4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Obesity and Weight Management December 07-09, 2015 Atlanta, USA

Dr. David Stepp completed his PhD at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1993 and conducted postdoctoral studies at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine and the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is Professor of Physiology in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. He has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association for nearly 20 years and authored high-impact papers on the cardiovascular impact of obesity in Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of the American Heart Association and Hypertension. He serves on NIH Study Section VCMB as a charter member and on the editorial boards of Circulation, ATVB and the American Journals of Physiology. Dr. Stepp’s research interests are focused on identifying links between the altered metabolic states of obese individuals and their cardiovascular outcomes. Specific themes are understanding roles of insulin resistance, oxidant stress and muscle mass in impaired control of blood flow and arterial pressure. Understanding and ultimately breaking these links would allow new treatments for the cardiovascular disease so evident in obese, metabolically compromised populations.

Obesity,Diabetes,Regulation of cardiovascular during stress

Shuxia Wang completed her PhD from Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and postdoctoral studies from University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences at University of Kentucky and a Research Scientist in Lexington VA Medical Centers. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of obesity/diabetes associated metabolic complications including insulin resistance and cardiovascular and renal complications. Her research is supported by funding from National Institutes of Health and Veteran Affairs. She has published over 35 papers in high impact journals and has been serving as an editorial member for several journals such as Journal of Obesity and Journal of Diabetes and Metabolism.

Obesity associated complications,Diabetic Neuropathy

Professor Pouran Faghri is a medical doctor and an exercise physiologist, She is a Professor of Health Promotion Sciences within the Department of Allied Health Sciences and Director of the University of Connecticut Center for Environmental Health and Health Promotion. Additionally, she has joint appointments as Professor of Biomedical Engineering as well as Community Medicine and Health Care. Her expertise are in worksite health promotion programs, community health promotion programs, intervention strategies to reduce over weight and obesity, health promotion and secondary disability prevention, and evaluation of social determinant of health, self-care, self awareness, and decision making strategies under distressed environments. Professor Faghri’s research in obesity focuses on developing innovative intervention strategies to address overweigh and obesity at the workplace. She has used behavioral economics and contingency management as well as participatory approaches in weight loss and weight management at workplace. Her research has been continually funded by federal and private organizations. She is on the editorial boards of many journals and has more that 150 publications and presentations.

Health promotion design, intervention, and evaluation of work-site health promotion programs, health behavior intervention strategies, health promotion and secondary disability prevention (neuromuscular, musculoskeletal and psychological) in disabled and elderly populations, evaluation of social determinants of health, self-care, and self awareness.

Edita Stokić is a Professor of Internal medicine-Endocrinology, employed in the Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders of the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2005, she was appointed as Chief of Department. She is currently the Vice President of Serbian Association for the Study of Obesity and Chairman of the Continuing Education Board (Society of Physicians of Vojvodina of the Medical Society of Serbia). She is also President of the Internal Medicine Section, and (2002-2004) President of Endocrinology Section within same Society. Edita Stokić is an author or co-author of 390 scientific articles, and publications on obesity, dyslipidemias and diabetes. She has also published monograph Obesity is treatable disease.

Obesity

Prof. Ajay Kumar Mishra is currently working as Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also working as “Adjunct Professor” at Jiangsu University, China. Prof. Mishra is currently group leader of the research area for the composites/nanocomposites, water research and bio-inorganic chemistry. He has hosted several visiting researchers/scientists/postdocs in his group. Prof. Mishra has also developed a number of collaborations worldwide. Prof. Mishra has pursued PhD in Chemistry from Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. In 2006, he moved to the University of Free State, South Africa for Postdoctoral studies in the area of composites/nanocomposites. His research contribution includes many publications in international journals. He has delivered a number of including Plenary/Keynote/Invited Lectures. For his outstanding research profile, he was awarded a number of awards. Prof. Mishra also served as Associate Editor as well as member of the editorial board of many international journals. He has edited several books by the renowned publishers. He has been reviewing a number of international journals and member of a number of scientific societies.

composites/nanocomposites water research and bio-inorganic chemistry.

Andrea M. P. Romani, M.D., Ph.D. obtained his medical degree from the University of Siena, Italy and his Ph.D from the University of Turin, Italy. He completed his postdoctoral studies under Dr. Scarpa, in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Romani is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. He has published almost 90 peer review articles in high profile journals together with numerous invited reviews and book chapters. He is currently serving as an Editorial Board Member for Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Magnesium Research, World Journal of Gastro-Intestinal Physio-Pathology among others.

