Confirmed Speakers

Fernando Albericio is Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa & Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona. He as Inaugural Rector of Yachay Tech (Ecuador), which is called to be the first Latinoamerican university based into the Innovation, and Founder and General Director of the Barcelona Science Park. His major research interests cover practically all aspects of peptide synthesis (new reactions, building blocks, coupling reagents, solid phase supports, protecting groups, and linkers) and combinatorial chemistry methodologies, as well as synthesis of peptides and small molecules with therapeutic activities (cancer and infectious diseases). Furthermore, his group is also involved in developing new systems for drug delivery and strategies for diagnostics as well.

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Christian F.W. Becker studied chemistry at the University of Dortmund (Germany) and obtained his diploma in 1998. After receiving his PhD in 2001 from the same university he was a postdoctoral fellow with Gryphon Therapeutics from 2002 to 2003. He became a group leader at the Max-Planck Institute in Dortmund, Germany in 2004 and was appointed as Professor for Protein Chemistry at the Technische Universität München in 2007. In 2011 he became Professor and Head of the Institute of Biological Chemistry at the University of Vienna. His group develops and uses chemical as well as biochemical means to generate peptides and proteins with otherwise unattainable (posttranslational) modifications to address biomedical and biotechnological challenges.

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Dr Kaiser is a junior research group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Leipzig. She studied biochemistry, and joined the lab of Prof. Annette G. Beck-Sickinger to work on the functional and structural characterization of neuropeptide Y receptors. After research stays with Prof. Jens Meiler and Prof. Heidi Hamm at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, USA), she obtained her PhD in 2015 at the University of Leipzig. Her research focuses on how peptide GPCRs accomplish ligand recognition and specificity, and how this translates into receptor activation and functional bias. To address these questions, she uses basic model organisms with an extended neuropeptide repertoire to learn about the plasticity of the system and establish simple in vivo testing platforms.

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Eric Marsault is Full Professor in the Dpt of Pharmacology-Physiology of Université de Sherbrooke (Qc, Canada). He is also Chairman of the Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke. His research focuses broadly on academic drug discovery and the validation of emerging targets, with an emphasis on peptides, mimetics and macrocycles and targets such as G protein-coupled receptors and enzymes. He did basic training at the École Supérieure de Chimie Organique et Minérale (ESCOM) and Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, then obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from McGill University (Montréal) with Pr George Just, then a postdoc from Sherbrooke University with Pr Pierre Deslongchamps. Prior his academic career, he worked 10 years in the private with Sanofi and Tranzyme Pharma.

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Professor Kristian Strømgaard graduated from the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy (1999), with part of the studies carried out at the Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S and previous studies at University College London. He did his postdoctoral training at Columbia University (USA) and was subsequently appointed assistant professor at University of Copenhagen, and thereafter promoted to full professor in chemical biology 2006. His research spans chemistry and biology with focus on protein-protein interactions, including inlcuding peptide and protein engineering. In 2014 he was appointed Director of Center for Biopharmaceuticals at University of Copenhagen and 2016-17 he was a visting professor at Harvard Medical School. He is co-founder of the biotechnology company Avilex Pharma.

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Dr Teixidó’s major interests are in the field of peptide synthesis and the discovery of peptide shuttles able to reach the brain and increase the transport of a wide range of cargoes including drugs, nanoparticles or diagnostic agents. With this aim, she is developing a toolbox of protease resistant BBB-shuttle peptides, mass spectrometry techniques and transport evaluation tools to be used to discover new shuttles that will improve the delivery of cargoes to the brain. Meritxell Teixidó has published around 50 scientific articles and reviews and she has participated in 7 patents. In 2007 she won the American Peptide Idol first prize at the 20th American Peptide Symposium in Montreal, Canada. Since 2010 she is the national representative in the European Peptide Society Council and Chairperson of the next 36th EPS (European Peptide Symposium) and 12th IPS (International Peptide Symposium) (Barcelona, Sept 2020).

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Charlotte Martin was born in Montpellier, France, in 1984. She completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Florine Cavelier at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron in Montpellier. She received her Ph.D. in chemical sciences (specialized in molecular engineering) from Montpellier University in 2013, with work focused on the preparation of silicon-containing amino acids for the synthesis of polyproline type II helix mimics. In 2014, she joined the group of Professor Steven Ballet, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, as a postdoctoral fellow, working on the rational design of biological active peptides with a focus on peptide-based hydrogels for controlled drug delivery. Since October 1st, she was appointed as parttime professor at the VUB within the ORGC group for the development of soft (bio)materials.

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Tim was born in Brussels but moved to the United States when he was two. A while later he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Virginia. Then he went to The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California where he earned his Ph. D. in chemistry in the laboratory of Prof. Phil Dawson working on the synthesis of transmembrane peptides to study neutralizing antibodies against HIV. He pursued postdoctoral studies at the US Army Combat Capabilities Command Soldier Center where he used antimicrobial peptides in developing SPR-based biosensors. Tim is currently a postdoctoral scientist at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in the laboratory of Prof. Oliver Hantschel.

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Léopold Thabault obtained his master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 2016 at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). In 2016 he was granted a FNRS aspirant fellowship and started a Ph.D in the laboratory of Pr. Raphaël Frédérick at the Louvain Drug Research Institute. His topic of interest include protein oligomerization and peptide based drug design.

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