Dr Anne Bruinvels is a digital health & life-sciences entrepreneur and recently was appointed as a NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow. She founded Px HealthCare (Px stands for Patient Experience), which has launched OWise, the validated mobile app platform providing cancer patients with real time, personalised medical support tools. It collects and analyses the anonymised, real-time Patient Reported Outcome data to improve clinical outcomes in cancer. Prior to setting up Px, Anne founded Curidium, a genomics data-mining company focused on identifying diagnostics and therapeutics to treat patients with central nervous system disorders more effectively. With Curidium's she raised several rounds of angel funding before taking the company public on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange. Prior to founding Curidium, Anne led various research groups at a number of pharmaceutical companies. She has a MSc in Pharmacy (Groningen University) and a PhD from the medical faculty of Utrecht University (the Netherlands). In 2003 she became the London Biotechnology Network’s "Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and since then has received numerous awards for her work with Px HealthCare.

Education/Training
1976-1979: University of Birmingham: Graduated with B.Sc. (Hons. 1st class) Biochemistry.
1979-1982: University of Nottingham: Graduated with Ph.D.

Current Positions
2012-present: Gardiner Professor of Biochemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

My main research group centres on the function, structure and regulation of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their interacting proteins. I have published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles on these topics. My research has been cited more than 22,000 times and I am a Thompson Reuters 2014 and 2016 Highly Cited Researcher (http://highlycited.com/).

Patrick Schnider is Expert Scientist and pre-clinical project leader at the Roche Innovation Center Basel. He is an inventor and co-inventor of 6 compounds which progressed to clinical studies, including the marketed neurokinin 1 receptor antagonist Netupitant for the prevention of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. Beyond project work Patrick has acted as a team leader and member in several interdisciplinary global working groups in the fields of multi-parameter optimization and corporate screening library. He has also been a member of the team that conceived and developed the Roche medicinal chemistry knowledge database ROCK. Before joining Roche as a lab head in Medicinal Chemistry in 1998, Patrick received his training as a chemist from the University of Basel, the Max-Planck-Institute für Kohlenforschung and the California Institute of Technology.

Jean-Alain Fehrentz received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Nancy in 1983 and joined the “Centre CNRS-INSERM de Pharmacologie Endocrinologie” of Montpellier, France in the Professor Bertrand Castro’s group where his research was focused on the renin-angiotensin system. From 1989 to 1992, he was appointed as researcher in Sanofi Research and then moved to the School of Pharmacy of Montpellier under the direction of Professor Jean Martinez. He is currently holding a CNRS Research Director position at the Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (IBMM, UMR 5247). His research interests are the following: -Synthesis of peptides, peptide aldehydes, pseudo-peptides and peptidomimetics, -High-throughput chemistry, building blocks for combinatorial chemistry, new linkers, -RCPG ligands (agonist, inverse agonist, antagonist) and more precisely ghrelin and bombesin receptors.

Dr. Jacobson is Chief of the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and the Molecular Recognition Section at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Dr. Jacobson is a medicinal chemist with interests in the structure, ligand design and pharmacology of G protein-coupled receptors, in particular receptors for adenosine and for purine and pyrimidine nucleotides. He earned a B.A. from Reed College and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and he completed postdoctoral studies in organic chemistry at the Weizmann Institute.

Peter Gmeiner’s research spans the structure-guided design, organic synthesis and pharmacological investigation of bioactive molecules addressing aminergic and peptidergic G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Within these studies, the following topics are of special interest: Covalent and slowly diffusing ligands for GPCR crystallography, design and synthesis of novel subtype selective GPCR agonists, partial agonists and antagonists including novel antipsychotic and anti-Parkinson-active agents, development of radioligands for PET and SPECT, efficacy tuning and mechanistic studies on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) involving wild-type and mutant receptors, molecular modelling of GPCRs, fancy bioisosteres for G-protein coupled receptors, development of bivalent ligands for GPCR dimers, single molecule detection of GPCR-ligand complexes by TIRF microscopy, peptidic und non-peptidic neurotensin receptor ligands, solid phase supported methodologies and their application for the discovery of GPCR ligands, ß-turn inducing peptide mimetics.