Obesity

JoAnn Manson is Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also Co-Director, Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, at BWH. Dr. Manson is an endocrinologist, epidemiologist, and Principal Investigator of several National Institute of Health-funded research studies, including the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Center, Boston site, since study inception; the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL); the Women’s Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study, and the cardiovascular component of the Nurses’ Health Study, among others. She is also one of the Principal Investigators of the KEEPS trial and the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamins Outcomes Study (COSMOS). Her primary research interests include the role of lifestyle and nutritional factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, effects of obesity on chronic diseases, the benefits and risks of estrogen therapy, vitamin D, omega-3s, and folic acid supplementation, and the effects of moderate-intensity versus vigorous exercise. She has received numerous honors, including the Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association, the American Heart Association’s Population Research Prize, the AHA’s Distinguished Scientist Award, election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and the 2013 Bernadine Healy Award for Visionary Leadership in Women’s Health. She served as the 2011-2012 President of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). She has published more than 800 articles and is the author or editor of several books. She was also one of the physicians featured in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibition, History of American Women Physicians.

Role of lifestyle and nutritional factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, effects of obesity on chronic diseases, the benefits and risks of estrogen therapy, vitamin D, omega-3s, and folic acid supplementation, and the effects of moderate-intensity versus vigorous exercise.

Charles Muscoplat completed his PhD, in 1974 from University of Minnesota with a major in Immunology and Microbiology, and later completed postdoctoral studies in immunology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. Dr. Muscoplat received his B.A. degree in 1970 majoring in Chemistry and minoring in mathematics. Dr. Muscoplat was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota in Veterinary Medicine from 1976 until 1981. Dr. Muscoplat spent nearly 20 years, from early 1981 until 1999, as the Vice President for Medical Affairs and Business Development at MGI Pharma, Inc., where he lead the research and development teams for gaining FDA approval for two commercial drugs; Salagen™ for treatment of xerostomia in head and neck cancer patients and also for treatment of xerostomia and sicca syndrome in patients with Sjogren’s Syndrome. Also at MGI, Dr. Muscoplat was responsible for business development and funding of research leading to the successful commercial development of commercial biotechnology-derived corn products for agriculture and for monoclonal antibodies for veterinary medicine. From 1999 until 2006 he was Vice President and Dean of the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota and he currently holds a McKnight Presidential Leadership Professor chair. He is Professor of Food Science and Nutrition and also is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Medical School. Dr. Muscoplat now conducts clinical research using transdermal vitamin d to bypass malabsorption disorders in Cystic Fibrosis patients. Dr. Muscoplat also currently teaches undergraduates.

Nutrigenomics Gene diet interactions Vitamin D

Sunil Mathur, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc., MBA, is a Professor at the Georgia Regents University. Dr. Mathur is the author of the book “Statistical Bioinformatics using R”, published by Academic Press, USA in 2010. Dr. Mathur is an academic editor of PLOS ONE, Special Issue Editor and Editorial Member of Journal of Translational Medicine & Epidemiology, Editorial Board Member of Global Journal of Medicine and Public Health, Editorial Board Member of Austin Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology, Associate Editor of International Journal of Statistics and Systems, and Global Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics and reviewer for several international journals. Dr. Mathur is a reviewer of grant applications for the Department of Defense and NIH. Dr. Mathur’s research interests are in both biostatistical applications and methodological development of biostatistics. His research interests include childhood obesity, cancer research, public health, nonparametric statistics, likelihood procedures, genomics, biostatistics, and epidemiology. Dr. Mathur is working in the area of pediatric obesity, the number of children who are overweight and obese is increasing rapidly world-wide, and the World Health Organization has declared obesity as one of the largest epidemics of modern times. In order to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity, there is a pressing need to understand the association among different factors (genetic and non-genetic) and childhood obesity. Dr. Mathur is working to establish the association of several factors and obesity among children and examine the moderating role of birth weight, race, and maternal smoking status during pregnancy.

Childhood obesity Cancer research Public health Nonparametric statistics Likelihood procedures Genomics Biostatistics Epidemiology

Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, MS, is Professor of Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Pediatrics, Director of the Systems-oriented Global Childhood Obesity Intervention Program at University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and Adjunct Professor in Johns Hopkins University and Peking University School of Public Health. Before joined UB he was the founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity, and was Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests focus on nutritional epidemiology, obesity, non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs), and health disparities. As an internationally-known expert, he has over 160 publications including over 130 peer-reviewed papers. His work is widely cited, eg, some papers >1000 times. Dr. Wang\\\'s research has been funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Agriculture, and other funding agencies. He is the principal investigator or a key investigator of over 10 ongoing research projects in the US, China and other international settings. As the PI, over the past 12 years, he has secured about $23 million NIH research grants. Dr. Wang has served on numerous national and international expert panels, review committees and leadership positions, including over 20 NIH and CDC grant review committees, a WHO Expert Committee to help develop a new international growth standard, the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). He also serves as a United Nations (UN) consultant, and as a member of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Task-Force on Diet, Nutrition and Long-term Health for the Quadrennium, 2005-2009. He was a Councilor of The Obesity Society (TOS) Pediatric Obesity Section, a member of TOS Annual Meeting Program Committee, and the Chair of the Nutrition Epidemiology Section of the American Society for Nutrition. He is an associate editor for four international scientific journals.

