Confirmed Speakers

David Peralta studied chemistry and German culture and language at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines (BSc Chem 2006, MSc Chem 2009). There, he taught various courses in chemistry and science and society while finishing his MSc degree, focusing on organic, analytical, and biochemistry. In 2009, he moved to Germany for his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in the research group of Prof. Tobias Dick, working on redox biochemistry. In 2015, he earned his Dr. rer. nat. in biosciences/biochemistry from the DKFZ and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Shortly before his doctoral defense, he joined Wiley-VCH in 2014 as an Assistant Editor for both ChemMedChem and ChemistryOpen, and later also ChemistrySelect. He became Managing Editor of ChemMedChem in 2016, and has served as its Editor-in-Chief since July 2017. In addition to his editorial duties, David conducts regular workshops on various science publishing and communication topics

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Tobias Ritter received his undergraduate education in Braunschweig, Germany, Bordeaux, France, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Stanford, US. He has performed undergraduate research with Prof. Barry M. Trost at Stanford, obtained his PhD working with Prof. Erick M. Carreira at ETH Zurich in 2004, and was a postdoc with Prof. Robert H. Grubbs at Caltech. In 2006, Tobias was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, and to Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 2012. Since 2015 he is director at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kohlenforschung in Germany and holds additional faculty appointments at RWTH Aachen and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. The Ritter lab focuses on late-stage functionalization chemistry, with a focus on fluorination methods and their application to molecular imaging. In 2011, Tobias co-founded SciFluor LifeScience, now OcuTerra Therapeutics, a clinical pharmaceutical company in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Prof. Erick M. Carreira obtained a B.S. degree in 1984 from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign under the supervision of Scott E. Denmark and a Ph.D. degree in 1990 from Harvard University under the supervision of David A. Evans. After carrying out postdoctoral work with Peter Dervan at the California Institute of Technology through late 1992, he joined the faculty at the same institution as an assistant professor of chemistry and subsequently was promoted to the rank of associate professor of chemistry in the Spring of 1996, and full professor in Spring 1997. Since September 1998, he has been professor of chemistry at the ETH Zürich in the Institute of Organic Chemistry. Since 2011, he has been also been a Member of the Competence Center for Systems Physiology and Metabolic Diseases at ETH-Zürich. Carreira has authored over 340 publications and 36 patents. He has mentored in his laboratory 140 undergraduates, 100 doctoral students, and 79 post-doctoral associates. He has been associate editor with Organic Letters, Thieme Verlag (Synfacts and Synthesis), and Organic Synthesis. As of January 2019 he was assigned the role of Editor-in-Chief for Organic Letters. Together with colleagues at ETH Zurich he has co-founded three companies: Lipideon, SpiroChem, and Glycemicon. He is a consultant for companies in North America, Europe, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Africa.

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Stuart Conway is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and the E. P. Abraham Cephalosporin Fellow in Organic Chemistry at St Hugh's College, Oxford. He studied Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Warwick before undertaking PhD studies with Professor David Jane and Professor Jeff Watkins FRS at the University of Bristol. Stuart completed post-doctoral studies with Professor Andrew Holmes FRS at the University of Cambridge. In 2003, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, in 2008 was appointed as an Associate Professor at Oxford, and in October 2014 he was promoted to Full Professor. Between March and August 2013 Stuart was a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology. Since 2016 he has been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and he is the President-elect of the RSC Organic Division. His research focuses on the development of chemical tools to study biological systems.

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Dr. Maria DUCA is head of Targeting of Nucleic Acids research group in the Institute of Chemistry of Nice (Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS). After undergraduate studies in Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Bologna, Italy), she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Paola B. Arimondo (National Natural History Museum, Paris, France) working on topoisomerase II inhibitors. A 2- year post-doctoral training in Sydney Hecht’s lab (Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, USA) allowed her to pursue the study of nucleic acids working on targeted protein mutagenesis. After CNRS recruitment as a Research Scientist in 2007, her research activities focus on the targeting of non-coding RNAs using synthetic small molecules toward innovative therapeutic approaches for anticancer, antiviral and antimicrobial applications.

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Antonello Mai was born in Rome, Italy, in November 14th 1962. He took the Degree in Pharmacy at the Sapienza University of Rome (110/110 cum laude). From 1989 to 1992, he made the PhD course in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, and in 1992 he took his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. From 1998 to 2010, Antonello Mai worked as a Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy (Department of Pharmaceuticals Studies) at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. In 2011 he was been appointed as Full Professor in Medicinal Chemistry at Sapienza University of Rome. Antonello Mai is professor of the following courses at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome involving Medicinal Chemistry and Toxicology Analysis, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. He has great expertise in 1) organic synthesis; 2) synthesis of new potential bio-active compounds, particularly in the field of epigenetics (inhibitors of DNMTs, HDACs [unselective and class-selective], HATs, sirtuins, PRMTs, HKMTs, and HDs), anticancer agents, antiviral agents (anti-human picornavirus compounds (disoxaril analogues), and anti-HIV-1 compounds belonging to the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor classes (DABOs, S-DABOs, DATNOs, F2-S-DABOs, Amino-DABOs), antibacterial (oxacine analogues), antimycobacterial (oxacine and U-100480 analogues) and antifungal (trichostatin A, pyrrolnitrin, and bifonazole analogues) agents, and CNS agents (pyrrolobenzodiazepines active as analgesic, antidepressant and nootropic compounds); 3) development of new methodology for the synthesis of heterocycles; 4) analysis and purification of organic mixtures; 5) study and characterization of organic molecules.

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David Peralta studied chemistry and German culture and language at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines (BSc Chem 2006, MSc Chem 2009). There, he taught various courses in chemistry and science and society while finishing his MSc degree, focusing on organic, analytical, and biochemistry. In 2009, he moved to Germany for his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in the research group of Prof. Tobias Dick, working on redox biochemistry. In 2015, he earned his Dr. rer. nat. in biosciences/biochemistry from the DKFZ and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Shortly before his doctoral defense, he joined Wiley-VCH in 2014 as an Assistant Editor for both ChemMedChem and ChemistryOpen, and later also ChemistrySelect. He became Managing Editor of ChemMedChem in 2016, and has served as its Editor-in-Chief since July 2017. In addition to his editorial duties, David conducts regular workshops on various science publishing and communication topics

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