Session Speakers

Structural Biology: From Complex to Membrane-less Organelle

Molecular Mechanisms of DNA Repair in Bacteria

Marcin Nowotny

International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland

Marcin Nowotny heads the Laboratory of Protein Structure at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB) in Warsaw. He graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw in 1997. In 2002 he received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in the group of prof. Jacek Kuźnicki. Between 2003 and 2008 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland in the group of Dr. Wei Yang. Since 2008, Dr. Nowotny has been leading a group at the IIMCB. His research uses structural biology and protein biochemistry to study the mechanism of enzymes involved in nucleic acid processing. Recent major achievements of his group include elucidation of the mechanism of unique bacterial template- and priming-independent DNA polymerases with anti-phage activity, elucidation of the molecular architecture of RecFOR - a key complex in bacterial homologous recombination,  and determination of structure and mechanism of TnsB transposase from one of the most common bacterial transposons Tn7. Dr. Nowotny's group is also involved in several collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. For example, in collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, his group described how proteins bind phosphorothioate DNA with enhanced affinity. Marcin Nowotny is a member of EMBO and the Academia Europaea. In 2022, he received the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science - the highest award of its kind in Poland.

Decoding Molecular Plasticity in the Dark Proetome

Edward A. Lemke

Institue of Molecular Physiology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

Edward Lemke started his professorship for synthetic biophysics of protein disorder at the faculty of biology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in 2018 and was appointed as adjunct director at the Institute for Molecular Biology (IMB). Lemke is one of the leading experts in the field of intrinsically disordered protein research, as which he also led an Emmy-Noether-group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and won an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2015 as well as an ERC Advanced Grant in 2020. His team makes important contributions to the field by combining chemical, synthetic, biotechnological and cell biological expertise with high-resolution and single-molecule fluorescence measurements of protein plasticity. Lemke is the spokesperson of the DFG priority program for “Molecular mechanisms of phase separation” (SPP2191), the coordinated research Centre SFB1551 on “Polymer concepts in the Cell”. His research paves the way for interdisciplinary life science research in Mainz with his work on the “dark” (i.e. disordered) proteome and its impact on ageing.

Master of Cell Division: Structure and Assembly of the Kinetochore

Andrea Musacio

Max Planck Institue of Molecular Biology Dortmund, Germany

Andrea Musacchio (born 1964) graduated in Biology from the Tor Vergata University of Rome in 1990, working with Prof. Giovanni Cesareni on the development of phage display libraries. Musacchio later moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg to carry out his PhD work in the area of biochemistry and structural biology, supervised by the late Dr. Matti Saraste. After receiving his PhD title from the University of Heidelberg, Musacchio moved to the Harvard Medical School to work as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen C. Harrison, supported by Human Frontier Science Program and the American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowships. In Boston, Musacchio worked on the structural characterization by X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy of proteins implicated in trafficking of membranes and proteins in cells, including Clathrin and PI3 kinase. In 1999, Musacchio established his first laboratory at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, where he began investigating the molecular mechanisms of cell division using a combination of structural, biochemical, and cell biological methods. Cell division remains Musacchio’s main interest to these days. In 2011, Musacchio moved to Dortmund to direct the Department of Mechanistic Cell Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology. In 2012, he received an honorary professorship at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Musacchio authored approximately 160 research papers. He was elected EMBO member in 2009, was awarded three European Research Council grants (2009, 2015, 2021), received the DFG’s Leibniz Prize in 2020, and is an elected member of the German Academy of Science Leopoldina (2023). 

Cell Stress, Cell Senescence and Cell Death Desicions

Senescence and Targeted Senolysis

Vassilis Gorgoulis

Laboratory of Histology-Embryology, Molecular Carcinogenesis Group, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Dr. Gorgoulis is currently Professor and Director of the Department of Histology–Embryology, Medical School, National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He is also elected Chair and Professor of Clinical and Molecular Pathology, Medical School, University of Dundee; Adjunct Professor at the Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens; Honorary Professor, Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, UK; Visiting Professor, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, UK; and elected European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) member.Main research interests include: cancer biology; senescence and aging; DNA damage response and repair/genomic instability; cell cycle deregulation; development of machine learning algorithms to predict biological/drug responses. Prof Gorgoulis has 346 publications and >44,000 citations. He is among the Highly Cited Greek Scientists internationally, with h-index: 83. He counts >150 communications in international conferences and seminars, and contributed 14 chapters in international text-books. He received >30 awards/distinctions and is a reviewer in >60 peer-reviewed scientific journals (eg Nature, Cell, Mol Cell, Cancer Cell, EMBO J) and 30 National and International Funding programs (eg ERC reviewer and panel member; EMBO Young Investigators; Cancer Research UK).

Dying by Ferroptosis: Cellular and Intercellular Aspects 

Peter Vandenabeele

VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology Ghent, Belgium

Peter Vandenabeele performed his PhD at the Ghent University in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Prof. Walter Fiers (1990). In 1996, he became PI at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). Vandenabeele’s research group is part of the VIB Center for Inflammation Research (IRC) at the Ghent University (www.irc.ugent.be). His research activities focus on molecular mechanisms of cell death modalities (a.o. apoptosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis). These phenomena are studied in an integrated way at the level of biochemistry, cell biology and in disease models of inflammation and cancer. He has been promotor of 44 successfully defended PhD theses (1998-2023). Peter Vandenabeele has been founder and director of the Bachelor and Master program in Biochemistry and Biotechnology in the Faculty of Sciences at the Ghent University (2004-2012). He is Member of the Board of Governors of the Ghent University (2012-2014, 2018-2022, 2022-2026) and Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium (since 2012) (KVAB). He received several scientific awards such as FWO 5 yearly Excellence Award 2015, CDD Jürg Tschopp Excellence Award in Cell Death and Inflammation Research 2016, ICDS Excellence Award in Cell Death Research 2020, “highly cited researcher award” Cross-Field in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022; Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2023 (Clarivate Analytics); Best Scientist Award 2023 (Research.com). He has been president of the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO) (2015-2016) (www.ecdo.eu).

Enhancing Immune-medated Killing of Senescent Cells

Jesus Gil

Imperial College London, UK

Jesús Gil was born in Zaragoza, Spain. He obtained his PhD studying how the dsRNAdependent protein kinase induces apoptosis and activates NF-kB, in 2000 at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid. From 2000 to 2003 he worked with David Beach at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, where he screened for genes bypassing senescence, identifying CBX7. He investigated how this gene regulates the INK4/ARF locus and its implications in cancer in stays with Gordon Peters at the CRUK London Research Institute and Scott Lowe at Cold Spring Harbor. Since Nov. 2005 he has led the Senescence Group at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS) where his main interest is to understand how senescence is regulated and implemented and how it can be targeted therapeutically. To this end, they use different mammalian systems of senescence and a variety of strategies to perform functional screens. The ultimate end is to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling senescence and exploit them for therapeutic benefit. In 2008, Jesús was named an EMBO Young Investigator. He was tenured in 2010 and in 2011 obtained the EACR Cancer Researcher Award ’highly commended’. Since 2013 he has been a Professor at Imperial College where he heads the Department of Molecular Sciences at the Institute of Clinical Sciences. He is a named inventor on several patents on senolytics and has collaborated with different companies on the development of senotherapies.

