Harnessing Endogenous Mechanisms for Targeted Drug Delivery

Dr. D'Souza is a Research Fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, and is a Visiting Scholar at the Northeastern University, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Boston, MA. She earned her PhD (Tech.) in Pharmaceutics from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (ICT, formerly UDCT). Following her postdoctoral at IIT-Bombay, she served as a Research Formulation Scientist at Piramal Enterprises Limited, Mumbai. In this role, she contributed to projects achieving successful Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) approvals by the US FDA. Dr. D'Souza's research interests primarily revolve around colloidal drug delivery systems, viz., polymeric and solid lipid nanoparticles for enhanced bioavailability, controlled delivery and targeting. Additionally, she also explores nucleic acid delivery platforms for addressing CNS-related neurodegenerative disorders. She has published research papers and reviews in peer-reviewed journals, authored numerous book chapters, and co-edited a Springer-published book titled "Targeted Intracellular Drug Delivery by Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis?.

Dr. Lara Milane is Assistant Teaching Professor in Biotechnology at the Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. She is interested in Mitochondrial Medicine. She is working on developing nanomedicines for a range of diseases (cancer, neurodegenerative disease, aging) that manipulate mitochondria for therapeutic outcomes. Dr. Milane was trained as a National Cancer Institute/ National Science Foundation Nanomedicine Fellow at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Dr. Milane is an intuitive cancer biologist with research interests in developing translational nanomedicines that exploit the hallmarks of cancer. Mansoor M. Amiji is the Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. Dr. Amiji has edited a number of books and is a frequently published author. His research focuses on the synthesis of novel polymeric materials for medical and pharmaceutical applications, drug delivery systems and nanomedical technologies, and his contributions in research advising, grant reviews for various organizations and editorial work for journals are invaluable.