Prof. Dr. Peter Gmeiner (*30.05.1959) received his Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Munich. From 1987 to 1988 he was a postdoc at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. He subsequently returned to Munich as a research associate at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Upon receiving his Dr. Habilitus in 1992, for which he was honored with the Johann-Wolfgang-Döberreiner prize of the DPhG (1993), he was appointed at the University of Bonn as a Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry declining an offer for a professorship at the University of Heidelberg, at the same time. Since October 1996, he has been chaired Full Professor of Pharmaceutical / Medicinal Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2000, he declined an offer for the Chair for Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Münster. From 2000 to 2002, he was Senator at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. 2003-2010, he was a board member of the Medicinal Chemistry Section of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). Since 2008, Peter Gmeiner is chairman of the Pharmaceutical / Medicinal Chemistry Section of the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG). 2008-2012, he was the speaker of the Emil Fischer Graduate Programme in Pharmaceutical Sciences & Molecular Medicine (EFS). Together with Armin Buschauer (University of Regensburg), Peter Gmeiner is spokesman of the Research Training Group "Medicinal Chemistry of Selective GPCR Ligands" (GRK 1910). Peter Gmeiner is a co-founder and consultant of the company Epiodyne, Inc.

Peter Gmeiner has a track record of more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (including Nature, PNAS, Angew. Chem., J. Med. Chem., etc.) including patents and patent applications. He is an invited speaker on international conferences and has given more than 100 invited talks. Peter Gmeiner serves as referee for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (AvH), the DAAD and for more than 20 top ranked journals in the fields of Chemistry and Pharmacology. He is an Editorial and Advisory Board Member of a number of international journals including Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters and ChemMedChem.

Véronique Gouverneur secured a PhD in chemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN, Belgium), under the supervision of Professor L Ghosez. In 1992, she moved to a postdoctoral position with Professor R Lerner at the Scripps Research Institute (California, USA). She accepted a position of Maître de Conférence at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France). She worked with Dr C Mioskowski and was Associate Member of the ISIS Institute directed by Professor J-M Lehn during this period. Veronique started her independent research career at the University of Oxford in 1998 in the Chemistry Faculty and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2008. Her research aims at developing new approaches to address long-standing problems in the synthesis of fluorinated molecules including pharmaceutical drugs and probes for imaging (Positron Emission Tomography). To date, she has mentored more than 30 Postdocs and supervised 40 PhD (= DPhil in Oxford) to completion. Since her appointment in Oxford, she holds a tutorial fellowship at Merton College Oxford where she teaches organic chemistry. She has coordinated European ITN projects (currently H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, FLUDD), and is the (co)author of > 170 peer-reviewed publications and 10 patents. Her research has been rewarded by numerous prizes and distinctions (e.g. 2015 ACS Award for Creative work in Fluorine Chemistry, RSC Tilden Prize 2016, and Tetrahedron Chair 2016).

Professor Gary Molander completed his undergraduate studies at Iowa State University under the tutelage of Professor Richard Larock. He earned his Ph.D. at Purdue University under the direction of Professor Herbert Brown and undertook postdoctoral training with Professor Barry Trost at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He began his academic career at the University of Colorado, Boulder, moving to the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, where he is currently the Hirschmann–Makineni Professor of Chemistry and Chair. His research interests focus on the development of new synthetic methods for organic synthesis using organotrifluoroborates and organobis(catecholato)silicates and the use of borazines as isosteres of all-carbon aromatic systems.

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at the Cambridge Institute. He works on the chemistry, structure and function of nucleic acids. He is a co-inventor of the leading next generation DNA sequencing methodology, Solexa sequencing (now Illumina) that has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality and has revolutionised biology. He has worked on the identification, elucidation and manipulation of non-coding genetic elements, particularly four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes. His work on the intervention of nucleic acid function using small molecules has revealed a number of molecular mechanisms that can be exploited, e.g. to modulate the biology of cancer. His more recent contributions include the development of methods for sequencing the epigenetic DNA bases 5-methylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-formylcytosine at single base resolution, as part of a broader investigation of the importance of wider, natural DNA alphabet. His collective contributions span fundamental chemistry and its application to the biological and medical sciences.