Cancer Biochemistry

Metabolic Rewiring Driving Metastasis Formation

Sarah-Maria Fendt

KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Leuven, Belgium

Sarah-Maria Fendt is a Principal Investigator at the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and Professor of Oncology at KU Leuven, Belgium. Sarah has a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry from TU Munich and a PhD in Molecular Systems Biology from ETH Zurich. Sarah worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before starting her independent research program in 2013. Sarah’s lab is specifically interested in understanding the role of metabolism in driving metastasis formation and in defining the principles of metabolic regulation that enable cancer cells to communicate with and respond to their environment. Her team applies the powerful technologies of single cell and spatial multi-omics analysis in pre-clinical mouse models and patient samples to study this interplay between cancer cells and their metabolic environment during metastasis formation. The research of Sarah’s lab has been published in high impact journals including Nature and has been funded by multiple (inter)national grants and industry, which include ERC consolidator and proof of concept grants.  In 2020 Sarah has been awarded with the highly prestigious EMBO Gold Medal and was elected in 2022 as EMBO member. In 2023 Sarah received the Francqui-Collen prize (most important science prize in Belgium) and the 51st Léopold Griffuel award as well as the 2024 AACR Outstanding Achievement in Basic Cancer Research award.

A KEAP1-dependent Trade-off Between Migration and Ferroptosis Limits Melanoma Hematogenous Dissemination

Sirio Dupont

Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Italy

Sirio Dupont received a Master in Molecular Biology in 2000, and a PhD in Developmental Biology in 2004. During his postoc he identified new regulatory mechanisms in TGFbeta and BMP signal transduction, and characterized their role in frog and mouse embryos. In the last 15 years his group identified new mechanotransduction players, including the seminal identification of YAP/TAZ as mechano-regulated transcriptional regulators, the demonstration that force mechanostranduction is key for contact-inhibition of growth, and the finding that force mechanostranduction maintains liver organ homeostasis in mice. More recently, the group focused on metabolic traits regulated by the mechanical microenvironment, including the discovery of NRF2 as a novel mechano-regulated factor. From 2023 he is a Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Medical School of the University of Padua. He was awarded Clarivate Highly Cited Resercher in 2021 and 2022.

Fueling the Battle: Metabolic Insights into Cancer Progression and Theraputic Strategies

Jean-Ehrland Ricci

INSERM U1065, C3M, Bâtiment Universitaire ARCHIMED, Nice, France

Jean-Ehrland Ricci (DR1 Inserm, PhD, HDR) leads the "Metabolism, Cancer and Immune Response" (mCARE) team at Inserm U1065, the Mediterranean Center for Molecular Medicine Research (C3M), in Nice, France. He earned his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France, where he investigated Fas- and T-Cell Receptor-mediated apoptosis in human T cells. Following his PhD, he pursued postdoctoral training in Dr. Douglas R. Green's laboratory in San Diego, focusing on the metabolic regulation of both caspase-dependent and -independent cell death. In 2006, J-E Ricci was awarded an Inserm-Avenir grant, enabling him to establish and lead his own research team. His team composed of 10-15 persons, investigates how metabolism and metabolic enzymes regulate signaling pathways, cell death, and immune responses in lymphoma and lung cancer, bridging pre-clinical models and clinical studies. J-E Ricci's major accomplishments include demonstrating how chemotherapies and dietary interventions can modulate cancer cell metabolism and the anti-cancer immune response. He identified the first known E3 ligase in lung cancer cells involved in mitochondrial clearance (mitophagy) and elucidated its impact on cancer sensitivity to chemotherapies. Additionally, he revealed the critical role of the glycolytic enzyme GAPDH and of energetic metabolism in B and T cell lymphomagenesis and lymphoma progression during therapy in both mice and patients.

Decoding Cancer: Genetics and Epigenetics in Cancer

Deciphering the Epigenetic Code in Autophagy and Cancer

Sung Hee Baek

Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Genetics, Seoul National University, Republic of South Korea

Prof. BAEK is currently a Professor at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. Her research focuses on identifying novel epigenetic codes and regulators and determining their in vivo functions using mouse models. She began her academic journey as an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University (2003-2007). She was promoted to Associate Professor (2008-2012) and subsequently to Professor (2012-present). In 2020, she was elected as a Fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) and became an Advisory Member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology. Prof. BAEK has been honored with several prestigious awards throughout her career. These include the 4th L’OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award in 2005, the 12th Young Scientist Award from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation in 2009, the 11th Kyung-Ahm Prize in Arts & Sciences from the Kyung-Ahm Education & Culture Foundation in 2015, and the 65th National Academy of Sciences Award in the Natural Sciences Division from the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. She earned her B.S. degree in 1994, M.S. degree in 1996, and Ph.D. degree in 1999 from the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University, Korea.

Epigenetic Regulation of Cancer Therapy Response 

Tuğba Bağcı Önder

Koç University School of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey

Prof. Tugba Bagci-Onder is a professor at Koç University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey, working on molecular mechanisms of therapy response in cancers. Prof. Bagci-Onder graduated from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Turkey in 2002. She then earned her Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience at Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University, Boston, MA in 2008. She pursued her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA on the development of tumor-specific pro-apoptotic therapies in animal models of brain cancer. In 2012, she joined Koç University School of Medicine and established the Brain Cancer Research and Therapy Laboratory. Her work is supported by FP7 Programme-Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, TÜBİTAK, TUSEB, ICGEB, Royal Society-UK and Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM). Prof. Bagci-Onder is also a recipient of Barbara Talamo Trainee (2008), UNESCO-L’oreal Women in Science (2013), BAGEP (2014), Sedat Simavi Heath Sciences (2021), International Cell Death Society Rising Women in Science (2022), Eczacıbaşı (2023) and IBG Science Medal (2023) awards. Prof. Bagci-Onder is the Director of Koç University Graduate School of Health Sciences since 2024. She is also the MC member and WG leader for the COST Action “Net4Brain”. 

From Immunogenetics to Immunotherapy  

Yusuke Nakamura

Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Japan

Yusuke Nakamura was graduated from Osaka University School of Medicine in 1977 and spent five years as a postdoctoral fellow and a faculty member at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Utah. In 1989, he became Head of Biochemistry Department at Cancer Institute, Tokyo. In 1994, he was appointed as Professor at Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo and became Director of Human Genome Center in 1995. He also served as director of the RIKEN Center for genomic medicine (2005-2010). In 2011, he was appointed as Special Advisor to the Japanese Cabinet. In 2012, he moved to Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. In 2018, he returned to Japan as Director of Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program of Japanese Cabinet Office and then moved as a President, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition. For his accomplishment, he received many awards that include Medal with Purple Ribbon, Keio Medical Awards, Takeda Medical Award and Clarivate Citation Laureate.

Protein Life Cycle I: Dynamics of Protein Synthesis and Folding

Multi-protein Assemblies Orchestrate Co-translational Protein Processing and Folding on the Human Ribosome  

Irmgard Sinning

Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center, Heidelberg, Germany

The Hidden Language of Proteins: Allosteric Pathways with Gaussian Network Model

Türkan Haliloğlu

Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey

Türkan Haliloglu is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Polymer Research Center at Bogazici University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Bogazici University in 1992, after which she pursued postdoctoral studies at the Institute of Polymer Science, the University of Akron, in 1992/1993. Between 2002 and 2004, she made multiple research visits to the National Institute of Health in Frederick, Maryland. Prof. Haliloğlu's interdisciplinary work integrates engineering principles with physics, biology, and chemistry to uncover the fundamental mechanisms governing the functionality of biological molecules.  She has applied simplified models from polymers and statistical mechanics to understand the complexities of biological macromolecules and developed theoretical and computational methods to explore and characterize structural dynamics and allosteric interactions. She is a member of the Science Academy of Turkey.

