Steven Laviolette, PhD
Dr. Steven Laviolette is a Professor in the Schulich School of Medicine, at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on the neurobiological and molecular mechanisms underlying various neuropsychiatric disorders and how cannabinoids, such as THC and cannabidiol, can differentially control brain pathways. Dr. Laviolette has been the recipient of numerous national and international research awards and currently serves on several Review Panels for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. He is a member of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran’s Health Research and is the former Chair of the Review Committee for the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.
Iwao Ojima, PhD
Dr. Iwao Ojima received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He joined the Sagami Institute of Chemical Research and held a position of Senior Research Fellow until 1983 after which he joined the faculty at the Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook first as Associate Professor, was promoted to Professor, Leading Professor, and now University Distinguished Professor. Dr. Ojima served as the Department Chair from 1997 through 2003 and has been serving as the founding Director for the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery from 2004, as well as the President of the Stony Brook University Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors since 2016. He has served as advisory committee members of the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. Dr. Ojima has published more than 480 papers and reviews in leading journals and more than l00 patents granted, edited 9 books. His awards and honors include Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, Emanuel B. Hershberg Award, the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame, ACS Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, Ernest Guenther Award from the American Chemical Society; The Chemical Society of Japan Award; Outstanding Inventor Award from the Research Foundation of the State University of New York; Elected Fellows of J. S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, The New York Academy of Sciences, American Chemical Society, and National Academy of Inventors.
Martin Kaczocha, PhD
Dr. Martin Kaczocha received his B.S. with honors degree in Pharmacology and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Stony Brook University. His graduate work culminated in the identification of fatty acid binding proteins as intracellular carriers for endocannabinoids. Dr. Kaczocha is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Stony Brook University. His research focuses on the role of fatty acid binding proteins in pain, inflammation, and cancer, and his laboratory is currently developing small molecule fatty acid binding protein inhibitors as therapeutics to treat chronic pain and prostate cancer.
Richard K. Porter, PhD
Dr. Richard K. Porter, is an Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin. Having received a B.A. (Moderatorship) and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Trinity and worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Cambridge (UK). He has been a lecturer and Principal Investigator in Trinity College Dublin since 1997, was elected for two terms as Head of Biochemistry from 2011-2017, and is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He is an editor of a leading Elsevier Journal in the field of Bioenergetics and is regularly invited to give lectures at Conferences, Universities and Research Institutes. He teaches many aspects of biochemistry to scientists, medical students, pharmacists at all levels within the University and is a recipient of a Provost Teaching Award. He is on the management committee of several International Scientific Societies, including the European Bioenergetics Conference, MITOEAGLE COST and the International Union of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (IUBMB) Nominating Committee. He is discoverer on the World’s First Nutrigenomic Product for Horses (EnerGene-Q10) and regularly participates in outreach projects.