Nutritional epidemiology, obesity, non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs), and health disparities

Premanidhi Panda, M.D (MED), HON PhD IN DIABETES, MRCP, FRCP has completed his M.B.B.S at the age of 24 years from Berhampur University, India and postdoctoral studies, M.D(MED) from Utkal University School of Medicine. He is the director of Dr. Panda Diabetes Institute, India a premier Diabetes Hospital Cum Research Centre, India. He has worked in Tisco Hospital, India, Benghazi Medical (LIBYA) and Medwin Hospital with repute. He has been awarded as “India’s Best Doctor Award:-2013 (Diabetes)” by Medgate Today Survey. He has been awarded MRCP, FRCP by Royal College of Physician and Surgeon of America in the year 2011. He has published more than 26 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of repute. He has been awarded several National & International awards for his contributions.

Diabetes & Obesity

Sunita Dodani M.B.B.S (MD), MSc, FCPS, PhD, is a physician with training in Cardiology and cardiovascular epidemiologist. She is an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida(UF), Jacksonville, Florida with joint appointments in the Center for Health Equity and Quality Research (CHEQR), College of Medicine, UF and department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and health Professions, UF-Gainesville. She received her undergraduate degree from the Aga Khan University, one of the premier private universities in Pakistan. In addition, she also received Masters in Epidemiology from the Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, and PhD in Epidemiology (majors in cardiovascular disease epidemiology) from the University of Pittsburg, Pittsburgh USA. Her research interests are focused on health disparities related to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes in African Americans, Hispanics and South Asians. Dr Dodani’s future goal is to reduce health disparities and develop national level registries for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes for ethnic minorities. Dr Dodani is NIH funded and recipients of several extramural funding including NIH. Dr. Dodani has successfully completed several research projects in Pakistan as well as in the US that focused on the distribution and determinants of cardiovascular diseases in ethnic minorities. Her current focus involves profiling non-traditional and genetic cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors (particular emphasis on diabetes and dyslipidemias) in South Asian immigrants. She has worked with many ethnic minorities helping to reduce health disparities. For example Fit Body and Soul, Diabetes prevention program for African American churches was funded by NIH. Similarly HEALS-Healthy Eating and Living spiritually is hypertension control program modified from PREMIER and DASH studies for African Americans. In addition CHHIL study (Children’s Healthy Habits Integrated for Life) is a childhood obesity control program for African American kids. Dr Dodani received a National Gold Medal as Best Young Researcher of Pakistan in 2002, in addition to several awards for her achievements in this area. She also received the “Community Service Award” from the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks (ISHIB).” Dr. Dodani is a reviewer on several peer reviewed journals and has published more than 50 multi-disciplinary articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Her research interests are focused on health disparities related to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes in African Americans, Hispanics and South Asians

I did my graduation in 1981 & post graduation in 1986 both from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. I joined Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) in 1986 & I am currently working as Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology. I have a teaching experience of over 25 years, imparting knowledge to both under-graduates and post-graduate students. I have 72 publications in several national and international reputed journals. I have been invited at national, zonal, state level & regional platform as guest speaker (74 so far). I am coordinator of FOGSI quiz committee of north zone & Quiz in charge for UP chapter of OBG. I am a member of editorial board of Journal of UP Chapter of Obstetrics & Gynecology. My areas of interest include high risk pregnancy, emergency obstetrics care, minimal access surgery, NDVH, contraception & medical education. Presently, I am the co-coordinator of Medical Education Unit (MET) at JNMC, and I have been the co-coordinator since 2009. I have organized many workshops on MET. I always look for innovative ways of teaching and constantly strive towards excellence.

Obesity

John David is a vibrant university professor in SHIATS University, India, in the field of Food and Dairy Technology, having a teaching experience of 21 years. He is a passionate research worker having more than 87 research publication in his credit and guided 10 Ph.D. theses. He has written 7 books of national and international repute in the field of Food and Dairy Technology. His prime research area is Functional Food and Obesity Management. He has been bestowed with Young Scientist award in the year 2006 and has been honored with “Pride of the Nation” (Rashtriya Gaurav) and “Gem of Education” (Shiksha Ratan) award for his distinguished service to the nation in the year 2014.

Obesity

Chun Jiang is Completed Ph.D. Neuroscience Chinese Academy of Science 1988. Specializations Cellular, Molecular Biology and Physiology Neurobiology and Behavior and CBP/Cellular and Molecular Physiology and Neurobiology.

Chun Jiang interested in cellular physiology and neurobiology. Several areas of research are undertaken in this laboratory now. They are related to autonomic regulation of breathing and vascular tones. Using a multidisciplinary approach such as functional genomics, molecular biology, patch clamp, multielectrode arrays, in-vitro tissue/organ preparations, optogenetics, plethysmograph and in-vivo electrophysiology, we hope to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying normal cellular functions, and determinate how their dysfunctions cause diseases.