Dr. Muhammad Shoaib Akhtar is a Scientist at the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of California Davis. He completed his M.Phil in Molecular Pathology and Cytogenetics at the University of Health Sciences Lahore and his PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Tokyo. He was awarded the Best-of-the-Best Graduates Award at the University of Health Sciences Lahore for his M.Phil and a Prestigious Fellowship of the University of Tokyo for his PhD. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science in the United Kingdom and a member of the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine in Ireland. He recently led an investigation to understand olfactory loss in COVID-19 disease. He has published a number of papers in various journals and serves as an Academic Editor at PLoS ONE. His research interests include chemosensory receptors, natural selection, olfactory dysfunction, and rare diseases.

Shoji Kawamura is a Professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Department of Integrated Biosciences, Laboratory of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Tokyo. He received his BS in 1986, his MS in 1988, and his PhD in 1991 in Anthropology from the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo. In 1996, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo. In 1999, he worked as an Associate Professor at the Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo. In 2010, he became a Professor at his current affiliation. His research is focused on evolutionary genetics in color vision and chemical sense in primates including humans.