Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Alabama, USA;Dr. Yuping Bao is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Department Head for the Graduate Program in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from East China University of Science and Technology and studied M.S. in Physics at Tongji University in Shanghai, China. She earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Washington. Following two years of postdoctoral research in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology at Los Alamos National Laboratory, she joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Dr. Bao’s research focuses on the rational design and development of nanosystems for drug discovery and drug delivery, with an emphasis on developing nanomaterials and analytical approaches for biomedical applications. She has received several prestigious honors, including an NSF CAREER Award. She also served as a meeting chair for the 2019 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting. Dr. Bao currently serves as an Associate Editor for Inorganic and Nano-Metal Chemistry.

Department of Life Sciences and Coimbra Chemistry Center (CQC-IMS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal;Carlos F.G.C. Geraldes is a retired Full Professor at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra. He graduated in Chemistry from UC in 1972 with an average grade of 19 out of 20. He began his research in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in 1968, under the supervision of Prof. Victor Gil. He obtained his PhD (D.Phil.) in 1976 from the University of Oxford, in the area of Bio-inorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. R. J. P. Williams, FRS. He was a visiting professor and researcher at several foreign universities, with grants, for example, from the Fulbright Foundation (USA). He is the President of the NMR Section of the Portuguese Chemical Society and a Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. He has been a Principal Investigator and Collaborator in approximately twenty national and international research projects. He has supervised 25 PhD students. He is the author or co-author of 338 peer-reviewed research articles, one book and 25 book chapters, 230 oral presentations, more than 200 poster presentations at national and international conferences, and 65 seminars at national and international universities and companies. He was the guest editor of issue number 27 of the book series "Metal Ions in Life Sciences" dedicated to contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He has received several awards, including those from the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Foundation for Science and Technology, the "António Xavier" award and the “Frausto da Silva” award. His current research focuses on contrast agents for MRI and nanosystems for molecular imaging and theranostics. ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0837-8329; Scopus Author ID: 35477589200: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorid=35477589200, 11,099 citations, h factor = 55; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=j__EOhMAAAAJ&hl=en, 14746 citations, h índex = 65, i10 index = 288

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, USA;Drazen Raucher, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He earned his PhD in molecular biophysics from Florida State University and completed postdoctoral training in cell biology at Duke University. His research focuses on the design and development of targeted drug-delivery systems, particularly genetically engineered elastin-like polypeptides. His laboratory develops ELP fusion proteins, therapeutic peptides, and injectable hydrogels for the treatment of glioblastoma and other cancers. His group is also developing small-molecule therapeutic approaches for Huntington’s disease. This work aims to improve intracellular and central nervous system delivery, enhance drug accumulation in diseased tissues, and reduce toxicity to healthy tissues. Dr. Raucher’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense and has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications and patents in targeted therapeutic delivery.