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Paolo Caliceti, born in Verona in 1959, married 2 children, is Full Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology of Faculty of Pharmacy, at the University of Padua, Italy.

He got the master degree in 1984 in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology and PhD degree in 1989 in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Padua. In the same university he had permanent positions as Assistant Professor (1989-1998) and Associate Professor (1998-2002). Throughout the years, he covered the following positions: Guest researcher at Glaxo (Verona, Italy, 1984); visiting scientist at National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of National Institute of Health (Bethesda, USA, 1985); Post doctoral fellowship of Soleko Company (1989); Post doctoral fellowship of National Council of Research on Chemical Sciences Center for Study of Chemistry of Drugs and Biologically Active Products of National Council of Researches (CNR) (1989); invited scientist at Enzyme Engineering Laboratories of the Institute of Experimental Cardiology Research Center of Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia, 1990); invited scientist at Drug Delivery e Molecular Immunology of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals Laboratories (King of Prussia , PA, USA, 1994).

Since the first years of his scientific activity he dedicated much of the interest in studying formulations for protein delivery. About 25 years ago, he started his scientific activity working on protein-PEGylation when PEGylation was moving the first steps in the pharmaceutical scenario. He strongly contributed to the progresses of this technology and he is still actively involved in this research area.

Throughout years he moved his scientific interest to other aspects of drug delivery: non-conventional formulations including supramolecular drug delivery systems, namely micelles, bioconjugates, and nano- and microparticles. His main topics of research are:

1. Modification of bioactive peptides and proteins with soluble polymers;
2. Production of lipid and polymeric biodegradable nano-/micro-particles for slow and controlled drug release by classical or supercritical techniques;
3. Development of multifunctional macromolecules for active or passive drug and protein delivery;
4. Preparation and in vitro and in vivo characterisation of new cyclodextrin based drug carriers;
5. Gold nanoparticles as drug delivery systems.

Elias Fattal is a full professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Paris-Sud 11 in Châtenay-Malabry, France and has been President of APGI since 2003. He received his Pharmacy Degree (1983), and Ph.D. (1990) from the University of Paris-Sud 11. After visiting the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco for a post-doctoral position (1990-1991), he became associate Professor (1992) and full Professor at the University of Paris-Sud 11 (2000). Elias Fattal is the director of the UMR CNRS 8612 where he is also leading one of the research group “Drug targeting and delivery of poorly stable drugs”. His research activity deals with the design of nano and microtechnologies for the delivery of peptides/proteins, nucleic acids and for imaging contrast agents. He is the author and co-author of around 170 publications and book chapters and 12 patents. In 1999, he received the Colloidal Drug Carrier Award (created for the 5th Expert meeting on colloidal drug carriers, Berlin, Germany) and the Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress (PSWC) Research Achievement Award in 2007. He has also been elected Honour member of APV (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik) in 2005. He is corresponding member of the French national Academy of Pharmacy. Elias Fattal is the co-editor of the journal of drug delivery science and technology. He serves in the editorial board of several Pharmaceutical Journals (Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery) and nanotechnologies dedicated journals (NanoBiotechnology, International Journal of Nanomedecine).

Francesco Scaglione MD, PhD is Professor of Pharmacology at school of medicine; Director of the Postgraduate school of Clinical Pharmacology at University of Milan; member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Chemotherapy and Infections And Treasurer of the Federation of the European Societies of Chemotherapy. His research activity involves the clinical pharmacology of anti-infective drugs, the immune response to infections and the action of natural extracts on the immune system.
He is an active member of numerous professional societies, Associations and Colleges. He publishes widely, speaks regularly at international meetings, is currently supervising six PhD students and holds several University appointments (e.g. as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology). He is author and co-author of five books on Clinical Pharmacology and more than 160 original articles, published in international journals.

