Prof. Sanjay Balkrishna Maggirwar is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biochemistry from Marathwada University, Aurangabad, his PhD in Molecular Microbiology from Savitribai Phule Pune University, and his post-doctoral training at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania. His research focuses primarily on NeuroAIDS (neurological disorders caused by HIV impairment to the central and peripheral nervous system) and platelet-mediated neuroinflammatory responses to HIV infection, with a growing interest in HIV-associated non-AIDS defining cancers such as lymphoma. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed research articles and is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology.

Prof. Rabah Boukherroub is a Research Director at CNRS and Group Leader at the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN), University of Lille, France. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, and his research interests span nanostructured functional materials, surface chemistry, and photophysics of semiconductor and metal nanostructures, with emphasis on biosensors, nanomedicine, photocatalysis, and energy-related applications. He is a co-author of over 440 research publications and 31 book chapters on nanotechnology, materials chemistry, and biosensors, and holds 11 patents. He serves as Associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and as Co-editor in Chief of AI & Materials. His global collaborations span China, India, the Netherlands, and beyond.