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SPEAKERS INFO
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Maria Jose Alonso (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
María José Alonso is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Her lab has pioneered numerous discoveries in the field of nanomedicine, notably in the design of novel nanovaccines and nanotherapies for the treatment of cancer. She has coordinated consortia financed by the WHO, the Gates Foundation and the European Commission and has authored more than 315 scientific contributions with H factor >100. She is the inventor of 23 patent families, most of them licensed to industry and she has been part of 3 start-up ventures. She has been among the TOP TEN in Pharmacology (THE, 2010). She has been in the “Power List” of the most influential researchers in the field of Biopharmaceuticals (The Medicine Maker) She was President of the CRS in 2018 and she is Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Delivery and Translational Research, an official journal of the CRS, and she is part of the editorial board of 12 journals. She has received more than 50 awards, among them the “National Research Award Juan de la Cierva”. She is a member of 5 Academies in Spain and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium and of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Recently, she was awarded with an “Honoris Causa” doctorate by the University of Nottingham
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Pedro Alpuim (INL, Portugal)
P. Alpuim holds a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon (IST, 2003). His Ph.D. thesis was on thin-film silicon devices on plastic substrates for flexible electronics. Since then, he has been a professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Minho. As a researcher, he is with the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga, where he has been the group leader of the 2D Materials and Devices group since December 2016. The group grows graphene and other 2D materials by chemical vapor deposition and liquid-phase exfoliation, fabricating graphene devices at the wafer-scale for bio-sensing applications and van der Waals heterostructures for optoelectronics. They have realized different environmental sensors and touch screen panels based on large-area applications of 2D materials inks. His research interests include micro/nanoelectronic devices, graphene-liquid interfaces, single photon emitters from hBN, and devices based on light-matter interactions.
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Fabiana Arduini (Università Di Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy)
Fabiana Arduini is an Associated Professor at Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, CEO of start-up SENSE4MED, DG at ISO9001 Certified Laboratory LabCap, University of Rome "Tor Vergata”, Editor of Green Analytical Chemistry Journal, Elsevier, Associated Editor of Microchemical Journal, Elsevier, Specialty Chief Editor Micro- and Nano- Sensors, Frontiers in Sensors, and Coordinator of Italian Sensor Group, Italian Chemical Society 2019-2021. Her research activity deals with the development of miniaturised electrochemical devices mainly using screen-printed electrodes modified with nanomaterials and paper-based analytical tools applied in environmental, biomedical, agrifood, and defense sectors, with over 150 articles published in peer-review journals, H index 55, Scopus source, > 5 patents, coordinators of several national/international projects. Her name is present in PLoS Biology https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384 which listed the top 2% most cited researchers in the world
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Manuel Bañobre (INL, Portugal)
Dr. Manuel Bañobre-López (MB) got his PhD in Solid State Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), visiting the University of Texas at Austin (USA). In 2011 he joined the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory – INL at Braga (Portugal), where he has led the Nanomedicine Group since 2017. MB’s research focuses on the engineering of advanced theranostic nanostructures for imaging and therapy applications, covering from the concept to the practical implementation. He has been the PI of >30 competitive research projects funded by EU, national and regional bodies, including several industrial collaborations. He has published >100 peer-reviewed papers and 3 book chapters in different areas of Chemistry, (Bio)-Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine, granted 2 patents and co-supervised >50 MSc, PhD and postdoc students.
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Giuseppe Battaglia (IBEC, Spain)
Giuseppe, also referred to as Beppe, is a Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) professor and group leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST). Beppe is an Honorary Professor in Biophysical Chemistry at University College London (UCL) and a visiting professor at the West China Hospital - Sichuan University. Before his current position at IBEC, Beppe held a chair in Molecular Bionics at UCL (2013-2022), a chair in Synthetic Biology (2011-2013), and a lectureship (2006-2011) at the University of Sheffield. He leads a diverse team of scientists dedicated to investigating the transport of molecules and cells across body barriers and developing novel nanomedicines. He is also the founder of Somaserve Ltd, a biotech company specialising in precision nanomedicine and gene therapy.
