Keynote of the Conference

 

 

 

Keynote Speaker I

 

 

Prof. Kien Wen Sun

National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

 

Biography: Dr. Kien Wen Sun was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He holds a PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey, United States. From 1995-2000, he was on the faculty of the Electronic Engineering at Feng Chia University, Taiwan. He jointed the faculty of Department of Physics as a professor at National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, from 2000-2005. Since year 2005, he became a professor of Department of Applied Chemistry at National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. During his sabbatical in 2012, he was a visiting professor at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Sun was appointed as the Department Chair of Applied Chemistry at NCTU from 2012-2014. He is also currently a Joint Appointment Professor at Department of Elecronics Engineering and the Director of the Center of Nano Science and Technology at National Chiao Tung University. His research interests include femtosecond laser and laser spectroscopy in III-V compound semiconductors, spintronics, nanoimprint, nanolithography, nanoelectronics, nanodiamonds, thermal transport in nanostructures, organic/inorganic solar cells, and chemical sensor technology. He has published more than 100 journal papers in above research fields. He was awarded for the Prof. Rudolph A. Marcus Award 2016 by Publishing Division of Cognizure and LOGNOR. He has served as reviewers and editorial board members for numerous high-impact international journals. He is now a senior editor of Science Advances Today and a Fellow Member for Hong Kong Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society (HKCBEES).

 

Keynote Speech title: "A Review on Biological and Chemical Applications of Diamond Nanomaterials"

 

Abstract: Among the carbon based nanomaterials, diamond is known to be an outstanding material in terms of superior hardness and Young’s modulus, biocompatibility, optical and chemical properties. The nitrogen vacancy (NV-) color centers of nanodiamond lead the specific role in recent bio-imaging and biosensor studies. On the other hand, diamond nanoparticles can also act as an important carrier in many delivery systems. Furthermore, due to their outstanding opto-electronic and mechanical properties diamond nanoparticles (DNDs) have also grown its -state-of-the-art- platform in many emerging applications such as catalysis, energy transfer, semiconductors, solar energy conversion, chromatography and AFM Tips. This presentation outlined the important potential applications of the diamond nanomaterials.

 

 

Keynote Speaker II

 

 

Assoc. Prof. GAUTAM SETHI
National University of Singapore, Singapore

 

After completion of his postdoctoral training at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Gautam Sethi joined Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore in 2008 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. The focus of his research over the past few years has been to elucidate the mechanism (s) of activation of oncogenic transcription factors such as NF-kB/STAT3 by carcinogens and inflammatory agents and the identification of novel inhibitors of these proteins for prevention of and therapy for cancer. The findings of his research work have so far resulted in more than two hundred scientific publications in high impact factor peer reviewed journals (with h index = 67) and several international awards. He currently serves as an Academic Editor for PLOS, editorial board member of Scientific Reports, Pharmacological Research, Frontiers in Pharmacology, Frontiers in Oncology, and ad-hoc reviewer for several prestigious international journals.

 

Keynote Speech title: "Potential therapeutic application of tocotreinols for cancer treatment"

 

Abstract: Gamma-tocotrienol, a member of Vitamin E superfamily has attracted great attention of late for its anti-proliferative and anti-carcinogenic potential against different cancers. For example, our group has recently reported that anti-proliferative and chemosensitizing effects of g-tocotrienol are associated with its ability to suppress activation of signal transducers and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), a pro-inflammatory transcription factor that plays a pivotal role in the survival, proliferation, angiogenesis and chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the potential of gamma-tocotrienol to overcome chemoresistance in gastric cancer, which is one of the deadliest cancers in Asia-pacific region, has never been explored before. Hence, we investigated the efficacy of gamma-tocotrienol in combination with capecitabine to modulate tumor growth and survival in xenograft mouse model. Gamma-tocotrienol also inhibited expression of various oncogenic proteins, induced PARP cleavage and inhibited NF-κB activation in gastric cancer cells. In vivo studies using xenograft model of human gastric cancer demonstrated that gamma-tocotrienol alone suppressed tumor growth and this effect was further potentiated in conjunction with capecitabine. As compared to the vehicle control, gamma-tocotrienol further suppressed the NF-κB activation and expression of cyclin D1, COX-2, ICAM-1, MMP-9 and survivin in tumor tissues obtained from treatment groups. Additionally we noted, that gamma tocotrienol can function as a potent inhibitor of angigogenesis in both HUVEC and HCC cells. Overall our results suggest for the first time that gamma-tocotrienol can potentiate the effects of chemotherapy through modulation of multiple biomarkers of proliferation, and angiogenesis in diverse cancers.

 

 

Keynote Speaker III

 

 

Prof. Shen-Ming Chen

National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan

 

Biography: Prof. Shen-Ming Chen (h-index > 60) received his PhD degrees in chemistry from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. He was a visiting postdoctoral fellow with the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany in 1997. He joined Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taipei Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan in 1985. He had been an associate professor of Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taipei Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan from 1991 to 1997. Since August 1997, he has been a full professor of Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology. He has been the Dean (Curator) of library, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan from 2000 to 2006 and the Director of Extracurricular Activity, office of student affairs, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan from 1995 to 2000.
Prof. Shen-Ming Chen has published over 500 research and review papers in internationalSCI journals. Some of their papers have been selected as the most cited papers in theJournal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and Biosensor & Bioelectronics. He received threetimes Distinguish Professor awards. He also received three times Outstanding Research Award from National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan. He have edited or attended two books for NOVA publications titled “Nanostructured Materials for Electrochemical Biosensors” and “Biosensors: Properties, Materials and Applications” and contributed four book chapters.
His research interest includes nanocomposites, bionanomaterials, bionanotechnology, electrochemical biosensor, biosensors, bioelectrochemistry,, chemical materials, electroanalytical Chemistry, electrocatalysis and electroanalysis, photoelectrochemistry, metalloproteins, metalloporphyrins, nanotechnology, spectroscopic techniques, scanning probe techniques, quartz crystal microbalance, materials research, fuel cells, solar cell and photovoltaic cells.

