Prof Yuan Ping is a tenured professor and principal investigator at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Zhejiang University, China. His current research mainly focuses on biomacromolecular drug delivery for cancer immunotherapy, inflammatory diseases and gene therapy.

Miss Yao is currently a PhD student majoring in biomedicine at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, and her supervisor is Pro. Hua Yu. She obtained her bachelor and master’s degrees from Guangzhou Medical University and China Pharmaceutical University, respectively. Her research focuses on the development of nanoparticles-based drug delivery system for targeted and cellular delivery, with application in inflammatory diseases and tumors treatments. Her research findings have been published in journals such as Acta Biomaterialia, ACS Omega, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutical Science Advances. A Chinese patent (202410038968.7) has been developed, named preparation and application of chylomicron-biomimetic nanoparticles for protein drugs delivery.

Mai Khanh Linh Nguyen is a third-year PhD student at the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health, the University of Sydney. She completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) at the same institution in 2021 and is a registered pharmacist. Her research focuses on cholesterol transporters and the intracellular distribution of cholesterol, with a particular interest in Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) disease. Currently, she is involved in drug screening and discovery efforts aimed at identifying potential therapeutic candidates for NPC1 disease.

Rafia Ali studied a Bachelor of Pharmacy (with Honours) at the University of Sydney. Along with working as a registered pharmacist, she is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and a co-chair for the CRN PGSWG. The drug discovery initiative awarded her the Early Careers Research Award in 2023.

Dr. Ru Yan (燕茹) is a Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine & the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences at University of Macau, deputy director of Macao Centre for Research and Development in Chinese Medicine, member of the Expert Advisory Committee for the Evaluation of Chinese Proprietary Medicines in Macao SAR. Her research focuses on the host-gut microbiota coordination in metabolic homeostasis and xenobiotic elimination, specifically, the host UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs)-gut microbial β-glucuronidases (GUSs) axis and glucuronidation homeostasis, with aims to promote mechanistic understanding, early diagnosis, precision medicine and herbal medicine innovation for diseases such as colorectal cancer. Dr. Yan’s research has successfully attracted over 20 external/internal research grants. She has published about 100 peer-reviewed research articles in prestigious journals in drug metabolism, analytical chemistry, ethnopharmacology and microbiology.

Dr. Chunyan Liu is an Associate Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). Currently, she is a visiting fellow in the research group of Associate Professor Lana McClements at the School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her work focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of autophagy-regulated maternal-fetal immune homeostasis in preeclampsia pathogenesis. Actively engaged in academic communities, she serves as a member of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology and holds leadership roles in provincial immunology and reproductive health associations. She is also an editorial board member of Current Medical Science. Dr. Liu has secured competitive grants including sub-projects of China’s National Key R&D Program and National Natural Science Foundation grants, and has published over 10 SCI-indexed papers as first/corresponding author in journals such as Cell Proliferation, Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology, Frontiers in Immunology, etc. in the past five years.