Deciphering the Dynamics of the Diverging Co-translational Assembly Pathways

Ayala Shiber

Faculty of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

I am an Assistant Professor at the Biology faculty, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology since 2019. Our main research objective is to resolve the long-standing questions: How do cells direct their proteome to fold to their native, functional state and avoid misfolding diseases characteristic of aging. We are exploring the mechanisms guiding the translation, folding and assembly pathways. We are studying the role of the ribosome as a platform for coordinating complex assembly during synthesis, by advanced techniques combining biochemistry and deep sequencing such as selective ribosome profiling as well as super resolution microscopy. We are also developing tools for studying single molecule mRNA-protein interactions, in vivo. Academic degrees & appointments 2019-Present, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Biology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel 2014-2019, Postdoctoral research fellow, Heidelberg University; The center for molecular biology (ZMBH) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. Prof. Bernd Bukau research group. 2009-2014, Ph.D., Biochemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Advisor: Prof. Tommer Ravid. 2006-2009, Head of the DNA markers development unit, Bio-Technology Laboratories, Research & Development division, Hazera Genetics Inc., Kiryat Gat, Israel. 2004-2006, M.Sc., Genetics, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. Advisor: Dr. Tova Trebitsh

Understanding the Regulation of Ribosome Assembly

Gabriel Demo

Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk Univeristy, Brno, Czech Republic

I received my Ph.D. in biomolecular chemistry from Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, under the supervision of Prof. Michaela Wimmerova. To expand my scientific expertise, I took a post-doctoral position with Dr. Andrei Korostelev at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute, Worcester, MA, USA, where I focused on studying large macromolecular machines—ribosomes—using cryo-electron microscopy. During this time, I made numerous contributions to the field of translation, providing detailed mechanistic insights into key phases such as elongation and termination. In 2020, I established the Structural Biology Group "Regulation of Translation" at CEITEC, Masaryk University. My team focuses on characterizing the interplay between ribosomes and RNA polymerases in bacteria and virus-infected mammalian cells using cryo-EM and cryo-ET techniques. We also investigate translation regulation mechanisms, including anti-association and ribosome assembly. One of our significant discoveries revealed a novel archaeal dimerizing factor capable of dimerizing small ribosomal subunits and acting as an anti-association/hibernation factor. Moreover, our recent scientific endeavors are focused on the regulation of ribosome assembly under adverse conditions and the interplay of ribosome-associated factors that ensure proper activation of non-defective translation in these environments. This will be the topic of the presentation.

Revolutionizing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Adaptation of Cancer Cells to Hypoxia and Acidosis in Tumor Microenvironment

Silvia Pastorekova

Biomedical Research Center SAS, Bratislava, Slovakia

I accomplished my PhD thesis at the Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, in the laboratory of Jan Zavada, a world-renowned expert in virus pseudotyping. During my PhD study, I generated monoclonal antibody (Mab M75) leading to identification of carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX/CA9), a key pH regulating enzyme induced by hypoxia in tumour tissues. This has opened a new research avenue leading to better understanding of cancer cells’ adaptation to hypoxia and acidosis. Research team, which I led together with my husband and lifelong collaborator Jaromir Pastorek, brought the first evidences for the role of CA IX in pH regulation and acquisition of pro-metastatic phenotype, and resulted in generation of additional CA IX-specific MAbs that are now under development for cancer therapy. During my career, I was continuously affiliated with the Institute of Virology that is now a part of the Biomedical Research Center SAS in Bratislava, Slovakia. Through engagement in several EU consortia, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the world-leading scientists in the field of tumour hypoxia, acidosis and cancer metabolism. Current research efforts of my team continue to aim at deeper understanding of molecular mechanisms of cancer progression, with focus on elucidating the CA IX contribution to tumor microevolution and therapy resistance.

Title TBC

Klaus Pantel

Institute of Tumour Biology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Prof. Dr. Klaus Pantel is Director of the Institute of Tumor Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. The Institute is part of the Center for Experimental Medicine and the University Cancer Center (UCCH). Prof. Pantel graduated from the University of Cologne in 1986 and completed his dissertation in 1987 in the field of mathematical models of hematopoiesis. After his postdoctoral training in the USA at Wayne State University, Detroit, where he conducted research on hematopoietic stem cell regulation, he spent 10 years at the Institute of Immunology at the University of Munich, where he habilitated in 1995 in the field of experimental immunology and immunotherapies. Prof. Pantel's pioneering work in the field of micrometastasis and liquid biopsy (analysis of tumor components in the blood, e.g. circulating tumor cells and circulating nucleic acids (ctDNA, microRNAs)) of solid tumors is reflected in more than 600 publications (h-factor 161) in excellent high-ranking biomedical and scientific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, Cancer Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res.). His research work has been recognized by the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, the German Cancer Award 2010, and four ERC Grants, among others. He is the Founder and current President of the European Liquid Biopsy Society and the Scientific Coordinator/Lead-PI of the EU consortia PANCAID and GUIDE-MRD.

Title TBC

Xin Lu

Ludwig Institue for Cancer Research, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK

Xin Lu is Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Oxford, UK.  She is a leading cancer cell biologist with long-standing research interests in tumour suppression.  She was one of the first researchers to show that the tumour suppressor p53 responds to both oncogene activation and DNA damaging signals and her group was also among the first to demonstrate how to selectively activate p53 to kill cancer cells, through identification and characterization of the evolutionarily conserved ASPP family of proteins. Her laboratory has broad interests in the molecular mechanisms that control cellular plasticity, including how external signals - such as infection - are integrated into the nucleus to achieve target-selective transcription and cell fate determination. Xin Lu also has interests in the deep phenotyping clinical cohorts at high risk of cancer, with an aim to identifying biomarkers and signatures predictive of early stage cancer or recurrence. She is involved in clinical studies on Li Fraumeni Syndrome, Barrett’s oesophagus, and played a leading role in the LUD2015-005 Phase II/III immunochemotherapy oesophageal cancer trial, which identified a novel gene signature and tumour monocyte content as independent predictors of patient response.
Xin Lu has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society 2020, the UK’s distinguished academy of science, for her contributions to cancer biology. Xin is also a Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Member by election of the Academia Europaea, and a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation. Xin is Cancer Theme Leader for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and Director of the Oxford Centre for Early Cancer Detection. She has a BSc from Sichuan University, MSc from Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in China, PhD from University College London (UCL) and the former Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and postdoctoral training at Dundee University, UK. She was appointed as the Director of Ludwig Institute in London at UCL in 2004 and she established Ludwig Oxford as Director in 2007. 

Molecular Basis of Disease

Acylcarnitines in Health and Disease

Maija Dambrova

Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Pharmacology, Riga, Latvia

Prof. M. Dambrova is Head of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Pharmacology, Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, and Professor at the Riga Stradins University, Faculty of Pharmacy (Latvia). She has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Biosciences from Uppsala University (Sweden) and also holds an MBA degree from RISEBA, Latvia. Prof. M. Dambrova specializes in drug discovery and investigation of the molecular action mechanisms of drugs and biomarkers in collaboration with academic research partners and the pharmaceutical industry. Research interests include pharmacology and medicinal chemistry related to cardiometabolic drugs and novel paths to regulate cellular energy metabolism and protect mitochondrial functionality. For her achievements, M. Dambrova has been awarded the EFPIA nomination “Portraits of Science–Scientists of Tomorrow”, Baltic Assembly Prize in Science,  L`Oréal Latvian fellowship "For Women in Science" with the support of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO, and the Latvian Academy of Sciences. 

