2^nd World Congress on Diabetes and Pediatric Endocrinology September 25-26, 2023 Paris, France

Thomas S. Helling MD is Professor of Surgery and Chief, Division of General Surgery of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Helling is originally from Kansas City, MO. He completed his residency at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine and also completed a transplant fellowship at University of Colorado in Denver. He has held several surgical positions in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Missouri. At the University of Missouri – Kansas City, Dr. Helling was Associate Director of the Surgical Research Laboratory. Dr. Helling has a long interest in and commitment to surgical education, serving as surgery program director at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, and, currently, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He is a member of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. His research interests were mechanisms of liver failure following subtotal hepatectomy. After leaving the University of Missouri – Kansas City Dr. Helling was the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, PA where he was also adjunct Professor of Surgery at Temple University. Dr. Helling’s clinical focus is and has been hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and has established international connections with Hanoi, Vietnam and the Centre Hepatobilare, Hopital Paul Brousse, Paris, France.

Dr. Helling is currently focusing on clinical trials for neoadjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer and exploring mechanisms involved in the initiation and identification of chronic pancreatitis and dysplastic pancreatic ductal lesions.

Dr. Draganov is Professor of Medicine and Director of Endoscopy at the University of Florida, College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Dr. Draganov clinical interest is in advanced therapeutic endoscopy including endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), cholangioscopy, endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and deep small bowel enteroscopy. His research interests are in the areas of outcomes research and new technology evaluation.

Dr. Jiazhi Sun has been trained in the field of basic medical science and molecular biology and received M.D. degree from Peking University in 1986. After completing his residency and fellowship training at Peking University in 1990 and graduate studies on targeting Q-binding protein into yeast mitochondria at West Virginia University in 1994, he received two-terms postdoc training at the University of Pittsburgh and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in the field of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Drug Discovery from 1994 to 2003.

Dr. Jiazhi Sun focuses on Ras and ER signaling study, HDL-Receptor RNA alternative processing, and K-Ras, GPCR, BH3 protein and VDR/ER drug discovery targeting by utilizing Target-Guided Synthesis (TGS) approach and conventional intervention. Dr. Sun has more than 18-year professional experience in academic field including Drug Discovery, Signal Transduction, Apoptosis, Cancer Biology and Cardiovascular field, also leading collaborative Institutional and Pharmaceutical Industry rational design/targeted-therapeutic approach and development of FTI, GGTI and Kinase inhibitors (tyrosine, serine/threonine and sphingosine) and nuclear hormone receptor mimics as well as BH3-mimics as drug candidates and “Chemical-Genetics” tool/model. Since 1994, he has been involved in multiple programs yielding two U.S. patents, more than 30 peer-reviewed papers, book chapter, numerous awards including AFLAC Scholar in Cancer Research Award sponsored by American Association of Cancer Research and more than 30 scientific professional presentations.

Dr. Zhou received his MD degree in China on 1986 and his PhD degree in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin on 1996. He did his post-doctoral training in cancer research, particularly in metastasis, in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) on 2002 and 2005, respectively. Currently, Dr. Zhou is an associated professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. His research program is supported by NIH, DOD, Susan Komen Foundation and Mary Kay Ash Foundation.

Dr Zhou research interest is on Metastasis, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). He is currently focusing on characterization of the functional role and regulation of Snail/Slug transcription factors in the control of EMT. Snail is a zinc-finger transcriptional repressor that was identified in Drosophila as a suppressor of the transcription of shotgun (an E-cadherin homologue) in the control of embryogenesis. Flies and mice without Snail are lethal because of severe defects at the gastrula stage during development. Expression of Snail correlates with the tumor grade and nodal metastasis of many types of tumor and predicts a poor outcome in patients with metastatic cancer, particularly pancreatic cancer . They were employing biochemical, molecular, and cellular approaches to study the functional regulation of Snail in breast cancer.

Dr. Aram N Demirjian is an Assistant professor of clinical surgery, Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreas Surgery from the University of california. His has completed his fellowship from John Hopkins Hospital in the Department of Surgery. He has completed his Internship and Residency from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and has completed medicine from Boston University School of Medicine. He has certification from American Board of Surgery.

Dr. Aram N Demirjian research interests are Liver and renal disease, Split liver transplantation, Colorectal liver metastases, Pancreatic cancer, Islet cell transplantation.

Dr. Offir has completed his MD degree in Rome, Italy in 2005, and right thereafter started surgical training at the Rambam Health Care Campus, in Haifa, Israel. Academic appointments include a lecturer in surgery and Head of the surgery teaching program, Nursing faculty, University of Haifa and the Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa, Isarael. He is an active member at the American College of Surgeons, Israeli Medical Association and the Israeli Surgical Association, and appointed as a reviewer for many international Journals.

Dr. Offir main research interests are pancreatic disorders and cancer. Currently he is a research fellow at the Department of Surgery, at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School.

