Dr. Luigi Calzolai
Project Leader - European Commission Joint Research Centre
He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Sienna. After a Postgraduate Research at the University of California, Davis, he joined, in 1998, the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, in the laboratory of the then Nobel laureate Kurth Wuthrich, where he solved the three dimensional structure of prion proteins. He then moved to the School of Pharmacy of the University of Kent (UK) as Senior Lecturer in biochemistry. He joined the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in 2008 where his research focuses on the development of methods for the characterization of nanoparticles, nanomedicines, and biotherapeutics. He is a member of the Core Expert Team of the European Union Nanomedicine Characterization Laboratory (EUNCL). He is part of the H2020 project ATAC (Antibody therapy against coronavirus -COVID-2019).
Prof. Habil. Gabriel Dimofte, MD, PhD
Professor of General Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy „Grigore T. Popa” in Iasi
Prof. Gabriel Dimofte also works as Senior Consultant Surgeon in the 2nd Oncologic Surgery Department in the Regional Institute of Oncology. As medical director and Chair of Medical Research, he is actively involved in the coordination of basic and clinical research in the institute and was actively involved in the development of Transcend as a major centre for biomolecular research. He grew a major interest in the bio distribution of nanoparticles in the context of malignant tumors and was involved in two major European projects, as project leader in multinational consortium: Euronanomed-ERANet -CheTherDel (study of the bio distribution of nanoparticles functionalised with Anticollagen IV antibodies in microwave thermal modified liver tissue/liver metastasis using subliminal conditions) and EEA funds – NANOHer2RRESTORE (development of Nano carriers using ph sensitive polymers for targeted delivery of Trastuzumab and AXL inhibitors for breast cancer with ove expressed Her receptors).
Prof. Laura M. Lechuga, PhD
Head of the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group at ICN2 in Barcelona
As full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the principal focus of her research is the development of novel nanobiosensor devices based on nanoplasmonics and silicon-based photonics for point-of-care diagnostics. She has been at the forefront of the Photonic Biosensor area during more than eighteen years, making key contributions and opening new horizons in this technological field. She has published over 270 articles, book chapters and proceedings, has eight families of patents, and has presented her work worldwide in more than 365 invited talks. She has co-founded two spin-offs companies and has received prominent prizes and recognitions along her career.
Eng. Gabriela Macoveiu
Director for Communication Innovation and External Cooperation/North-East Regional Development Agency
Gabriela graduated in 1989 as engineer the Technical University Ghe. Asachi Iasi. Her experience in business was accumulated by practicing as engineer for 10 years on the Fibrex Nylon Savinesti Chemical Platform; in 2003 she obtained an MBA certificate issued by INCCOR Bucuresti that was successfully used in the field of european programs management in RDA North-East, where she works since 1999 as regional development manager. During the last 20 years Gabriela coordinated multidisciplinary teams, implemented strategic regional development and smart specialization activities, elaborated and coordinated economic development projects, both for RDA and other similar public authorities and private managers from EU and accessing countries. Her experience as consultant was accumulated by delivering regional development technical assistance and trainings for RDA North-East, EURECNA CNA Veneto, European Commission Delegation in Yerevan, Assogal Toscana, European Institute for European Policies in Berlin. She is a certified trainer for projects evaluation and strategic management
Assoc. Prof. Oommen Podiyan Oommen, PhD
Leader of the Bioengineering and Nanomedicine Lab, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technologies & BioMediTech Institute, Tampere University
Dr. Oommen received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay in 2010. He, then moved to Uppsala University, Sweden to pursue his Post Doc in the field of regenerative medicine. In Sept. 2016 he joined Tampere University-Finland as an Assistant Professor where he has established the Bioengineering and Nanomedicine Group. Since Aug. 2020, he is working as an Associate Professor and he leads a multidisciplinary team of chemists, molecular biologists and material scientists. His research interests are in the fields of designing functional materials (biomimetic 3D scaffolds and nanomaterials) for disease modeling, tissue engineering, drug delivery and nucleic acids therapeutics. He has established extensive collaborations with leading scientists in Europe and Japan and participate in several collaborative projects. He authored several peer reviewed articles and book chapters. He has also filed several patents and is a co-founder of a spin-off called ‘Uppsala Therapeutics AB’ that focus on nanotherapeutics for brain delivery and nucleic acid delivery.
