From Dendrimers to Nanomedicine: Celebrating the 85th Birthday of Prof. Jean-Pierre Majoral

Prof. Xiangyang Shi is the Vice Dean of the College of Biological and Medical Engineering at Donghua University and a Distinguished University Professor. He has made pioneering contributions in the fields of nanomedicine, biomaterials, and targeted drug delivery, with a strong focus on developing advanced nanotherapeutic platforms for disease diagnosis and treatment. His research has significantly advanced the understanding and clinical translation of nanomedicine-based strategies. Prof. Shi has published extensively in high-impact international journals and is widely recognized for his academic leadership and influence in the field. He currently serves as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nanomedicine Therapeutics, guiding the journal’s development and promoting the dissemination of innovative research worldwide.

Dr. Evgeny Apartsin obtained his PhD in Bioorganic chemistry in 2014 in Novosibirsk, Russia. From 2014 to 2020, he had been working at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia, as a researcher, and then as a young scientists’ group leader. In 2020, he obtained a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship and joined the team of Jean-Pierre Majoral and Anne-Marie Caminade at the Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry in Toulouse, France. Since 2023, he is working at the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of Membranes and Nanoobjects CNRS/University of Bordeaux.

Dr. Xiaoxuan Liu received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Wuhan University and Aix-Marseille University in 2010, followed by postdoctoral training at the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille (CINaM) and the Center of Research in Cancerology of Marseille (CRCM), France. She was appointed as a Specially-Appointed Professor of Jiangsu Province in 2015 and recognized as a National Youth Talent of China in 2016. She is currently a Full Professor at the Center of Advanced Pharmaceuticals and Biomaterials, State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, and serves as Deputy Director of the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation as well as the Office of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Affairs at CPU. Her research focuses on dendrimer-based nanosystems for on-demand delivery of drug and nucleic acid therapeutics in precision medicine. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in high-impact journals including PNAS, Nature Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Journal of Controlled Release, and holds 10 national patents. She has also participated in 10 national and international research projects as PI or co-PI, and currently serves as Associate Editor of RSC Pharmaceutics and as a committee member of the Biophysical Society of China and the Chinese Society for Composite Materials.

Victoria Leiro holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). She is an Associate Researcher in the nBTT–nanoBiomaterials for Targeted Therapies group at i3S–Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto and INEB–Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica (Porto, Portugal). Her research focuses on the design and development of smart, versatile, and biodegradable dendrimers for nanomedicine and molecular imaging applications. She has pioneered the development of these dendritic platforms that have been subsequently investigated as delivery systems for a range of therapeutic nucleic acids targeting tissues such as the peripheral and central nervous systems, cartilage, and the intervertebral disc. More recently, Dr. Leiro has expanded her research toward the theranostics field, with a particular emphasis on the development of dendrimer-based contrast agents for computed tomography. Her current interests lie at the interface of nanobiomaterials design, molecular imaging, and precision medicine.

Dr. Luo is a Full Professor at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China. He received his PhD in 2009 from the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, where he subsequently served as an Assistant Professor. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah, USA (2009–2011), and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor in 2013 at Sichuan University. His research focuses on stimuli-responsive, biodegradable, and functional synthetic macromolecules for cancer theranostics, with an emphasis on elucidating structure–function relationships for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, 10 patents, and 4 book chapters, and has been supported by 12 competitive grants. He is a recipient of the Chang Jiang Distinguished Professor award (Ministry of Education of China) and the First Prize of the Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education of China.