Cystic Fibrosis: A Paradigmatic Disease in Bringing Science to the Bedside

Margarida D. Amaral

Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Margarida D. Amaral is Full Professor of Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisboa (Portugal) and Group Leader at the BioISI - Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute (FCUL, Portugal). MDA is alumna of EMBL-European Molecular Biology Laboratory (2008-10; 2016) and of IGC - Gulbenkian Institute of Science (1983-1993). Member of EMBO – European Molecular Biology Organization and of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences and received multiple awards, among which the Pfizer-SCML Award for Basic Biomedical Research and the Annual Award of ECFS – European Cystic Fibrosis Society. The Amaral lab has its major focus on the molecular mechanisms of the genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and on translating this knowledge into the benefit of people with CF. To understand CF mechanisms globally we use transcriptomics, proteomics, and functional genomics, namely functional high-content siRNA screens. Recently, we are focussing on the CF pathways leading to cancer. Our results translate into the clinic for better CF diagnosis, prognosis, and personalized therapies. Author of >180 international peer-reviewed publications, and 4 patents, with >6,800 Scopus citations, Highly Cited Researcher (2%) since 2020 (Mendeley, University of Stanford) and nr.2 in Portugal in Cell Biology  

SUMOylation in Health and Disease and It's Potential for Targeted Therapies   

Umut Şahin

Boğaziçi University Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, İstanbul, Türkiye

Umut Şahin is an associate professor of Molecular Biology, Genetics and Bioengineering at Sabanci University where he leads an active team that conducts cutting-edge research to study the functions of SUMOylation in health and disease processes. His main focus is proteolysis, the ubiqutin-proteasome system, ubiquitin-like proteins (i.e. SUMO), protein quality control mechanisms and the related pathologies. His research group uses multidisciplinary approaches to integrate basic science with translational medicine. Following his graduation from Boğaziçi University, he conducted his PhD thesis research under the supervision of Prof. Carl Blobel (MD, PhD) at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York) which led to the discovery of the proteases that serve as the main activators of all ligands of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which has crucial roles in development and cancer. During his post-doctoral training with Prof. Hugues de Thé (College de France, Paris), he studied the interplay between the cellular SUMO system and PML nuclear bodies, which are membraneless organelles tightly linked to acute promyelocytic leukemia, a rare and aggresive hematological cancer. He has published numerous research and review articles in high profile journals (Journal of Cell Biology, Blood, Nature Communications, FEBS Journal, Life Science Alliance, etc), received multiple awards and grants (EMBO Installation Grant, BAGEP, TUBITAK-France Bosphorus Bilateral Grant Program, TUBITAK 2247A National Leader Researchers Program, research grants from Gilead, Inc., etc) and collaborated with both local and international groups in academia, as well as in pharmaceutical industry.

Regulative Components of the ECM Guide Skin Regeneration via Distinct Molecular Pathways

Vijjar Jaks

Tartu University Hospital, Dermatology Clinic, University of Tartu, Institute of Molecular and Cell biology, Tartu, Estonia

My research started 30 years ago in tumor biology studying p53. During the postdoctoral studies I was involved in the research related to skin regeneration and cancer formation. We were lucky to discover a novel non-quiescent stem cell population and participated in redefining how skin regenerates. Since then skin and dermatology have been my main research and work interests. During recent years we have been focusing on cutaneous wound healing and by the discovery of novel molecular mechanisms we eventually hope to contribute to finding out better options for treating ulcers. 

Protein Life Cycle II: Proteion Localization and Dynamics

Dynamics and Cooperativity in Catalytic Mechanisms of Flavoenzymes

Milagros Medina

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology. University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

Doctor in Biochemistry, Milagros Medina is Full Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR), Spain, where she is also Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI). Between 2001 and 2023 she was member of the Government Council of BIFI, having also been its Deputy Director in the 2009-2011 and the 2019-2024 periods.  She has also been member of Spanish Biophysical Society Council (2018-2022), and being involved in management positions at UNIZAR; Departmental Secretary (2004-2006), Academic Coordinator of the Biotechnology Degree (2015-2019) and Research Commission (2018-2022). In 2023 she was chair of the 45th Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Congress held in Zaragoza, being member of this society for more than 30 years. Since January 2023 she is member of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee. She investigates structure-function relationship on reactions mediated by redox enzymes and coenzymes. Her interest particularly focuses on understanding the versatility of flavoenzymes as efficient and sophisticated molecular tools that use molecular recognition to regulate cellular processes, with the hypothesis that knowledge will allow increasing their biotechnological use. Results of her research are published in more than 190 publications in peer journals (~ 60% Q1 and 10% D1; h-index = 42 according to WOS), presented in 43 book chapters, as well as 34 and 400 respectively invited talks and oral/posters in Scientific Meetings.    She has supervised 18 doctors till PhD completion, and participates in the Direction of 5 more PhD thesis. 

How ARL Proteins Control Lipid-Modified Proteins Delivery to Primary Cilia

Shebab Ismail

KU Leuven, Biochemistry Division, Chemistry Department, Leuven, Belgium

Shehab Ismail is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biochemistry and the head of the Mechanistic Molecular Biochemistry group at KU Leuven Belgium. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Tennessee/StJude Children’s research hospital, USA under the supervision of Prof Hee-Won Park (student of Nobel laureate Prof Johann Deisenhofer) and Post-doctoral fellowships (Max Planck fellowship and Alexander Von Humboldt fellowhip) at Max Planck institute, Dortmund in the group of Professor Alfred Wittinghofer he received funding from Cancer Research UK (CRUK), in 2014, to set up his independent group at the Beatson institute Scotland to study ciliary small G proteins in immunity and diseases. In 2020 Shehab moved to KU Leuven where he leads the Mechanistic Molecular Biochemistry group studying protein trafficking in primary cilium. Primary cilia are antenna-like protrusions on the cell surface, formed from microtubules, that are found on eukaryotic cells and function as sensory organelles. Genetic mutations affecting the structure or function of cilia lead to various diseases known as ciliopathies. Although the cilium extends from the plasma membrane, its contents and membrane composition are distinct from those of the cell body and plasma membrane. Shehab’s group uses biochemistry and structural biology approaches to study small G proteins and their role in trafficking of signalling proteins in the primary cilium. Finally, the group leverages this knowledge to develop innovative strategies in drug design aimed at controlling cell signalling.

The Biology of the Centrosome/Cilium Complex in Health and in Disease

Elif Nur Fırat Kayalar

Koç University College of Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, İstanbul, Türkiye

Dr. Elif Nur Firat-Karalar is an Associate Professor at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and School of Medicine at Koc University. She studied molecular biology and genetics at Bilkent University, Turkey. She then moved to US for her PhD work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she investigated the mechanisms of actin nucleation under the supervision of Matthew Welch. During her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Tim Stearns at Stanford University, she used proteomics approaches and identified the centriole proteome and proximity interactome that revealed novel regulatory pathways for centriole biogenesis. Since 2014, she has been leading the cytoskeleton research laboratory at Koc University. Research in her lab focuses on studying the structure and function of the mammalian centrosome/cilium complex, with a particular focus on uncovering the molecular defects underlying developmental disorders affecting the eyes and brain. Elif is the first recipient of two ERC Starting Grants (2015, 2022) on her studies on the biology of centriolar satellites as well as other national and international grants including EMBO installation grant, Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship. Her research has been recognized by many awards including the EMBO Young Investigator Award, TUBITAK Incentive Award in Health Sciences and Sabri Ulker International Science Award. 

Structure of EMAP II Cytokine Reveals High Conformational Flexibility of Dual Function NPKKK Motif Involved Both in RNA Binding and Nuclear Export

Oleksandr Kornelyuk

Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kviv, Ukraine

Profesor Oleksandr Kornelyuk obtained his PhD degree on Molecular biology from The Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IMBG NASU). Since 2001 he is head of department of Protein Engineering and Bioinformatics, IMBG NASU. His research areas contain Molecular mechanisms of action of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (APC) in higher eukaryotes and the role of functional dynamics in protein-nucleic acid recognition process, Protein engineering, construction of new proteins with modified and unique properties, Gene engineering technologies for cloning and expression of eukaryotic proteins and their mutants, Experimental and computational studies of intramolecular dynamics of proteins using fluorescence spectroscopy and computer modeling, Conformational changes of enzymes during substrate recognition, Development of nanocomposite complexes of anticancer proteins and Structural bioinformatics. His awards include a V.P. Komisarenko Prize of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2013, an Commemorative award on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2018 and a Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine "For professional achievements" in 2020.