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Gianni Ciofani (IIT, Italy)
Gianni Ciofani, Ph.D., is Senior Researcher Tenured at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia -Italian Institute of Technology, IIT- (Pontedera, Italy; since 2019), where he is Principal Investigator of the Smart Bio-Interfaces Research Line (since 2017) and Coordinator of the Center for Materials Interfaces (since 2021). He has been Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Torino (Torino, Italy; 2015-2019) and Visiting Professor at Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan; 2021). His main research interests concern smart nanomaterials for nanomedicine, complex in vitro models, and nanomedicine in altered gravity conditions. He is coordinator or unit leader of several projects: in particular, he was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant and two ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant in 2016, 2018, and 2022, respectively. Thanks to grants from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA), he had the opportunity to carry out experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017, 2019, and 2022. In 2018, his real-scale model of the blood-brain barrier was highlighted in the Annual Report on the ERC Activities and Achievements. Gianni Ciofani is author of about 175 papers on international journals, 3 edited books, and 16 book chapters, and delivered about 65 invited talks/lectures in international contexts.
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Arzum Erdem Gürsan (Ege University, Turkey)
Arzum Erdem Gürsan received the PhD degree on Analytical Chemistry in Ege University in 2000. She has been working as a Full Professor since 2009 at Analytical Chemistry department in the Faculty of Pharmacy of Ege University. She is the principal investigator at the research team @nanoBioSensLab (Ege University, Izmir, Turkey), and has initiated many national and international collaborative research on development and applications of electrochemical (bio)sensors based on drugs, nucleic acids, enzymes, proteins, toxins etc. Prof. Arzum Erdem Gürsan has authored more than 210 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings, she has given more than 25 invited talks in international meetings and conferences, is the author / co-author of 20 book chapters and review papers. She has 7 national patents approved between 2018-2022. She has received 7439 citations according to the records on Web of Science (WoS) obtained in June 2023 with h-index: 45.
Prof. Arzum Erdem Gürsan received "Juniour Science Award" in 2006, and "Science Award" in 2015 given by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). She was elected member of Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) since 2007, the Special Committee member of Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA)- Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) for the period of 2017-2019, 2019-2021 and 2021-2023. She was elected as the fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in December, 2017. The recent research of Prof. Arzum Erdem Gürsan is centred on the development of novel transducers and chemical and biological recognition systems by using different nanomaterials (e.g, graphenes, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, gold and silver nanoparticles, dendrimers, nanowires, nanorods etc.) designed for electrochemical sensing of nucleic acid (DNA, miRNA) hybridization, and also the specific interactions between drug and DNA, or protein and DNA, aptamer-protein and also the development of integrated analytical systems for environmental monitoring, food safety, industry and biomedical monitoring
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Cristina Fornaguera Puigvert (Universidad Ramon Llull, Spain)
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Maria Pau Ginebra (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain)
Maria-Pau Ginebra is Professor and Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Director of the Biomaterials Division of the Biomedical Engineering Research Center of UPC (CREB) and Associate Researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). She is the author of more than 200 articles published in indexed international journals and 9 patents. In 2013 she founded the company Mimetis Biomaterials, a spin-off of the UPC. Her research lines include the design and development of new biomaterials for bone regeneration, tissue engineering and drug delivery, and the fundamental study of the biological mechanisms that control the interactions of biomaterials with cells and tissues. Her research group has made very relevant contributions in the development and characterization of a new generation of biomimetic calcium phosphates, capable of mimicking the extracellular matrix of bone, including calcium phosphate cements and foams, which may incorporate synthetic or natural polymers, and / or bioactive molecules. She is also working on new biofabrication strategies, including injectable foams for bone regeneration, bioinspired substrates and 3D printing of implants for regenerative medicine, as well as on the design of multifunctional surfaces with bioactive and antimicrobial properties.
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Alejandro Gómez Roca (ICN2, Spain)
Dr. Alejandro G. Roca is a Ramon y Cajal fellow in the Magnetic Nanostructures Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Barcelona (Spain). During his scientific career he worked in different institutes like the ICMM, INA, ICMA in Spain, the University of York (United Kingdom) and Tohoku University in Japan. His work spans from the synthesis of nanoplatforms based on iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedicine in liquid media to the advanced magnetism of magnetic nanoparticles. He is the author of 55 peer-review publications and editor of 2 books. His publications have received more than 5400 citations being 10 papers referenced more than 100 times leading to an h-index of 26.
