Vladimir P. Torchilin is University Distinguished Professor of pharmaceutical sciences and the Director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine at Northeastern University, USA. His research interests include drug delivery and targeting, nanomedicine, multifunctional and stimuli-sensitive pharmaceutical nanocarriers, biomedical polymers, experimental cancer therapy, cancer immunology, and novel imaging agents. He has published more than 450 original papers, more than 150 reviews and book chapters, and 12 books and holds more than 40 patents. Google Scholar gives more than 66,000 citation of hist work with H-index of 114. Prof. Torchilin is editor-in-chief of Drug Delivery and Current Drug Discovery Technologies, and is on the editorial boards of several leading journals in the field, including Journal of Controlled Release (review editor), Bioconjugate Chemistry, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Journal of Drug Targeting, Molecular Pharmaceutics, and Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology. He is also a Full Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), and the Controlled Release Society. He is a recipient of the 1982 Lenin Prize in Science and Technology (the highest scientific award in the former USSR), the 2005 Research Achievements in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Award from the AAPS, 2007 Research Achievements Award from the Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress, 2009 AAPS Journal Award, 2009 International Journal of Nanomedicine Distinguished Scientist Award, 2010 Controlled Release Society Founders Award, 2012 Life Time Achievements Award from the Journal of Drug Targeting, 2012 Alec Bangham Life Time Award, and 2013 Blaise Pascal Medal for Biomedicine from the European Academy of Sciences.
Mansoor M. Amiji is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Bouve College of Health Sciences, at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Amiji received his undergraduate degree in pharmacy (magna cum laude) from Northeastern University in 1988 and a doctoral degree in pharmaceutics from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in the summer of 1992. Dr Amiji returned to Northeastern University as an assistant professor in January 1993. He received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. During a sabbatical leave in 2000, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Professor Robert Langer's laboratory. Dr Amiji's research focuses on polymeric technologies for delivery of drugs and genes to specific target sites in the body, nanotechnology for medical diagnosis and therapy, and development of biocompatible materials. He also holds or has applied for several US patents on polymeric technologies. He provides intellectual consulting services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. Dr Amiji's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, biotechnology and medical device companies, and private foundations. He has received a number of awards, including the citation in Who's Who in Science and Engineering (1996) and the third prize of the Eurand Award for Outstanding Research in Oral Drug Delivery (2003).