Neuroscience

Sleep Well: The Regulation of Neural Stem Cell Quiscence

Isabel Farinas

Instituto de Biotecnología y Biomedicina, Departamento de Biología Celular, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

She is Professor in Cell Biology and director of the Molecular Neurobiology Unit at the University of Valencia. Her postdoctoral studies at the University of California in San Francisco in genetically modified mice contributed to establish the essential functions of the neurotrophic factors. Her studies in Spain, as an independent researcher, have focused on the niche biology of neural stem cells (NSCs). Her group helped to establish that blood vessels are a key element of neurogenic niches, that NSC quiescence is an actively regulated state, the role of non-canonical functions of cell cycle regulatory molecules in the maintenance of NSCs or the role of cell adhesion and inflammation in the regulation of NSC states, among others. She has led more than thirty competitive research projects, including an ERC Advanced Grant, and published more than 120 articles, with high-impact contributions in journals such as Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Neuroscience, Cell, Cell Stem Cell and Neuron, among others. She is part of the 2% of most cited scientists in the world. She has been a member of the boards of different Spanish and international societies and served in numerous scientific advisory boards. Her group belongs to the Center for Biomedical Research in Network on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the University of Valencia (BIOTECMED), and is Prometheus Group of Excellence of the Valencian Community. She is member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 2013. She has served as president of the Biosciences and Biotechnology area of the Spanish Research Granting Agency (AEI). As for mentoring, and aside from intense teaching activity, she has directed more than twenty doctoral theses and supervised more than fifteen postdoctoral researchers, most of whom continue to work in research.

The Microglial Niche in Neurodegeneration - Understanding. Pathology and Targeting for Immunotherapy

Robert Harris

Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Robert A. Harris is Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological Diseases, and Academic Vice-President of Doctoral Education, at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. The current focus of his research is development of novel immunotherapies for incurable neurodegenerative diseases. In the university education field, Harris is an inspiring and knowledgeable leader, lecturer and teacher, who has had a major impact on doctoral education at the Karolinska Institutet and internationally. He has taught extensively at undergraduate, Master’s and postgraduate levels for medical, biomedical and biology students, at the Karolinska Institutet and also at other universities in Sweden and abroad. He has also mentored MSc and PhD theses and supervised postdoctoral fellows. At the Karolinska Institutet, Harris has designed professional development teaching courses aimed at PhD supervisors at both basic and advanced levels, as well as introductory courses for PhD students. He also introduced new pedagogical tools to raise the professional standard of PhD supervision, including educational videos to explain doctoral educational and research support and to increase awareness of equity, diversity and inclusivity. At the international level, Harris has received many invitations to directly train or inspire in house training of PhD supervisors at other European universities, and has been an international evaluator of doctoral programmes at several universities. He was President of ORPHEUS (‘The Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System’) from 2014 to 2022, where he oversaw development of the current ‘Best Practices in Doctoral Education’ handbook and contributed to a new 3-stage ORPHEUS accreditation process, which has had a major impact of development of quality assurance processes for doctoral programmes in three continents. In 2024 he received the first FEBS Education Award, and as of 1 Jan 2025 will serve on the FEBS Education and Training Committee.

Regulation of Neuronal Stem Cell Activity During Tissue Maintenance and Regeneration of the Zebrafish Olfactory Epithelium.

Stefan Fuss

Boğaziçi University Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, İstanbul, Türkiye

Stefan H. Fuss received his MSc in Biology from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz in 1997 and his PhD in Genetics from the University of Cologne in 2002. He was a postdoc at The Rockefeller University (Developmental Neurogenetics) between 2002 and 2006 before joining Bogazici University in Istanbul in 2007. His current research interests focus on neuronal stem cell regulation and nervous system regeneration using the zebrafish olfactory epithelium as a research model.    

Mapping the Rules of Neurological Disorders Using Single Cell and Spatial Genomics  

Ömer Bayraktar

Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK

Dr Bayraktar uses single cell and spatial transcriptomics technologies to characterize human brain cellular diversity in health and disease. During his training, Omer discovered neural stem cell patterning mechanisms (Nature 2013) and astrocyte layer diversity in the cerebral cortex (Nature Neuro 2020). Omer started his independent research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in 2018. His team has developed the cell2location computational tool to map fine cell types in spatial transcriptomics (Nature Biotech 2022). Omer is internationally funded by Wellcome LEAP, SFARI and CZI, and he steers spatial genomic strategy at the Sanger Institute.

Protein Life Cycle III: Degradation: Proteases, Proteasome, Autophagy

Autophagy and Cancer

Devrim Gözüaçık

Koç University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Biology, İstanbul, Türkiye

Professor Devrim Gozuacik obtained his MD degree from Hacettepe School of Medicine, his MS degree of Biochemistry from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris and his PhD degree of cancer cell biology from Pasteur Institute and Necker Children's Hospital and Research Center, Paris. Then, he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science for his postdoctoral studies on cancer-cell death connections. After 14 years of academic career in Sabanci University, he was appointed in 2020, as a Research Professor in Koç University School of Medicine and as a Senior Researcher in Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM). Prof. Gozuacik serves as a Member of the Management Board of Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, an Advisory Board Member of the NIH-supported AIM Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in the University of New Mexico, USA, an Advisory Board Member of Hacettepe Institute of Child Health and a Board Member of New York-based International Cell Death Society. He also serves as the Associate Editor of the Autophagy journal (SCI IF: 13.3), an Editorial Board Member of Cancer Letters (SCI IF: 9.7) and Cell Communication and Signaling journals (SCI IF: 8.4) and The Turkish Journal of Biology.  In the past, Prof. Gozuacik served as an Advisory Board Member of TÜSEB Biotechnology Institute. He played an active role in the establishment of EFSUN Nanodiagnostics Center of Excellence and contributed as a Founding Board Member. He was also a Founding Board Member of Turkish Molecular Biology Association (MBD) and Cell Death Research Association (HÖAD). Furthermore, he served as a project and academic referee for international agencies, such as Cancer Research-UK, Wellcome Trust and several European national or international granting agencies. Prof. Gozuacik is a recipient of several scientific awards, including Hoffmann-La Roche Future Leader of Biotechnology, EMBO-SDIG Award, TGC Sedat Simavi Award, TÜBA-GEBİP Award, IKU Onder Oztunali Award and Elginkan Technology Award and TÜBİTAK Science Award in Health Sciences.  Prof. Gozuacik gave invited talks in >100 conferences, including Gordon Research Conferences, EMBO Meetings and Keystone Symposia, and co-organized 11 international conferences in Turkey and abroad.  He is the author of >100 publications that received >20.000 citations. He filed 12 medical patents.  Dr Gozuacik's research focuses on the study of basic autophagy signaling in mammalian cells and autophagy abnormalities in human diseases, especially in cancer.

Lysosome Integrity - A Matter of Life and Death

Harald Stenmark

Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Harald Stenmark made his PhD with Sjur Olsnes at the Norwegian Radium Hospital and was postdoc with Marino Zerial at EMBL, Heidelberg. He currently leads a research group at Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, and he is director of a Norwegian Centre of Excellence, Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming. Stenmark is interested in the molecular mechanisms of endocytic membrane traffic and autophagy and their relevance to cancer. His group has been characterizing the functions of phosphoinositides and ESCRT proteins in these processes.