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Laura Gonzalez Macia (Imperial College London, UK)
Laura obtained a BSc in Chemistry and a Master in Electrochemistry from the University of Seville and a PhD in Chemical Sciences from Dublin City University. During her doctoral studies she worked on the development of printed electrochemical sensors and biosensors using novel electroactive materials. She then spent several years as a Research Associate/Fellow at the University of the West of England and the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris, where she worked on the integration of printed biosensors on diagnostics platforms and the development of solid-phase micro-extraction devices. She then joined Osasen Sensores SL (now Biolan Health) as Scientific Director and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow (MSCA IF), where she worked on the development of Point-of-Care devices for the healthcare market. As part of Guder Research Group, Laura is working on (electrochemical) paper-based sensors for the monitoring of food spoilage and plant viruses. She has been recently awarded her second MSCA IF to work on Lateral Flow Assays coupled with gas sensors for the determination of pathogens in food.
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Shabir Hassan (Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE)
Shabir Hassan, Dr. Sc., is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Khalifa University (KU; UAE). Before joining KU, he was an Early Career Investigator at Harvard Medical School and Associate Bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA. His main research focus has been devising biomaterials and in vitro platforms of diseases for drug discovery and drug delivery applications. Additionally, his interest revolves around 3D bioprinting of disease models to study genetic and rare diseases. He is immensely interested in developing bioimaging tools and biosensors for pathophysiological diagnosis and therapeutics
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Andrea Idili (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy)
Andrea Idili is an Assistant Professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry with full marks under the supervision of Prof. Francesco Ricci at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2016. After one year as a postdoctoral researcher in the research group of Prof. Ricci, Dr. Idili did two postdocs in the group of Prof. Kevin Plaxco (UCSB, USA – from 2017 to 2019) and Prof. Arben Merkoci (ICN2, Spain – from 2019 to 2021). His current research focuses on the development of novel DNA-based electrochemical and optical sensors able to support the real-time, continuous monitoring of diagnostically relevant molecules both in vitro and in vivo. The importance of his research is highlighted in more than 38 peer-reviewed papers published in high-impact factor journals (h-index 24), 1 patent, and 3 book chapters. He has received several international/national awards and fellowships in recognition of his work, including the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship (MSCA-IF 2020, REA), “ISSNAF Awards For Young Investigators 2019” (ISSNAF, USA), the “PROBIST postdoctoral fellowship 2018” (BIST, Spain), the “Honor mention 2014 Primo Levi award” (Italian Chemical Society), and the “Canada-Italy Innovation Award 2013” (Embassy of Canada to Italy).
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Laura Lechuga (ICN2, Spain)
Prof. Laura M. Lechuga is Full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Head of the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona (Spain) and at the Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBER-BBN). The principal focus of her research is the development of novel nanobiosensor devices based on Nanoplasmonics and Silicon Photonics principles for point-of-care diagnostics. Prof. Lechuga is a world reference in the Photonic Biosensor area, making key contributions and opening new horizons in this field as her invention of the Bimodal Waveguide Interferometric Biosensor. Her research activities cover from fundamental research to the technological operation of complete sensing platforms, including the technological transfer into products of social applicability. She has published over 300 articles, book chapters and proceedings, has 8 families of patents and four trade secrets, has co-founded two spin-offs companies and has presented her work in more than 490 invited talks. The quality of her research has been recognised by more than 22 prestigious prizes and awards, as the Spanish National Research Award in 2020, the King Jaume I award in New Technologies in 2020, the Ada Byron 2020 Prize, the Physics, Innovation and Technology Prize from the Spanish Royal Physics Society (RSEF) and BBVA Foundation (2016), the Lung Ambition Alliance Prize from ASTRAZENECA, and the National Prize in Nanotechnology, among many others.
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Artur M. Pinto (LEPABE - University of Porto, Portugal)
Artur M. Pinto graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences, obtaining his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto (FEUP), visiting the University of Washington (USA). Afterward, Artur has been appointed as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, Chemical Engineering Department, the Netherlands. Following his Post-doc, Artur has been awarded a long-term Researcher position at LEPABE-FEUP. He is the Principal Investigator of 2 collaborative projects between FEUP, i3S (Institute for Research and Innovation in Health), and the University of Texas in Austin (USA), focused on developing new 2D-nanomaterials and adjusting their properties for biomedical applications, such as cancer phototherapy, immunotherapy, drug delivery, and 3D-printing for tissue regeneration.