Rainer Gruessner was Chairman, Department of Surgery. He was Director at HepatoPancreaticoBiliary Center and Chief, Division of General Surgery. He is Professor of Surgery and Immunology. His clinical speciality is Abdominal transplants, general surgery - including surgery for chronic pancreatitis, Surgical oncology - Liver, bile duct and pancreatic tumors.

Rainer Gruessner research interests are on surgical and transplant options for patients with end-stage liver, pancreas, kidney and intestinal failure from benign and malignant diseases, Pancreas, islet and kidney transplantation for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and its secondary complications, Chronic pancreatitis and islet transplants, Pancreas and liver cancer, Risk analysis and quality control of benign and malignant disorders of the pancreas, liver, and intestine,Tolerance induction using donor-specific cell augmentation.

He persued his Postdoctoral training fromYale University, USA. He completed his Ph.D from Andhra University, India. He completed his M.S from Andhra University, India He did his B.Sc from Andhra University, India. Currently he is the Professor and Co-Director of Georgia Cancer Coalition.

His resaerch interests include- cancer and its propertries.

Dr. Sarkar is currently a Distinguished Professor, Departments of Pathology and Oncology at Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Sarkar’s early research, which still continues, is focused on understanding the role of a “master” transcription factor and the regulation of its upstream and downstream signaling molecules in solid tumors, and focusing on tumor microenvironment. Moreover, his research has been directed toward elucidating the molecular mechanism(s) of action of “natural agents”, their synthetic analogues, and other synthetic small molecule inhibitors of Bcl-2 and MDM2 for cancer prevention and therapy. The discoveries from in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies led to the design and execution of multiple Phase I/II clinical trials in breast, pancreas and prostate cancer for assessing the effects of several “natural agents” in the alterations of biomarkers as well as some early clinical efficacy testing. Dr. Sarkar’s research led to the concept of chemo-sensitization of cancer cells by reversing their drug-resistance phenotype to conventional therapeutics (chemo-radio-therapy), and all of which has been focused on tumor microenvironment, which led to clinical trials conducted at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. The innovation of his basic science research has attracted clinicians to collaborate with him, which clearly documents his leadership in translational research. Dr. Sarkar’s collaborations with basic scientists and physician scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center led him to become a project leader for the Pancreas Cancer SPORE grant of MD Anderson Cancer Center under the leadership of Dr. James Abbruzzese, and Dr. Sarkar also served as a co-investigator for the University of Michigan Head and Neck Cancer SPORE grant.

Dr. Sarkar’s expertise in the field of cancer biology , cancer drug discovery, experimental therapeutics, medicinal chemistry, molecular mechanism of tumor aggressiveness with the tumor microenvironment, pre-clinical model research and conducting clinical trials. In addition, his experience is worth noticing in leading basic and clinical scientists to translate discoveries to early phase investigator-initiated clinical trials. Lastly, Dr. Sarkar’s activities clearly document his leadership expertise, and he really earned his well-deserved national and international stature in cancer research and drug discovery specifically focusing on conditioning the tumor microenvironment

Dr. Krishnaswamy is the professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Quillen College of Medicine, USA. He has been the attending physician and consultant in many hospitals such as Niswonger Children’s Hospital, Johnson City, TN. He did his education from Madras medical college, India. Then after moved to USA for his post graduate training. Moreover in 2011 he was awarded by Physicians Choice award for “compassionate Care”.

Dr. Krishnaswamy research interests are on allergy, Overlap rheumatology, Clinical immunology/Dermatology, Drug desensitization, IgE and IgM deficiency, Effects of exercise on immunity and T Reg function, Quinolone-induced tendon rupture: case series, Humoral immune deficiency in veterans and translational studies of childhood and Adult immunodeficiency .

Dr. Jaime Aranda is a Medical Director of Outpatient Liver Clinic at College of Medicine in University of Cincinnati and he is a Medical Director in Liver Transplant Medicine. He is working as a Senior Associate Consultant and Assistant Professor of Medicine in Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Jaime Aranda research interests are on Nutrition and liver disease, bone disease in transplantation, non-alcoholic liver disease, pancreatitis, obesity and transplantation, outcomes research in liver transplantation and Hepatitis C post liver transplantation.

Marino De León In 1980 he was the Research Assistant in University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Then after from 1987-1990 he was the Postdoctoral Scholar from Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California. From 1990-1993 he was the Staff Fellow, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. From 1993-pres Assistant, Associate and full Professor (Tenured), Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA. From 1998-2001 Director, Research Apprenticeship for Minority Students Program (RAMP). From 2000-present Program Director, LLU-NIH Initiative for Student Development Program. From 1999-2006 Associate Director, Center for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy. From 2001-present Director, Office of Student Development in the Biomedical Professions. From 1999-present Director, Center for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy DNA Core Facility. From 2006-present Founding Director, Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine.

Marino De León is interested on Neuronal injury and nerve regeneration/degeneration, Lipotoxicity and roles of fatty acid binding proteins in the nervous system with emphasis on FABP5, Health disparities, Peripheral neuropathy and trauma in the nervous system and Academic interventions that increase diversity and inclusion in higher education