Since March 2012 Professor Thomas Rades (TR) is the Research Chair in Pharmaceutical Design and Drug Delivery at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that he has been the Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the National School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, New Zealand (2003 – 2012). In 1994 he received a PhD from the University of Braunschweig, Germany for his work on thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystalline drugs. After working as a Research Scientist in the Preclinical Development and Formulation at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, he became a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Otago in 1999 and since 2003 held the Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Professor Rades has developed an international reputation for his research in the physical characterization and formulation of drugs and solid dosage forms as well as lipid-based drug delivery systems. He has published more than 550 papers with over 34,000 citations (h-index 97) in international peer reviewed journals as well as 17 book chapters, 13 patents and 3 books. TR is the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. He holds honorary doctorates of Åbo Akademi University, Finland and Helsinki University, Finland, and an honorary professorship at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS, UK), a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientist (AAPS, US), a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Chemistry and a member of the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society (CRS, US). TR has successfully supervised more than 90 PhD students. His research interests include The solid state of drugs and dosage forms, and lipid-based drug delivery systems. His research improves drug therapy through appropriate formulation and characterization of medicines and increases our understanding of their physico-chemical properties.

Jocelin Chan – PhD, B. Pharm (1st class honours) is a research associate at the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy. She is also a practicing community pharmacist and a pharmacy owner. Jocelin’s research interests include drug-herb interactions; the use of Annona muricata (Graviola) in people living with cancer; quality use of complementary medicines, and the quality of herbal medicine products. She contributes to the development and review of monographs to resource healthcare professionals with evidence-based knowledge about drug-herb interactions. Her recent research includes evaluating the safety and tolerability of a herbal product (Annona muricata) through a clinical study in collaboration with Concord Cancer Centre, Sydney Australia.

Tom earned a Master's in Biochemistry from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 2013 and has since worked in translational research labs worldwide. For the last few years, he has been assisting in clinical trials related to acute leukemias at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Tom joined Elita in early 2025 where he has been leading the development of cell-based therapies using adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells from dogs. Elita is Australia's only stem cell bank for pets and Tom's presentation will highlight how extracellular vesicles (EVs) from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) could serve as biomarkers for longevity in canines.

Associate professor Thuan Thi Minh Nguyen obtained Master's degree in pharmacy with specialization in drug quality control - Toxicology from University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (UMP) in 2007. In 2015, she obtained Doctor’s degree in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences from Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels in Belgium. She is currently senior lecturer and deputy head of Department of Biochemistry at Faculty of Pharmacy – UMP, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. She has more than 52 publications on biochemistry, toxicology, and clinical biochemistry.

Dr. Yoshimichi Sai is Professor and Director of Department of Hospital Pharmacy, Kanazawa University. He received his B.S. (1989) in Pharmaceutics and his M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1994) in Biochemistry from the Kanazawa University. He is a faculty member of Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University. Prof. Sai is the (co)-author of more than 200 research articles, reviews, book chapter, 150 invited lectures and more than 500 abstracts presented domestic and international conferences. He was awarded the Young Investigator Award, Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics in 2004, the Young Investigator Award 2002 of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, Hokuriku branch and the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences Award. He is one of the Vice President of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences.