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Director, Immunology Laboratory, Heart Institute, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo; Adjunct Professor at the GWU, USA; Coordinator, iii-Institute for Investigative Immunology; Former Director, Butantan Institute; Past President, International Union of Immunological Societies. Graduated in Medicine, Doctor of Science in Human Biology, University of Paris VII, in Jean Dausset’s laboratory (Nobel Prize 1980 for HLA). He was Visiting Professor, Stanford School of Medicine, and International Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He studies the mechanisms of immune recognition and distinction of self and no self, with over 550 publications (ISI) and several patents. He is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Grand Cross of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit of France, Doctor Honoris causa by Sorbonne Universités and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He represents Brazil in the ICGEB.