María Jesús Vicent is the Head of the Polymer Therapeutics Laboratory in the Chemical Biology Dept. at Príncipe Felipe Research Center.
After a PhD in material sciences between Castellón (Spain, Luis’ Lab.) and U.C. Berkeley (USA, Frechet’s Lab.), a Marie Curie funded postdoc in Prof. Duncan’s Lab. (Cardiff, UK) and one-year research associate position through a Marie Curie Reintegration contract at CIPF (Valencia, Spain); she was appointed to principal investigator in June 2006 to build the first Polymer Therapeutics Lab. in Spain.
Since 2006, Maria has directly contributed to a research income from national (public and private), European funding agencies (FP7 and EraNets) and industry. This has allowed her to build up a group of 15 people. Since January 2009 she is also the responsible of the screening platform at CIPF.
She has published more than 50 papers and book’s chapters (h index: 16) and she’s also named inventor in 4 patents 2 of them already licensed. María was awarded with a Prize on Basic Sciences from ‘Fundación de las Artes y las Ciencias’ (‘IV Edition Idea Awards’ Valencia, Spain) in June 2008.
She is the Spanish President of the Spanish-Portuguese Chapter of the Controlled Release Society and is chairing the Polymer Therapeutics Symposium: from Lab to Clinic, one of the most recognized conferences in the field.

Rogério Sá Gaspar, currently is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Lisbon (FFUL) where he has been the coordinator for the Pharmaceutical Technology sector (2007-2011 and 2011-2014), and also the coordinator of the Nanomedicine & Drug Delivery Systems research group (Nano&DDS) within the Research Institute for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences (iMed.UL) which he co-founded in 2007. At Faculty he has been elected for the Scientific Council and to the Faculty Assembly governing bodies for the current 4 year terms (2009-2013). He serves also as member of the General Council of the University of Lisbon (overview body of government) and until recently supported the technology transfer unit of the University of Lisbon (UL INOVAR). Current research interests of his group (~50 researchers) regards several research objectives including the development of new therapeutic strategies using liposomes, polymeric biodegradable nanoparticles, and polymer therapeutics. His main focus in research is currently oriented towards cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids and use of targeted delivery systems for combination therapy in cancer.

Rogério Sá Gaspar, obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) in 1991, after a graduation as pharmacist from the University of Coimbra (Portugal) in 1985. During his PhD he developed nanoparticulate formulations of bioerodible polymers for experimental chemotherapy of Leishmaniasis. Back to his home University (Coimbra, Portugal) he started in 1993 a new research group (Colloidal Drug Carriers Unit) within the Centre for Neurosciences and Cell Biology at Coimbra (Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology). His main research areas where then concentrated in nanoparticle-macrophage interactions, imaging systems for MRI, nanoparticulate ocular drug delivery, brain delivery, cancer targeted therapeutics using stealth-targeted liposomes and cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids using different cationic or pH sensitive systems. For years he was involved in the development of European research networks looking at advanced training (e.g. as founder and first coordinator of the now Galenos network, started in 1993).

In the period 1995 to 2002 in parallel with his research activities at academia, he was involved at different levels on the European Regulatory System for Medicinal Products.

From 1995 to 2000 as expert and member of the national evaluation board and of the CPMP (now CHMP, at the European Medicines Agency, EMA). From January 2000 to July 2002 he was Vice-chairman of the Management Board of INFARMED (Portuguese medicines regulator) and member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as member of several committees and expert groups of the European Council of Ministers and European Commission, including participation in the initial steps of the mutual recognition between Japan and EU in the pharmaceutical sector (2002). In 2000 he was the coordinator of the working group that concluded the approval at Council of Ministers level for the European Directive in Clinical Trials, finalised one year later at the European Parliament.

From 2002 to 2008 he was acting as external consultant with a role of coordination and overview on the research activities of a pharmaceutical company (Tecnimede, Portugal). Also acted as a consultant to ASEAN countries (2005-2006 in the context of a EU cooperation programme) and in 2007 as consultant to Cell Therapeutics Inc. (a US based pharmaceutical company from Seattle, USA). Since 2008 he went back to the regulatory system as an expert to the Portuguese national regulatory authority in medicines (INFARMED), and since April 2009 as a member of the newly formed Ad-hoc expert group in Nanomedicines of the European Medicines Agency. Both mandates were suspended on June 1st (2011) to start a consultancy company (ROGÉRIO SÁ GASPAR – PHARMA CONSULTING, UNIPESSOAL LDA).

Rogério Sá Gaspar has been involved in the Nanomedicine coordination activities of the European Science Foundation (ESF) as expert or group member also as co-chair in different editions of the European Research Conference.

Rogério was elected (June 2009) as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and more recently (June 2011) as Vice-President of EUFEPS. He was also member of SAB at EPSRC (UK) Platform in Nanomedicines (2007 and 2008), has been member of the EAB of EuroNanoMed (ERA-NET) (2009) and he is member of the SAB at CIBBER-BBN (2010).