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Miguel Manzano Garcia (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
My scientific career started at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, where I obtained my Bachelor´s Degree in Organic Chemistry. In 2000 I got a fellowship for doing the PhD at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, supervised by prof. J.N. Hay and funded by the British Ministry of Defense (MoD). My PhD thesis was based on the synthesis of novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials through the sol-gel process to be used in aerospace industry.
In 2004 I joined the research group headed by prof. Vallet-Regí in the School of Pharmacy of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as assistant lecturer. I had the opportunity of applying my knowledge on Materials Science on the area of Biomaterials. During this stage I focused my work in tissue engineering, bone infection and the development of different drug delivery systems. I did a short research stay in the lab headed by Clement Sanchez at Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Then, in 2008 I obtained a Lecturer position at UCM, with a considerable increase on the academic duties. In 2011 I got a José Castillejo Fellowship to do a research stay in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, supervised by prof. Robert Langer at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. My work in there was based on the production of different types of polymeric nanoparticles for drug delivery, evaluating their biodistribution in murine models. Additionally, I also worked with polymers to be used as contact lenses with the capability of releasing drugs, and evaluated in different animal models (rats and rabbits). At MIT I had the opportunity to meet great scientist and I stablished a network of contacts and collaborators that are currently working in prestigious centres, such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, Technion Institute of Technology Israel, or Harvard Medical School.
When I got back I purchased a position of Assistant Professor at UCM that allowed me growing as a scientist towards the creation my small research group, supervising PhD students and stablishing collaborations with Hospital 12 de Octubre, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas CSIC or Fundación Jiménez Díaz.
In 2017 I obtained a position of University Professor at the Department of Chemistry in Pharmaceutical Sciences in Universidad Complutense de Madrid, providing the necessary stability to consolidate my scientific research, and allowing me to focus in trying to provide funding for future research.
In the last few years I have been the Principal Investigator of a Research Projet from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de la convocatoria 2019 de Proyectos I+D+i RTI Tipo B (3 years) and an Explora Research Project from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (1 year). I have also been part of more than 20 research projects, published more than 75 research papers (H index 43) and attended to more than 60 international conferences.
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Lluis F. Marsal (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain)
Lluís F. Marsal is a Full Professor and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Electronic, Electric and Automatic Engineering of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physics in 1997 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. Between 1998 and 1999, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 2012, he received the URV's RQR Award for quality in research and in 2014, he received a 2014 UniSA Distinguished Researcher Award from the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the ICREA Academia Award from the Generalitat of Catalunya. Since 2013, he is the Chair of Spain Chapter of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and also an active member of the Electrochemical Society (ECS). Dr. Marsal serves as a member of the Distinguished Lecturer program of the Electron Devices Society (EDS-IEEE) He has been member of advisory and technical committees in several international and national conferences and has been visiting professor at several universities and research institutions (CINVESTAV - Instituto Politécnico Nacional, McMaster University, University of South Australia, CIC biomaGUNE, CSIC, etc. He has co-authored more than 200 publications in international refereed journals, two books, five book chapters and holds three patents. He has presented over 30 invited lectures in international conferences and has participated in over than 80 national and international projects. His current research interests mainly focus on low–cost technologies based on micro- and nanoporous silicon and nanoporous alumina for biomedical applications and optical biosensing platforms. He is also interested in organic and hybrid nanostructured materials to enhance light-matter interactions for optoelectronic devices.
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Ramón Martínez Mañez (UPV, Spain)
Prof. Ramón Martínez-Máñez is full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He is also Scientific Director of the Biomedical Research Center Network in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER BBN). He is an active researcher in the field of sensing and hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructured gated materials in nanomedicine for delivery applications with more than 530 publications and more than 30000 citations (h index of 86, Google Scholar). He has participated in over 100 research projects as coordinator. He has co-authored a scientific reference book published by Wiley is also co-author of 17 book chapters. He holds 56 PhD thesis supervised (11 obtained the Polytechnic University of Valencia Ph.D. Award). He is co-founder of two spin-offs. He received the Research Excellence Award 2016 from Real Sociedad Española de Química and the Rey Jaime I Price of New Technologies in 2018. He has been recently awarded with an ERC Advanced Grant.
