Tailor-Made and Functionalized Biopolymer Systems: For Drug Delivery and Biomedical Applications

Dr. Hriday Bera completed his Masters study at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India and Ph.D at National University of Singapore, Singapore. He is presently working as Post-doctoral Fellow at Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, China and Nano Medical Engineering Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako, Japan. The major focus of his current research is the conceptual design, fabrication and evaluation of chemically modified naturally-occurring polymer based systems intended for drug delivery and other biomedical applications. As a part of his research career, he published 36 peer-reviewed articles (including 23 first-author articles) in various international journals of repute with a total SCI citation of 546, h-index of 15 and i10-index of 20. Moreover, he penned 20 book chapters for various international publishers. Furthermore, as a principal investigator, he has received highly competitive research grants from AICTE, Govt. of India; Ministry of Higher Education, Govt. of Malaysia; National Natural Science Foundation, China and Tekada Science Foundation, Japan.

Dr. Buddhadev Layek received his Master of Pharmacy degree from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from North Dakota State University in Fargo, USA. He is currently working as Assistant Professor at North Dakota State University, USA. His primary research interests include tumor-targeted drug delivery, modulating the tumor microenvironment to improve outcomes of cancer therapy, and designing multifunctional, polymeric nanomaterials for drug andgene delivery. Layek has published 22 peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals and 6 book chapters for various international publishers. He has also served as a guest editor for special issues on “Cell-Penetrating Peptides and “Surface-Functionalized Nanoparticles as Drug Carriers in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Dr. Singh is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at NDSU School of Pharmacy, and a Fellow of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and Fellow, Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy. Dr. Singh’s research efforts focus on the mechanistic studies for developing and testing novel delivery technologies to deliver biotechnologically derived molecules (e.g., peptide, protein, and gene), using smart polymers, nanomicelles and nanoparticles for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, other brain disorders, and diabetes. National Institutes of Health, US Department of Defense, PhRMA Foundation, and AFPE have funded Dr. Singh’s research. Dr. Singh has published over 175 peer-reviewed papers and 350 abstracts.