Born in 1975 in France, Christel received an MPhil. in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2002 both in organic chemistry at the Manchester University, in the UK. During her Ph.D., she was author of 8 publications. She then started her industrial carrier at EvotecOAI, where she developed her expertise in parallel synthesis. Quickly, she joined Faust pharmaceuticals for a new position in 2004, where she did her initiation to medicinal chemistry and neurodegerative diseases, looking for active drugs for mGluRs. She then moved to new challenges at Galapagos. Her carrier at Galapagos was paved with successes including the discovery of 6 active small molecules, which moved to preclinical studies. 3 compounds were tested in phase I clinical trial with a positive proof of mechanism. From these 3, 2 are currently in phase II, GLPG0778 and GLPG0634. The two compounds already showed promising results, Psoriasis for GLPG0778 and RA for GLPG0634. GLPG0634 was the first selective JAK1 inhibitor in clinical trials in inflammatory and auto-immune conditions. She is today CSO of a spin-off company, Confo Therapeutics and she is inventor of more than 20 patents.

Dr Crews is the Lewis Cullman Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and holds joint appointments in the departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Yale University. He graduated from the U.Virginia with a B.A. in Chemistry and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biochemistry. Dr. Crews has a foothold in both the academic and biotech arenas; on the faculty at Yale since 1995, his laboratory pioneered the use of small molecules to control intracellular protein levels. In 2003, he co-founded Proteolix, whose proteasome inhibitor, Kyprolis™ received FDA approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Since Proteolix’s purchase by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 2009, Dr. Crews has focused on a new ‘induced protein degradation’ drug development technology, PROTACs, which served as the founding IP for his latest New Haven-based biotech venture, Arvinas, LLC. Currently, Dr Crews serves on several editorial boards and is an Editor of Cell Chemical Biology. In addition, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2013 CURE Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2014 Ehrlich Award for Medicinal Chemistry, 2015 Yale Cancer Center Translational Research Prize, a NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award (2015) and the 2017 AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research.

Mark is currently a Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Edinburgh as well as holding an Honouree position at the Queens Medical Research Centre. Mark received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1989, followed by post-doctoral studies at Harvard and returning to the UK as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (University of Southampton). In 1997 he was made a Professor of Combinatorial Chemistry setting up the UK’s Centre for Combinatorial Chemistry. In 2005 he moved to the University of Edinburgh, where he is now Director of Proteus - a £15M Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in the area of Optical Molecular Imaging. He is also PI on a Doctorial Training Centre (60PhD) in Optical Imaging with Entrepreneurship and holds an ERC advanced grant on “SmartMaterials” for cellular control. He has been elected to fellowships of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2011 he was awarded the Chancellors Award – the highest research award of the University of Edinburgh. He is a co-founder of Ilika Technologies (2004) (which floated on AIMS in 2010), DestiNA Technologies (2010) and Edinburgh Molecular Imaging (2014). Three research themes dominate in his group at this time: (i). The development of “smart” fluorescent reporters for in vivo based optical molecular imaging. (ii). In vivo catalytic chemistry (iii). The development and exploitation of polymer-based technologies for the identification and application of polymers for controlling and modulating stem cells.

Dr Katsunori Tanaka has developed new lysine labeling methods, either by fluorescence or positron emitters for PET, based on his rapid 6Pi-azaelectrocyclization. He efficiently labeled various glycoconjugates (e.g., glycoproteins, glycoclusters, and cell surfaces expressing diverse N- glycan structures) and successfully imaged the glycan - dependent dynamics in live animals (i.e., circulatory residence, organ-specific accumulation, trafficking, and metastatic potential).

Alternatively, Dr Tanaka has synthesized complex-type sialo-N-glycan by efficiently performing the glycosylation (i.e., a-sialylation, B-mannosylation, and N-glycosylation) both on solid supports and inside microfluidic devices.
His research interests include a wide range of natural products fields at the interface of chemistry and biology. For example, exploring new synthetic methods for total synthesis either in microfluidics, live cells, or animals, configurational analysis, biological evaluation, molecular imaging, and molecular recognition of natural products including glycoconjugates.

Experience:

1998-1999 Researcher, Bayer Research Center
1999-2002 Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kwansei Gakuin University (Prof. Shigeo Katsumura)
2001-2003 JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists
2002 Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kwansei Gakuin University
2002-2005 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, USA (Prof. Koji Nakanishi)
2003-2005 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad
2005-2012 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University
2012-2017 Associate Chief Scientist, Biofunctional Synthetic Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN
2012-current Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University
2014-current Professor, Alexander Butlerov Institute of Chemistry, Kazan Federal University
2014-current JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency)-PRESTO Researcher
2017-current Group Director, Max Planck-RIKEN Joint Center for Chemical Biology Research
2017-current Deputy Team Leader, GlycoTargeting Research Team
2017-current Chief Scientist, Biofunctional Synthetic Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN