Dr. Mariana G. de Oliveira is a pharmacist and researcher in the Stricto Sensu Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences at São Francisco University (USF, Brazil). Holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at University of Campinas (UNICAMP, 2017). Completed postdoctoral training in Pharmacology at UNICAMP, with international research experience at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—Harvard Medical School (2019) and the University of São Paulo (USP, 2023). Research focuses on experimental and general pharmacology, particularly in cardiovascular and urogenital diseases.

Dr Sellers has forged a distinguished academic career combining research and teaching at leading universities and hospitals in the United Kingdom and Australia. Focussing her research interests on the physiological and pharmacological function of the urinary bladder, she collaborates with clinical, academic and industry partners to better understand the lower urinary tract and the mechanisms underlying disorders such as overactive bladder function, to aid the future development of novel treatments. Complementing her research portfolio, Dr Sellers has taught at the undergraduate and postgraduate level at Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester prior to joining Bond University's Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine in 2009, where she is a member of the Centre for Urology Research.

Lori Birder, PhD is a tenured Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology/Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Lori completed her PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh followed by postdoctoral fellowships in Tokyo Japan and at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her research has been durably funded by the NIH with currently three R01 grants studying bladder dysfunction with stress/pain and aging with a focus on drug development. For example, Dr. Birder and her team discovered that the epithelial cells that line the urinary bladder lumen (uro-epithelium) exhibits ‘neuron-like’ properties. These properties include both a “sensor” function (i.e., expression of a number of sensor molecules that respond to temperature, mechanical and/or chemical stimuli) as well as a “transducer” function (release of various transmitters/mediators). Dr. Birder’s pioneering work on properties of bladder urothelial cells has opened a new field and led to the suggestion that the urothelium deserves more attention as a potential target for treatment of a number of urologic conditions. Dr. Birder has also investigated the impact of aging and bladder pain on cellular homeostasis, which is likely to involve mitochondrial damage and increased oxidative stress and altered purine metabolism. The most recent evidence has shown that targeting a single enzyme- PNPase- restores aging-associated purine dysregulation and resultant mitochondrial dysfunction/oxidative stress in cardiovascular, genitourinary, and ocular dysfunction in addition to peripheral neuropathies-suggesting that this treatment may be ‘geroprotective’. Lori has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and reviews, a member of several editorial boards/scientific societies and serves as Founding Editor-in-Chief for the open access ICS journal ‘Continence’.

Martin C. Michel is a physician trained in experimental and clinical pharmacology in Essen (Germany) and San Diego (California). He headed the Nephrology and Hypertension Research Laboratory at the University of Essen (Germany; 1993-2002), the Department of Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapy at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands; 2003-2011) and was Global Head of Product and Pipeline Scientific Support at Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany; 2011-2016). His current affiliations include being a Professor of Pharmacology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (Germany; since 2012) and being a Senior Partner at the Partnership for the Assessment and Accreditation of Science (PAASP, Heidelberg, Germany; since 2016). His research focusses on urogenital and cardiovascular pharmacology, where he has published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles cited >37,000 times yielding an h-index of 97. He is editor or serves on the board of many pharmacological journals including being the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Mol Pharmacol and Pharmacol Rev. Major distinctions were his election to the Academia Europaea (European Academy of Sciences), being named Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.