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Patricia Mora Raimundo (Technion, Israel)
Patricia Mora-Raimundo was born in Madrid, Spain, she completed her undergraduate studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she obtained her degree in pharmacy in 2016. During her academic journey, Patricia enrolled the Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, as an ERASMUS scholar. Her dedication and academic excellence were recognized when she received the Official School of Pharmacy Excellence Award for outstanding international ERASMUS students. Upon completing her pharmacy degree, Patricia joined the group of Prof. Maria Vallet-Regi. Here, she worked as a doctoral researcher under an ERC project. Her research focused on developing innovative mesoporous silica nanoparticles for the treatment of osteoporosis. Her work in this field resulted in the publication of two influential research papers in ACS Nano and Advanced Science. During her doctoral studies, Patricia undertook a six-month internship at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology under the guidance of Prof. Avi Schroeder. She contributed to projects exploring the connection between the nervous system and cancer that were later published in Science Advances. After, Patricia was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Avi Schroeder's lab. She was awarded with the prestigious Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship and Seal of Excellence of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Horizon Europe. In her current role, Patricia is dedicated to investigating gender differences in nanotechnology and designing innovative nano delivery platforms for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Publishing a gender focus research article in ACS Nano, and the most recent publication in Advanced Materials focused on the use of liposomes for delivering monoclonal antibodies for neurodegenerative diseases treatment. Beyond her academic and research pursuits, Patricia was elected to be part of the National Forum of BioInnovation of Teva, allowing her to engage with the industrial perspective on potential future advancements in healthcare and biotechnology
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Sergio Moya (CIC BiomaGUNE, Spain)
Dr. Sergio E. Moya is at group leader at CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastian, Spain. Sergio got a degree in Chemistry at the National University of the South Argentina, and a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Potsdam, Germany, working at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. He did post docts at the College de France in Paris, and at the University of Cambridge, UK. His group at CIC biomaGUNE works on soft materials for biomedical applications with a focus on physico chemical aspects, bio nano interactions and biological fate.He has published more than 270 articles in different areas of Chemistry, Soft Matter and Nanomedicine.
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Carlotta Pucci (IIT, Italy)
Dr. Carlotta Pucci is a researcher specialized in physical chemistry and supramolecular assemblies. With a Ph.D. in Chemical Science, obtained in 2014 at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", her expertise lies in the formulation and characterization of polymer and lipid-based nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), joined in 2018, her work focuses on synthesizing smart stimuli-responsive nanoparticles (ultrasounds, magnetic fields, light) for cancer nanomedicine. Prior to her current position, she conducted research at renowned institutions such as the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal and Laboratoire de Chimie et de Polymère Organique in Bordeaux, studying self-assembly kinetics and out-of-equilibrium processes.
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Victor Puntes (ICREA / ICN2, Spain)
ICREA Research Prof. Víctor F. Puntes’ work spans the full breadth of nanoparticle research: synthesis, conjugation and characterisation of inorganic nanoparticles; study of their physicochemical properties; nanotoxicology and nanosafety; and myriad applications for sectors including energy harvesting, catalysis, medicine and the environment. Prof. Puntes completed his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering and materials science at the Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg (France) and at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). In 1998, he earned his PhD in physics from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), working with Prof. Xavier Batlle and Prof. Amilcar Labarta on giant magnetoresistance in granular alloys. He then spent over three years at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, USA) in the groups led by Prof. Paul Alivisatos and Prof. Kannan Krishnan, working on the synthesis and control of nanostructures. In 2003 he returned to Catalonia with a Ramón y Cajal research position at the UB. In 2005 he obtained an ICREA Professorship at the then ICN (now ICN2) to create the Inorganic Nanoparticles Group, which he currently leads. By the end of 2017, Víctor Puntes had 195 peer-reviewed publications and over 12,500 citations. He is also well-known for his work in science communication to the general public, his industrial and commercial efforts, and for his endeavours linking science and art.
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Daniel Quesada (ICN2, Spain)
Dr. Daniel Quesada-González is a postdoctoral researcher at Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors group, in the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Spain. He has a MSc in Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials and a PhD in Chemistry, both from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His main expertise is focused in the development of paper-based biosensors for diagnostic and environmental applications, a topic in which he has written 5 high-impact reviews in the recent years. Besides his academic career, Daniel worked as the Head of Product Development in the start-up Paperdrop Diagnostics during more than four years, broadening his point of view also towards the market and clinical needs.
