Dr. Qiang Gu is a researcher of the Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, US Food and Drug Administration. He studied biology/biophysics at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. Then, he completed his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. Dr. Qiang Gu conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and served as an assistant professor in many places, such as the Brain Research Center at the University of British Columbia, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, etc. He has published over 70 papers in various journals, receiving more than 2000 citations. Furthermore, he serves as a review editor for international journals such as Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience. He is also a member of the Society for Neuroscience and Society of Toxicology since 1991 and 2013, respectively. His research interests include elucidating and identifying signaling molecules associated with neurodegenerative disorders and neurotoxicity.

Dr. Jyotshna Kanungo is a senior investigator and lead scientist at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She earned her M.S., M. Phil, and Ph.D. studies in zoology (specializing in biochemistry and developmental biology) from Utkal University, India. She has years of experience in this research area. Before joining the FDA, she used to work as a scientist in many places such as the Marine Biological Laboratory (1994–1996), Georgia Health Sciences University (1990–1997), Stony Brook University (1997–1998), Washington University School of Medicine (1998–2000), National Institutes of Health (2000–2009), and at her current place since 2012. She has published over 60 papers in various journals and has been an invited speaker at many events, including the CHI World Pharma Congress, the 2nd International Meeting on Advanced Studies on cell signaling network (CeSiN), etc. Moreover, she is as an editorial board member for several journals, including PLoS One and Scientific Reports. Her research interests cover the areas of cellular and molecular aspects of neuronal development/degeneration, cell signaling, stem-cell differentiation, and developmental toxicology.