Dr. Ian Proctor
Interim CEO and Commercial Director, Sci-Tron Limited., University of Manchester
Ian has a successful track record of supporting the commercialisation of early stage technologies and taking them through to a commercial offering, generating funding and returning revenues to a range of clients including academic institutions, SME’s and large corporates through a career working at the interface of academia, government and commerce.
Experience in executive roles has allowed him to develop strategic planning and delivery capabilities and to provide required leadership and management to meet challenging priorities, targets and requirements.
Ian was a founder and Managing Director for Dhahran Techno Valley Company (DTVC) growing all aspects of the business with focus on establishing a technology commercialisation business unit and science park management, setting the vision and strategy and subsequently building multi-disciplinary teams to facilitate the commercialisation of technologies which generate revenues and maximise social and economic benefit for Saudi Arabia.
This included developing a number of economic development programmes and an early stage investment fund with private and public sector partners; leading on a number of proof of concept, seed and series A investments.
Ian was then recruited to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as Director of Technology Transfer.
Previously, Ian worked at University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd (UMIP) for nearly 10 years gaining recognition for designing and managing technology based projects from initial research concept through to new products and services; delivering a number of license agreements with industry which generated economic benefits and has led on the set-up and financing of spin-out companies, across a number of industry sectors, including the medical, advanced materials, energy, oil and gas, and sensors sectors, including the design and transfer of new technology through service providers to end users. Ian has held a number of board, steering committee and advisory positions; designing and implementing a number of regional and national innovation programmes. Ian has a BSc (Hons) Biomedicinal Chemistry and Neuroscience, and a PhD in Chemistry from Keele University, UK.
Dr. Maria Jesus Vicent
Head of Polymer Therapeutics Lab, Prince Felipe Research Center, Valencia
Dr. Vicent received her PhD in 2001 in chemistry on solid supports from Univ. Jaume I after several scientific stays in Prof. Fréchet’s lab. Univ. California, Berkeley (USA). Then, she moved to more biomedically oriented research, initially with a company Instituto Biomar, and then at the Centre for Polymer Therapeutics with Prof. Duncan after the award of a Marie Curie Postdoc fellowship in 2002.
In 2004, María joined Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe (CIPF) as research associate through a Marie Curie Reintegration contract and was promoted to her current position, head of Polymer Therapeutics Lab at CIPF in 2006.
Currently, she is the responsible for the Screening Platform, a Specialist site in the ERIC EU-OpenScreen and also coordinates the Advanced Therapies Program at CIPF. She is part of the Strategic Committee of the Valencian Agency of Innovation (AVI), Member of the International Advisory Board of Institute Nanoscience Nanotechnology Univ. Barcelona (IN2UB) and Consortium Foundation Hospital Provincial Castellón (CFHPC).
Her research group focused on the development of novel nanopharmaceuticals for different therapeutic and diagnostic applications, in particular Polymer Therapeutics for unmet clinical needs and has been funded by national (i.e. Fund La Caixa-NanoPanTher) and European grants (ERC Consolidator grant-MyNano and ERCPoC-Polyimmune) from academia and industry.
María received several prizes including Idea awards or Concepció Alexandre award to Women in Science. She is fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows 2019 and Controlled Release Society College of fellows 2021. She co-authored >125 peer reviewed publications and 10 patents, 3 of them licensed to the pharmaceutical industry and one used as foundation of the spin off ‘Polypeptide Therapeutic Solutions SL’ in 2012.
She is widely invited to talk in international conferences and is currently vicepresident of the specialised Chemical Biology Section of the RSEQ and chair of key conferences on the field (i.e. Int. Symp. Polymer Therapeutics or CRS2019 Annual meeting). María is executive editor of ADDR, DDTR and board member of key journals.