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Francesco Ricci (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy)
Francesco Ricci is a full professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. His research interests lie in the fields of electrochemical sensors, DNA functional nanotechnology, DNA-based sensors, aptamers, conformational switching probes and smart drug-release. After the PhD in Chemistry earned in 2005 at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Francesco Ricci spent 2 years as a visiting post-doc researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Francesco Ricci has been awarded an International Marie Curie Outgoing Fellowship (2010), an ERC Starting Grant (2013) and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2019). He is also the recipient of the inaugural 2017 ACS “Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship” Award and the 2017 “Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award on Analytical Science
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César Rodriguez-Emmenegger (IBEC, Spain)
César Rodriguez-Emmenegger is a Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona, Spain. The overarching goal of his research is to uncover design rules to develop materials capable of communicating with living matter —pathogens, cells, tissues— and directing its behavior in a self-regulated manner to enable new biomaterials, therapeutics, and medical devices. He studied Chemical Engineer at Universidad de la República, Uruguay; and a PhD in Biophysics and Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague under the mentorship of Eduard Brynda and Aldo Bologna Alles. Following a postdoctoral research at the group of Prof. C. Barner-Kowollik (Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship, 2012-2013), and research stays in Melville Laboratory in Cambridge (Prof. W.T.S. Huck, 2009), University of Pennsylvania (Prof. V. Percec, 2013, 2015) and Pasteur Institute in Lille (Prof. Lafont, 2015), César returned to Prague to start his independent group supported by a Junior Grant from GACR. He was then a Junior Group Leader at DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen (2016 – 2022) before joining IBEC.
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Samuel Sanchez (IBEC, Spain)
Samuel is since 2015 a Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona, Spain. Currently he acts as Deputy Director for the Internationalization of IBEC. Before that, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, IFW Dresden, Germany, MANA-NIMS in Japan. His work spans from fundamental aspects of catalytic and biocatalytic nano-micromotors, 3D Bioprinted BioBOTS, electrochemical biosensors to applications in biomedical and environmental fields. He received several awards and recognitions such as the MIT TR35 as Top Innovator Under 35 in the Spanish edition, Guinness World Records in 2010 and 2017, the Princess of Girona Scientific Research Award 2015 and the National Research Award for Young Talent 2016 by the Catalan Foundation of Research among others. He received the ERC-Starting Grant in 2013, and two ERC-Proof-of-concept in 2016 and 2017. He has published about 130 papers with h-index of 48 and he has filed 6 patents.
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Félix Sauvage (Ghent University, Belgium)
Félix Sauvage was born in Dieppe (France) on the 16th of April 1987. He received his pharmacy degree (Pharm.D) in 2013 at University of Rouen Normandie, France. The same year, he obtained his Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics at University Paris-Saclay and a fellowship from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. He joined the Institut-Galien Paris-Saclay (University Paris-Saclay, France) for a PhD where he worked on the formulation of liposomes for enhancing the delivery of heat shock protein inhibitors to tumours. In 2017, Félix Sauvage joined the Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy headed by Prof. Stefaan De Smedt at Ghent University as a postdoctoral research scientist with a major focus on nanotechnology and photonics in ophthalmology. Since 2017, the use of pulsed-lasers in combination with light absorbing nanoparticles for the treatment of corneal and vitreous diseases has been his major focus. In 2022, Félix was appointed assistant professor in pharmaceutical technology at Lille University, France. Later the same year, he obtained an ERC starting grant (‘DYE-LIGHT’) to investigate the use of light in combination with dyes for drug delivery and laser-based surgery in the eye at Ghent University in the Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy.
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Alexander Zelikin (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Alexander N. Zelikin received PhD in polymer chemistry from Moscow State University (Russia) in 2003, and subsequently held research positions at MIT, Cornell University, and the University of Melbourne. In 2009, he joined Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark) where he now holds the post of Professor in Medicinal chemistry. He co-authored 140+ articles and received funding from some of the most prestigious national and international agencies, including ERC (Consolidator grant). His research interests include prodrug design, polymer chemistry, materials science, and most recently artificial biology.
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