Sergey Leonov received his MD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Russian State Medical University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from The D.I. Ivanovskii Institute of Virology in 1991. He has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery in Biotech and global pharmaceutical companies. He focused on Oncology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology. Now, he is a Principal Scientist in the Laboratory of personalized radio-chemotherapy at the Institute of Future Biophysics, Dolgoprudny, Russia. His research interests mainly focus on Cancer Stem cell radioresistance, DNA damage and repair, Mechanobiology of cancer, and Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration/ neuroinflammation/cancerogenesis.
Margarita Pustovalova received her Ph.D. in Biology. She is a Researcher at the Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center. Her research interests mainly focus on oncology, non-small cell lung cancer, DNA damage, and repair; ionizing radiation; cancer stem cells; radioresistance; and polyploid/multinucleated giant cancer cells.
Yulia Merkher obtained her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, specializing in mechanobiology. Following her doctoral studies, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, focusing on biophysics. Currently, she serves as the Head of Educational Laboratories in Biomedical Engineering at Technion. Merkher's research interests encompass biomaterials, biomedical engineering, biomechanics, bioinformatics, cancer metastasis, rheology, and cancer cell biology. She has extensive experience publishing in leading journals, presenting at international conferences, and holds several patents. Her current research investigates how biomechanical forces and intracellular processes influence cancer growth, metastasis, and response to therapy. Merkher's visionary approach aims to translate fundamental insights into tangible clinical applications, ultimately aiming to improve patient outcomes.