The Role of Peptidases in Shaping the Fate of Immune Cells in Tumor Microenvironment

Janko Kos

Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Prof. Janko Kos has made significant contributions to basic and translational studies of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors. He has been studying their role in processes leading to the development and progression of cancer, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. He established the diagnostic and particularly prognostic potential of cysteine cathepsins in cancer and focused his work on new diagnostics for application in oncology, which have been translated to clinical application. He was further involved in the development of new peptidase inhibitors and nanoscale drug delivery systems for targeting of tumour cells. Currently he is investigating the role of the proteolytic system in the anti-tumour immune response. Specifically, he focuses on how cysteine cathepsins regulate the cytotoxicity of NK cells and CTLs by activating granzymes and perforin. The proteolytic activity of these enzymes correlates strongly with the efficacy of these immune cells in destroying cancerous cells. Conversely, tumour cells utilize peptidase inhibitors, like cystatin F as suppressive immune modulators to impair the function of cytotoxic cells. The regulation of cystatin F as an immune suppressive factor by lowering its expression, activation, and trafficking represents a promising approach to improving cancer immunotherapy.  The results of his work have been published in over 320 scientific papers and book chapters and complemented by 70 invited lectures at conferences and institutions. The relevance of his scientific work is reflected in a number of patents and citations with an H index 58 (WoS).

Tracing Biomarkers from Bench to Bedside

Rapid but Reliable: The Evolution of Viral Diagnostic Assays with TR-FRET

Jussi Hepojoki

University of Helsinki, Medicum, Department of Virology, Helsinki, Finland

Dr. Jussi Hepojoki, based at the University of Helsinki (Docent/Associate professor in Virology) and University of Zürich (Privat Dozent in Viral discovery and molecular pathogenesis), is a virologist with a background in biochemistry and bioengineering. In Helsinki, Dr. Hepojoki holds Sigrid Jusélius senior researcher position, is a HiLIFE (Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences) research fellow and affiliates also to HOH (Helsinki One Health), whereas in Zürich Dr. Hepojoki is employed as a Wissenschaftlicher mitarbeiter (an Academic Associate). His research focuses on virus-host interactions, immune responses, virus discovery, molecular biology of viruses, and the development of molecular biology tools applicable e.g. to infectious disease diagnostics. The viruses (co-)discovered and characterized by Dr. Hepojoki and colleagues have led to establishment of novel taxonomic ranks, and he is a member in several ICTV (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses) study groups. In addition, he has been active in the creation of time-resolved Förster resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET)-based homogeneous (mix-and-read) diagnostic assays for antibody or antigen detection. He is the inventor of a patented protein L-based bioassay for antibody detection, demonstrated to provide high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of antibodies in both viral (Zika virus, orthohantavirus, and SARS-CoV-2) infections and in autoimmune disease (celiac disease). During COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Hepojoki’s group also developed a mix-and-read antigen detection assay for demonstrating acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The details of Dr. Hepojoki’s past and recent publication activity can be accessed e.g. via Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-jpV0yYAAAAJ&hl=fi).

Revolutionizing Sepsis Care: The Role of Circulating Histones as Clinical Biomarkers

Jose Luis Garcia-Gimenez

Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras · Dept. Physiology Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

José Luis García-Giménez (1979, Spain), Ph.D., Bachelor in Chemistry and Bachelor in Biochemistry (University of Valencia). PhD. Degree in Chemistry (University of ValenciaCIBER’s PhD Researcher from May 2007 to February 2015. Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology in the Medicine and Dentistry School in the University of Valencia. Professor in the Master program of Physiology, Master program in Biomedicine and Master in Rare Diseases. Dr. García is PI of the emergent research group “Translational Epigenetics and Epigenomics” in the Biomedical Research Institute INCLIVA. Over 17 years of continuous research in 37 funded projects (12 as PI) in national and international projects. He is author of more than 100 publications and 7 chapters in the field of rare diseases, epigenetics, biomarkers, and oxidative stress. Dr. García is Editor in Chief of Translational Epigenetic Series Volume “Epigenetic Biomarkers and Diagnostics” Academic Press Elsevier (2015) and the volume “Epigenetics in Precision Medicine” (2021). He is inventor of 4 technologies related with epigenetic biomarkers, protected with 4 different international patent families, and co-founder of EpiDisease S.L. (Spin-Off from the Spanish Institute of Health ISCIII), which is developing epigenetic-based IVD solutions. Dr. García has received 10 scientific and entrepreneurship national and international awards, including the National Award for Young Entrepreneurs in 2013 (awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Health) and the Leopold’s Flohe Award from the International Free Radical Research Society, the First Prize in The 2nd China (Jinan) New Growth Drivers International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest in 2019 and The First prize in The 2nd Eureka International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in Melbourne (Australia). 

Translational Omics Innovations to Drive Personalized Health(care)

Alain van Gool

Radboud University, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Nijmeneg, Netherlands

Alain van Gool is professor Personalized Healthcare at the Radboud university medical center, with a strong passion in the application of biomarkers in translational medicine and personalized healthcare. After his study (biochemistry, 1991) and PhD (molecular biology, 1996) Alain worked at a mix of academia, pharmaceutical industries (Organon, Schering-Plough, MSD), applied research institutes (CancerUK, TNO) and university medical centers in Europe, Asia and USA. He has been leading technology-based biomarker laboratories, cross-functional expert teams, therapeutic project teams and public-private consortia, many of which were focused on the discovery, development and implementation of translational biomarkers in a variety of therapeutic areas. His technical expertise resides most strongly in molecular profiling (various Omics approaches), analytical biomarker development and applications in translational scientific research. Alain currently coordinates several biomarker/omics/data/AI programs as part of the department of Human Genetics including Lead PI of the Netherlands X-omics Initiative; Director of the Healthy Data Program;  Coordinator of the Sectorplan Data-driven innovation; Domain Leader MedTech & Data Sciences of the Radboudumc Research Institute for Medical Innovation, and Chair Biomarker Platform of EATRIS (the European infrastructure for Translational Medicine), thus contributing to the organisation and coordination of local, national and European technology infrastructures.

Biotechnology and Enzyme Engineering

A Toolbox for the Engineering of Photosynthetic Light Reactions for Environmental Sustainability

Roberto Bassi

Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

Roberto Bassi, Vicenza (I), 1955. Graduated in Biology at the University of Padua (1977), he worked as a microbiologist and botanist at the same University until 1983. He then specialized in genetics in Copenhagen, biophysics in Paris and molecular biology in Geneva. He has taught Plant Biochemistry, Physiology and Synthetic Biology in Padua, Urbino, Marseille, Lausanne and Verona.  His research focuses on the structure and function of photosynthetic systems of plants and algae and the physiology of environmental stresses, with the aim of optimizing the efficiency of light conversion into biomass and devising biotechnological solutions for environmental sustainability. He has published more than 300 articles in international journals. He is a member of the National Academy of Lincei, the National Academy of Technology, the EMBO, the European Academy and others. He has been awarded the Baccarini-Melandri Prize, the Herlitzka Prize for Physiology, the von Humboldt Prize, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Prize and the Miller Research Award at Berkeley. It is P.I. of the ERC advance grant GrInSun (2022-2027). In Naples, he has been the Chair of the scientific advisory board of the Anton Dorhn Experimental Station, of which he is currently the President. 

Halophiles & the Saline World: Are Fructans the Key to Survive?

