Drug Efflux Pumps in Cancer Resistance Pathways: From Molecular Recognition and Characterization to Possible Inhibition Strategies in Chemotherapy

Dr. Alejandro Sosnik received his Pharmacy degree from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Buenos Aires in 1994, after two years as junior research scholar of the University of Buenos Aires in the field of organic chemistry (1993-1995). In early 1997, he moved to Israel where after obtaining the pharmacist license, he continued his graduate studies, receiving PhD in applied chemistry (polymeric biomaterials) from the Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 2003) under the supervision of Dr.Daniel Cohn. In 2003-6, Dr.Sosnik undertook postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Professor Michael Sefton (Institute of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry/Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada) working in the development of hybrid matrices for cell culture and tissue engineering. Between 2006 and 2013, Dr. Sosnik was Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry (University of Buenos Aires) and Investigator of the National Science Research Council of Argentina. Owing to its multidisciplinary background and expertise at the interface of drug research and development and polymeric biomaterials, in late 2013, Dr.Sosnik was appointed Associate Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology where he founded the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Nanomaterials Science. His research focuses at the interface of drug crystallization and processing, polymer chemistry, biomaterials science, nanotechnology and microtechnology, drug delivery, and therapeutics. Dr.Sosnik is co-author of over 110 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, editorials and book chapters in areas of pharmaceutical research and development and innovation, and co-inventor in three patents and patent applications related to biomedical and pharmaceutical innovation.

Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

After obtaining a Bachelors of Sciences in Pharmacy and a Hospital Pharmacy Residency Program at the University of Montreal, Dr. Reina Bendayan completed a Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Florida and a three year Medical Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program in Clinical Pharmacology and Membrane Cell Biology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Bendayan’s research program at the University of Toronto is primarily focused on Membrane Transport and Therapeutics with an emphasis in the field of HIV/AIDS Antiviral Drug Transport and Regulation in the central nervous system. She obtained a five-year young career investigator award from the Ministry of Health of Ontario and her research program is primarily funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, Ministry of Health of Ontario. She is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has supervised many graduate students and post-doctoral research fellows. She is a member of several scientific associations, in particular, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (AAPS), International Blood-Brain Barrier Society (IBBS), International AIDS Society and Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS). Dr. Bendayan has been elected Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (November 2010) and the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (June 2015), and is the recipient of a five-year Career Scientist Award from the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, Ministry of Health of Ontario. Dr. Bendayan served as Graduate Coordinator (1998-2003), Chair and Associate Dean Graduate Education of the Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (July 2005-July 2011) and as Acting Dean of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy (January 2007-July 2007).

Professor, Leslie Dan School of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada