A/Prof Lana McClements is a qualified Clinical Pharmacist with a PhD in Molecular Therapeutics from Queen’s University Belfast, UK. She is currently an Associate Professor and a Heart Foundation Future Fellow at the Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. She leads the Cardio-Obstetrics Research group that is focused on developing better monitoring and treatment strategies for preeclampsia and building advanced 3D bioprinted and multicellular models of placental, vascular and heart tissue. She made seminal discoveries in preeclampsia prediction and diagnosis attracting >300K commercialisation funding and co-founded a spin-out company for high-risk pregnancies. In 2022, she received a prestigious Reproduction Emerging Research Leader Award by the Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB, 2022) in New Zealand. In 2024, she was selected as a member of the Preventative Cardiology Council of the CSANZ. At UTS, she chairs Science Inclusion, Diversity and Equity committee.

Zhiwei Shen is a third-year PhD student at Macquarie University. His research focuses on nasal airway airflow and drug particle deposition via the nasal route using a combination of research techniques that includes computational modelling, and laser diagnostics techniques to investigate the fluidisation behaviour of fine particles, and their deposition mechanisms using optical coherent tomography. To date, he has published three peer-reviewed papers on nasal airway particle deposition, contributing to an understanding of deposition dynamics in respiratory drug delivery.

Dr Claire Richards is a Lecturer in Biotechnology at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr Richards was awarded her PhD in Medical Science in 2024 following investigations into pregnancy complications and the development of 3D cell models of early pregnancy placental tissue.

2018–2024: B.S in Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences 2024–present: Doctoral course student, Graduate School of Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences 2025–present: JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1)

Dr. Tokio Morita is a researcher at the Division of Drugs, National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS), Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmacy from Keio University in 2021, where he studied food–drug interactions involving intestinal transporters. After working at Taiho Pharmaceutical in a pharmacokinetics laboratory, he joined NIHS in 2022. His current work focuses on regulatory science, particularly the development of in vitro methods for evaluating the bioequivalence of generic drugs. His recent studies include the impact of pharmaceutical excipients on drug permeability, the use of organoids for predicting intestinal absorption, and the in vitro assessment of nasal spray bioequivalence.

Ashutosh Kumar Pandey is currently pursuing his PhD in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Manipal, where he has developed a robust expertise in drug development and animal models, with a particular focus on the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement). He holds two patents—one Indian and one German—and has published three research articles. Throughout his research journey, Ashutosh has been selected for various government-funded workshops, reflecting his commitment to advancing scientific knowledge. During his PhD, he has received two travel grants to present his research at national and international conferences. Presently, he is engaged in an industry-funded project, further broadening his research experience. Additionally, Ashutosh has worked at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), where he contributed to herbal drug discovery. His diverse achievements highlight his dedication to pharmaceutical innovation and his growing reputation in the field of drug research and development.