Ebru Toksoy Öner

Marmara University Faculty Of Engineering, Department Of Bioengineering, İstanbul, Türkiye

Dr. Ebru Toksoy Öner received her PhD degree in Chemical Engineering in 2000 and currently she is working as a Professor at the Bioengineering Department of Marmara University (Istanbul, Turkey). She is the Principal Investigator of the Industrial Biotechnology and Systems Biology (IBSB) research group (http://ibsb.bioe.eng.marmara.edu.tr ; www.halomonaslevan.com ). Dr. Toksoy Öner’s current research in IBSB focuses on biomaterials, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, functional foods and systems microbiology. Ongoing research topics are functional biosurfaces, extremophiles, fructans, levan polysaccharide, strain improvement for exopolysaccharide production, production of biopolymers form extremophiles, and optimization of fermentation processes to design high-yield production lines. Dr. Toksoy Oner has been the coordinator of several national and international projects and partner in COST Actions. She is the Editor of The Book of Fructans and author of book chapters, reviews and over 140 peer-reviewed research articles. 

You’ll Never Walk Alone: Combining Enzymatic and Physical Treatments to Improve Quality and Sustainability in Food Systems 

Stefania Iametti

Italian Society of Biochemistry, The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Italy

Stefania Iametti has spent its career at the University of Milan, where she got a PhD in Food Biotechnology in 1987. She is currently full professor of Biochemistry, with teaching duties in Human Nutrition and in Food Sciences. Her research has dealt with the assembly and insertion of micronutrient-derived cofactors in proteins, with metal metabolism, and with process-induced modifications in food and non-food proteins. She also tackled issues related to food allergens, to the impact of nutrients on the immune system, and to the mechanism of action of food-derived bioactives. Her activities had been in the frame of national and international programs, some of them requiring long-standing collaborations in Germany, the USA, and Denmark. She also had projects in Israel, Ghana, Benin, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. She is currently the Treasurer of the Italian Society of Biochemistry, an internal auditor for IUBMB, and an associate editor for “BioFactors”.

Thinking differently about cancer treatment regimens

Bassem Jaouadi

Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS), University of Sfax, Laboratory of Microbial Biotechnology and Engineering Enzymes, Sfax, Tunisia

Dr Bassem Jaouadi is currently a full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS). His research interests in the Laboratory of Microbial Biotechnology and Engineering Enzymes (LMBEE) deal with screening, cloning, expression, protein engineering, and industrial applications of extremozymes (e.g., proteases, keratinases, lipases, phospholipases, chitinases, amylases, and peroxidases). Dr Jaouadi has co-founded a biotech start-up, “Biotech-ECOZYM”, and spin-off “ENZYin”, both incubated at the CBS Business Incubator and LMBEE, and provides technical assistance for setting up biotech companies. Dr Jaouadi holds an HDR in Biological Engineering (2014) and a PhD in Biological Sciences (2009) from the University of Sfax, Tunisia. His doctoral research, conducted in close collaboration with the Laboratory of Biocrystallography at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon-France, focused on the biochemical and molecular characterization of a novel glycosylated alkaline protease from Bacillus pumilus strain CBS. Dr Jaouadi has led several industrial, national, and international R&D biotechnology projects with industry partners to advance biotechnology in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, France, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, and South Korea. Since 2021, Dr Jaouadi has served as the WP1 Leader in the Horizon Europe CSA-Twinning project “NGS-4-ECOPROD”, bioprospecting extreme Tunisian biotopes for the discovery of new extremozymes through metagenomic and genomic approaches. He is also an active member of the ENI Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Italy-Tunisia project “ARIBiotech”.

AI - revolutionizing Comparative Genomics and Molecular Evolution & AI - Application in Basic and Applied Biomolecular Sciences

Combining Simple Biophysical Models with Deep Learning for the Improved Characterization of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Zsuzsanna Dosztanyi

Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Zsuzsanna Dosztányi obtained her diploma in Physics and Biophysics and her Ph.D. in Biology from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute of Enzymology in Budapest, the Australian National University in Canberra, and Columbia University in New York City. In 2014, she received the Momentum Grant from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which enabled her to establish an independent research group in the Department of Biochemistry at ELTE. Dr. Dosztányi is renowned for her significant contributions to the understanding of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Unlike globular proteins, IDPs do not adopt a fixed three-dimensional structure under physiological conditions but play crucial roles in various biological processes. She has developed innovative bioinformatics tools that have greatly advanced the field of IDP research. Her current research employs deep learning methods to gain a more detailed understanding of the conformational and functional properties of IDPs.

Modeling Protein Complexes Using Deep Learning Models

Dina Schneidman

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Dina Schneidman is a computational biologist specializing in the use of artificial intelligence to develop innovative methods for modeling the structure and dynamics of macromolecular assemblies. Dina received her MSc and PhD under the supervision of Profs. Haim Wolfson and Ruth Nussinov at Tel Aviv University developing methods for structural modeling of protein-protein interactions. During post-doctoral research in Andrej Sali’s lab at the University of California, San Francisco, she developed and applied computational methods for Integrative Structure Determination. Since 2016, Dina has been a PI in the Computer Science and Engineering School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

From Genes to Functional Proteins

Cell Proliferation and Chromatin Dynamics During Organ Growth

Crisanto Gutierrez

Centro Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM, Madrid, Spain

Crisanto Gutierrez (http://www.cbm.uam.es/crisanto-gutierrez), a BSc (1977) and PhD (1980) in Biology, was appointed as Assistant Professor of Cell Biology (Univ. Alcalá de Henares, 1982-1986) before moving to Harvard Medical School and Roche Institute of Cell Biology (1986-1990) where he obtained experience in mammalian oncoviruses (SV40). He then joined the Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa to start his own independent group to study the molecular biology of plant geminiviruses and their interaction with the host cell. Currently he is Full Professor (CSIC) and Head of the Program in Genome Dynamics and Function. He was elected Member of EMBO (1998), of the EMBO Fellowship Committee (2000-2004), of the EMBO Council (since 2020) and of Academia Europaea where he chairs the Cell and Developmental Biology Section (since 2021). He is also an ERC grantee, Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Cadiz (2009) and has received, among other awards, the Carmen and Severo Ochoa Foundation Award (2008) and the Margarita Salas Medal for Mentoring (CSIC, 2023). He is or has been editor of EMBO J., EMBO Rep., Plant J., and Eur J Cell Biol.  After his pioneering discoveries of the tumor suppressor protein retinoblastoma (1995, 1996), the E2F-DP family and their targets in plant cells, his research aims at understanding the links of chromatin dynamics, DNA replication and cell proliferation during development using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model, applying a combination of cellular, molecular, genetic and genomic strategies.  

Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases: Catalysis and Antibiotic (hyper) Resistance

Ita Gruic-Sovulj

University of Zagreb Faculty of Science, Zagreb, Croatia

Ita Gruic Sovulj is a Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb. She obtained her PhD at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and completed a postdoc with John J. Perona at the University of California at Santa Barbara, US. She works on aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS), the crucial enzymes in protein biosynthesis. She investigates mechanisms by which these enzymes establish accurate coupling of amino acid-tRNA pairs, specifically exploring inherent AARS hydrolytic editing pathways. Recently, she discovered that variation of the most conserved catalytic motif in isoleucyl-tRNA synthetases endows hyper-resistance to clinically relevant antibiotic, mupirocin, surprisingly without jeopardizing the key translational role of the enzyme..

Chromosomal R-loops: Who R They?