 

Plenary Speaker

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Md. Eaqub Ali

University of Malaya, Malaysia

 

Biography: Dr. Md. Eaqub Ali is an Associate Professor of Nanobiotechnology in the University of Malaya. He received his BSc (Biochemistry) from Dhaka University, MSc (Chemistry) from Concordia University and PhD (Nanobiotechnology) from University Malaysia Perlis. His outstanding contributions include “CNT and Graphene Hybrids for Water Purification and “Multicomponent Systems for Food Security Detection”. Dr. Ali has produced 2 patents, 125 journal papers, 40 conference papers, 2 key notes and 18 invited lectures. He also won prestigious “Atlas” Award in 2015 from Elsevier for ground breaking research on desalination technology (Atlas Award: Quenching the world's thirst for seawater – Elsevier: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/atlas-award-quenching-the-worlds-thirst-for-seawater) and “ACS PressPacs” in 2016 from the American Chemical Society for outstanding research on food fraud detection (Frankfurter fraud: Finding out what's in your hot dog – American Chemical Society: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/ presspacs/2016/acs-presspac-august-10-2016/frankfurter-fraud-finding-out-whats-in-your-hot-dog.html). Dr. Ali also received many regional and national level awards such as BioMalaysia “Gold “and “Silver” Awards for 2011 and 2012. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, International Association for Food Protection, AOAC International, Malaysian Institute of Chemistry and Malaysian Nanotechnology Association.

 

Plenary Speech Title: "Multicomponent Systems for Food and Water Security: Making a Difference and Global Impact through Need Based Research"

 

Abstract: Many scientists do research but very few of them get recognized. Novelty is an important issue in scientific publications but it may not necessarily address the needs that we really needs. You might be successful in publishing in high impact journals but it does not warrant that it will make you known. You might have good citations but it may not make you the headline in World’s News. In fact, research that does not address needs and does not have applications in real-world do not have merit of making you known. The bottom line of recognition is how your research is going to address the needs of the real-world problems. Water and Food are two fundamental needs of not only human but also all the living beings on this beautiful planet. Global warming and money first pursuits are increasingly putting our water and food security at the riskier boundaries. This lecture will describe a multicomponent system that can ensure better security and safety standard of the water and food that are the blood line of our health and economic security. These researches have already impacted the world and we were awarded “Elsevier’s Atlas” in 2015 for ground breaking work on water security and ACS PressPac 2016 for food fraud detection.

 

Invited Speaker

 

 

Assoc. Prof. HAJIME HIRAO

City University of Hong Kong

 

Biography: Dr. Hajime Hirao received his BEng and MEng degrees from Kyoto University and his PhD from The University of Tokyo. He underwent his postdoc training at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Emory University, and Kyoto University. Prior to that, he worked for three years on computer-assisted drug design at the Novartis institute in Japan. Before joining City University of Hong Kong, he worked as faculty at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Over the years, he has been interested in computational and theoretical aspects of chemistry, especially chemical reactions. One of the major goals of his research is to figure out how difficult chemical transformations can be achieved using simple catalytic platforms built from earth-abundant elements.

Dr. Hirao’s research applies quantum chemistry, multiscale models, and many other computational chemistry techniques to a variety of complex molecular systems of practical importance such as transition-metal catalysts, metalloenzymes, drugs/drug targets, porous materials, and nanomaterials. Using computational approaches and often with experimental collaborators, his group seeks to derive key insights into chemical reaction mechanisms and bonding patterns of complex molecules, with the ultimate aim of designing new functional molecules and materials. He is also interested in developing new concepts and computational methods that may enhance our understanding of chemistry or improve the efficiency of computational analyses.

 

Speech Title: "Computational Studies of Chemical Reactions on Biological and Non-biological Catalytic Platforms"

 

Abstract: The physical principles used in computational chemistry underlie all branches of chemistry; as such, computational chemistry has unlimited potential to contribute to the advancement of fundamental chemistry in every different subdiscipline as well as to finding solutions to critical challenges that humankind faces today, such as healthcare and energy/environmental issues. With this in mind, our computational exploration of chemistry applies quantum chemistry, multiscale QM/MM and QM/QM approaches, and many other advanced computational chemistry techniques to a broad range of complex molecular systems such as metalloenzymes, transition-metal catalysts, drugs/drug targets, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and nanomaterials. In particular, using computational approaches and often with experimental collaborators, we seek to derive information about chemical reaction mechanisms and bonding patterns of these complex molecules. We are also developing efficient computational methods and algorithms, in the hope that our new computational methods will expand the capability of computational chemistry and thereby enable one to simulate the behavior of complex molecular systems with higher reliability and predictability in the future.