Profiles

Ding Wen (Roger) Chen has received his BSc from the Biomedical Science program at the University of Waterloo. After finishing his undergraduate studies, he continued with his education at the UW School of Pharmacy as a PhD student in the Foldvari Research Group. His project focuses on examining the cellular and molecular interactions in the retina under glaucoma-inducing conditions. The study aims to identify neuroprotective/ neuroregenerative properties that could be applied using gene therapy to impede the progression of glaucoma and also to promote the restoration of lost vision.

Dr. Marianna Foldvari is the Canada Research Chair in Bionanotechnology and Nanomedicine and a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. Dr. Foldvari’s expertise is in pharmaceutics, dosage form and drug delivery system design (dermal, transdermal, transmucosal, ocular, intranasal, injectables and needle-free) nanotechnology, non-viral delivery methods and vaccine development. She has over 20 years of experience as an academic researcher and in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry through technology transfer activities. Her research program is focusing on non-invasive drug delivery, gene therapy and pharmaceutical development of nano-enabled products.

Marjan received her BSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Shiraz School of Science, Iran. she really enjoyed doing research in biological and medical sciences, so she decided to continue her education in Immunology. She completed MSc and PhD degrees in Immunology in the School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. In 2006, she was awarded a one year research scholarship from Iran's Ministry of Health and Education to do research in one of the most prestige immunopharmacology labs, directed by Professor Carlo Riccardi, at the department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Perugia University, Italy.

Antoine joined the group in September 2020. He has a BSc Degree in Pharmacy from Al-Hawash Private University, Homs, Syria and a MSc Degree in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry from Aleppo University. He studied nanoparticles in antibacterial, analgesic and wound healing applications.

Nafiseh graduated with an HBSc in Cell and Molecular Biology with a specialization in Microbiology from Azad North-Tehran University, Iran. She worked for 5 years at Pasteur Institute of Iran, in the departments of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology as a research scientist. In 2009, she completed her MSc in Biology from University of Waterloo and investigated the effects of obesity on the progression of colon cancer and liver disease by checking the apoptotic genes expression levels in rat model of obesity.

Lokesh graduated from Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, Chennai, India with a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy in 2011. He also holds a Master of Pharmacy degree with specialization in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, India.