Lorant Szekvolgyi

University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

I graduated as a molecular biologist from the University of Debrecen (Hungary) in 2002. During my Ph.D. studies, I focused on the central issues of chromatin structure, and a key achievement was the discovery of nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles containing R-loops (Székvölgyi L et al. PNAS 2007). During my postdoctoral work at the Curie Institute in Paris, I investigated DNA breaks that compromise genome integrity. Upon returning to Hungary, I completed the experiments initiated abroad with the support of a junior grant. After five years of intensive research, we established a causal link between meiotic DNA breaks and the H3K4me3 epigenetic mark, which provided a breakthrough in understanding the connection between histone modifications and genetic recombination (Acquaviva & Székvölgyi L et al. Science 2013). In 2015, I established my independent research group with funding from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since then, we have conducted internationally competitive research at the intersection of genomics, epigenetics, and bioinformatics. Our results have been published in a number of high-impact journals (Szekvolgyi L et al. CSH Perspect Biol 2015; Halasz L et al. Genome Res 2017; Karanyi Z et al. J Cell Biol 2018; Hegedus et al. Nucl Acids Res 2018; Karanyi Z et al. Nature Comms 2022; Fero O et al. Sci Data 2023; Fero O et al. Sci Data 2024), providing international recognition to the group. I also serve as an organizer of the Danube Conference series on Epigenetics supported by FEBS, which has become one of the most prestigious epigenetics conferences in Europe.

Using a Novel piRNA Annotation Tool (piRAT) to Unveil Novel piRNA Expression Patterns

Guillem Ylla

Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Dr. Guillem Ylla graduated in Biotechnology and obtained a master's degree in Omics Data Analysis from the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. He subsequently completed his Ph.D. at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona, focusing on the transcriptomics basis of insect metamorphosis and evolution in the laboratories of Dr. Belles and Dr. Piulachs. Following his doctoral studies, he did a first postdoc at the Dr. Conesa laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he worked on developing bioinformatic tools for studying gene expression regulation. For his second postdoc, Guillem went to the laboratory of Dr. Extavour at Harvard University where he worked on the genomic evolution of insects. In 2022 Guillem established his laboratory in Bioinformatics and Genome Biology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland). His laboratory keeps exploring the evolution of genes, genomes, and gene regulatory networks through the integration of omics data and computational approaches. 

Emerging Topics in Molecular Life Sciences I

From Wnt to Wisdom: Tackling Alzheimer's Disease

Güneş Özhan

İzmir Institue of Technology, İzmir, Turkey

Dr. Günes Özhan earned her bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and genetics from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye, in 2003, and her PhD in 2009 at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany, with a thesis on the molecular evolution of embryonic development in arthropods. She pursued postdoctoral research on developmental biology and cell signaling using the zebrafish model at the Biotechnology Center of Dresden University of Technology. In 2014, Dr. Özhan returned to Türkiye and joined the Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, where she established an independent research laboratory and a zebrafish facility. Since then, she has received numerous awards, including the EMBO Installation Grant, the L'Oréal For Women in Science Award, the Turkish Academy of Sciences Young Scientist Award, and the UNESCO IOM Start-up Grant. Dr. Özhan’s research focuses on the signaling mechanisms involved in tissue regeneration and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as developing alternative therapies for neurodegenerative conditions using zebrafish models. She is currently a professor at Izmir Institute of Technology and a principal investigator at the Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center.

Immunity and Host-pathogens Interplay

TBC 

Cezmi Akdiş

University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Cezmi Akdis is the director of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) in Davos and  Professor in Zurich University Medical Faculty. He has honorary professorships from Beijign (China), Wuhan (China) and Bursa Uludag Universities (Turkey), Harvard University (USA). He is a Senate Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.  Cezmi Akdis has published 720 peer-reviewed articles. His h-index is 156 and he was selected as a highly cited author consecutively in 2016-2023 by Clarivate (Thomson Reuters). Cezmi Akdis acted as the President of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (16’000 members) between 2011-2013. He was the editor of Global Atlases of Allergy, Asthma I-II, Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Allergic Rhinitis. He was the founder and organizer of the World Immune Regulation Meetings, Davos I-XVI.  He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Allergy journal. 
 Cezmi Akdis’s major scientific contributions are on immune regulation and allergen tolerance, plasticity of antigen-specific T cells 1995, human T regulatory cells 1996, immune suppressive role of histamine receptor 2 2000, human Type 2 NK cell subset 2001, human regulatory NK cells 2007, regulatory innate B cell subset 2017, regulatory innate lymphoid cells 2019. His current research is the continuation of his epithelial barrier theory studies starting from mechanisms of eczema 2000, mechanisms of epithelial shedding in asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis 2003, endotypes of asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis and atopic dermatitis 2011, epithelial barrier theory for the development of allergic and autoimmune diseases 2006 - 2024. Cezmi Akdis is also the author of more than 40 publications on COVID including one of the first ones published on 19 February 2020, including pathophysiology, risk factors, severity, clinical characteristics and how to handle allergy and asthma patients during the pandemic.

Resolving How Vaccine Adjuvants Promote T Cell Responses

Ed C. Lavelle

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Ed Lavelle is an Immunologist, focusing on vaccine research. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) in 2021 is currently President of ECI2024 and former President of the Irish Society for Immunology and head of the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.  He graduated with a BSc in Microbiology from University College Galway and a PhD in Immunology from the University of Plymouth and carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham and Trinity College Dublin on vaccine adjuvants and immunomodulation.  He was appointed at Trinity College Dublin as a lecturer in 2004, associate Professor in 2012, Professor in Immunology in 2015 and Professor of Vaccine Immunology in 2022.  His research has led to the development of adjuvants suitable for inclusion in injectable and mucosal vaccines for infectious diseases and resolving their mode of action.  The lab is also focused on developing therapeutic vaccines for cancer and investigating vaccine strategies that promote immunogenic cell death, leading to enhanced protective immunity. 

Epigenetic regulation by histone acetylation in health and disease

Giedre Tamulaitiene

Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Giedre Tamulaitiene is a structural biologist and senior researcher at Vilnius University. After graduating in Biochemistry from Vilnius University in 1999, she obtained her PhD in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. S. Grazulis with research on structural-functional relationships and DNA recognition mechanisms of restriction endonucleases. She then joined the group of Prof. V. Siksnys and worked in the field of bacterial antiviral defence. She carried out structural-functional studies of different types of CRISPR-Cas systems. More recently, she has focused on the novel bacterial antiviral defence systems containing TIR (Toll-interleukin receptor like) and SIR2 (Sirtuin-like) domains, which also play important roles in the innate immune system and in the regulation of key cellular processes in eukaryotes.

RNA Biology: Coding and Non-coding RNAs

RNA Mechanisms Associated with C9orf72 Mutation

Boris Rogelj

Department of Biotechnology, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Boris Rogelj is head of the Department of Biotechnology at the Jožef Stefan Institute, full professor at the University of Ljubljana, and president of the Slovenian Neuroscience Association. His research interests include the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurological diseases, with a particular focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He has 90 publications in SCI journals, including prestigious journals such as Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications, Acta Neuropathologica, Brain, etc., with more than 10,000 citations. He has led ten research projects funded by the Slovenian Research Agency and three international projects and has been involved in more than 20 national and international projects.

The 3’-end of the Tale

A. Elif Erson-Bensan

Department of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye

1997 BSc Biological Sciences METU, Türkiye, 2001 MSc Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI, USA, 2004 PhD Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI, USA
 Current Research Interests: Transcriptome diversity generated by splicing and alternative use of polyadenylation sites is still mostly a hidden complexity. We are interested in identifying and characterizing mRNA 3'-end isoforms in breast cancer cells. We use a combinatorial approach to decipher noncanonical mRNA and protein isoforms to understand protein interactions and intricate molecular mechanisms

Phase separation in cell physiology and disease

Nicola K. Gray

The Centre for Reproductive Health, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Emerging Topics in Molecular Life Sciences II

TBC