Bruce Morimoto

Vice President, Drug Development at Alto Neuroscience, Inc

Dr Morimoto has over 25 years of industry experience in leading project teams in the development of innovative medicines, providing guidance in the design and execution of preclinical, manufacturing, clinical and regulatory activities with a therapeutic focus in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS and frontotemporal dementias.  Previously, Bruce held leadership roles at Alkahest, Celerion, Cerecin and Allon Therapeutics, and works closely with the Michael J Fox Foundation, chairing one of their scientific review panels. He is an advisor to several biotech companies helping to move their programs into clinical development and drug registration. Bruce started his career on the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University where his independent research focused on neuronal signal transduction.  Bruce earned his doctorate in biochemistry from UCLA and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.

Sara Pellegrino

Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry - University of Milan

Sara Pellegrino is Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Milan, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Italy. In 2005, she gained the Ph. D in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Milan. In 2005-2006, she has been visiting scientist (Vigoni fellowship) at the University of Regensburg (Germany) in the research group of Prof. C. Cabrele. Her research interests are the synthesis of peptides and peptide mimics, and their application in Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry and Material Science. She is author of 65 papers in peer-reviewed journals, of two patents filed, and of more than 60 communications at international conferences.

Alessandra Tolomelli

Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at University of Bologna

Alessandra Tolomelli obtained her Ph.D in 1999 from the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, where she is currently Associate professor in Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry “Giacomo Ciamician”. She has been visiting researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz (USA) and she is involved in several international collaborations related to teaching and research. She is currently Programme Director of the Erasmus Mundus International Master Degree in Chemical Innovation and Regulation – ChIR. In her research activity, she has been working on the synthesis of beta-amino acids and nitrogen-containing small heterocycles as conformationally restrained structures for the design of bioactive peptidomimetics. She has been focused in particular on peptides and peptidomimetics targeting protein-protein interaction, as the integrin receptors ligands. She has been recently involved in the development of new methodologies for the development of green peptide synthesis. These activities are developed in collaboration with academic and industrial partners, to ensure a rapid technological transfer of the results. She is co-author of more than 100 papers on international per-reviewed journals and of 5 patents.

Kathryn L. Ackley

Scientific Advisory Board of Chemistry Today

Dr. Ackley spent over 15 years working in contract manufacturing organizations (CMO) serving the pharmaceutical industry. Nearly all of that time was spent working in the area of oligonucleotides. She joined the German CMO Girindus in 2001 where she held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility including QC Manager, Director of Operations, and Vice President of Business Development and Project Management. She joined Nitto Denko Avecia (NDA) in 2013 after its acquisition of Girindus’ US facility. NDA is the world leader in the contract manufacturing of oligonucleotide medicines. She was a Senior Director of Operations and then the Vice President of Development overseeing the process development and analytical development teams at all NDA locations. She has worked on a broad range of compounds including small molecules, radio pharmaceuticals, and oligonucleotides. She is a past member of the scientific advisory board of the US TIDES conference and is currently on the scientific advisory board of Chimica Oggi- Chemistry Today. She stopped working full time in 2016 to spend more time with her family. She remained with NDA on a part-time basis in the role of Scientific Advisor until 2018. Dr. Ackley earned her doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Cincinnati.

Hagen Cramer

Chief Technology Officer at QurAlis

Dr. Hagen Cramer is a renowned expert in all chemistry-related aspects of oligonucleotide therapeutic development. He has been working in the biotech industry for over 20 years spanning discovery, development and manufacturing of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics. Early in his career he worked with Gemini Technologies and Ridgway Biosystems on the discovery of 2-5A antisense for the treatment of a variety of cancers and viral diseases. In 2005 he joined Girindus, which was later acquired by Nitto Denko Avecia where he headed the process development department, eventually becoming Director of Operations. More recently he joined Wave Life Sciences where he was responsible for securing drug substance and drug product for its clinical pipeline of stereodefined oligonucleotide therapeutics. In 2020 he joined QurAlis as Chief Technology Officer supporting all programs targeting diseases affecting the CNS.

Juliette Nourry

PhD student at DPM laboratory

After completing a bachelor's and master's degree in organic chemistry with a focus on therapeutic product synthesis, Juliette NOURRY sought to explore the fate of these medications and transitioned into an interdisciplinary doctoral program. She is currently a third-year doctoral student in Grenoble, France. She is affiliated with the DPM laboratory, the Department of Molecular Pharmacochemistry, under the supervision of Eric PEYRIN and Farid OUKACINE. She is part of the NOVA team, which employs functional nucleic acids as recognition elements for therapeutic or diagnostic applications, such as oligonucleotide selection, as well as the development of analysis devices and nanovectors. The funding for her thesis has been granted as part of a project involving the nanovectorization of antimicrobial peptides using aptamers to target bacteria, aiming to explore alternative solutions to antibiotics. Her work has primarily focused on studying the interactions between aptamers and bacteria. Following her participation in the IOPC conference last year and winning the poster prize in 2023, she is now involved in the current conference as a speaker.

Lars Holmberg

Chief Scientific Officer at PeptiSystems

Lars Holmberg received his PhD in organic chemistry in 1984. He worked for Pharmacia Biotech and GE Healthcare for 29 years, developing instruments for pilot and process-scale synthesis of oligonucleotides. He is now CSO for PeptiSystems, based in Uppsala, providing scalable and cost-efficient solutions for process development and manufacturing of peptides and oligonucleotides using flow through column technology

Mark Hail

President at Novatia

Mark obtained his Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Kentucky in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Florida in1988. While at the University of Kentucky, Mark started his research career with F. James Holler, who sparked Mark’s interest in the development of computer-controlled analytical instrumentation. From there, Mark went on to obtain his graduate degree from the University of Florida, where he worked with Richard A. Yost on triple quadrupole mass spectrometry, atmospheric pressure ionization source design, ion-molecule reactions, and high-speed, short-column gas chromatography techniques. In 1989, Mark joined Finnigan Corporation in San Jose, CA (now Thermo Scientific) and worked as an R&D scientist toward the development and introduction of new electrospray ionization sources, triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometers, and emerging applications of biomolecule LC/MS. In 1994, Mark joined Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of new mass spectrometry technology as part of a multidisciplinary research analytical group. A central theme of the research done at BMS was the development of automated methods for the characterization of biological drug targets and products, as well as synthetic organic compounds and their impurities, degradants, and metabolites. In January 2000, Mark co-founded Novatia with three other partners and currently serves as President of the company. Novatia is a small contract research organization that collaborates with clients in the biopharmaceutical and life science industries to provide analytical service spanning routine MS and NMR to highly detailed structure elucidation. Novatia has also developed products that have been refined due to their own need to efficiently analyze client samples. These include ProMass Deconvolution software and the Oligo HTCS LCMS systems for high-throughput oligonucleotide analysis.

Matthew Simon

Scientist - Denali Therapeutics Inc.

Matt received his PhD in neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University, studying brain-CSF interactions in aging and neurodegeneration. He has been at Denali Therapeutics for 5 years, characterizing in vivo models of neurodegeneration and their use in biomarker discovery and drug pharmacodynamic profiling. His works has spanned a range of brain-penetrant drug modalities, most recently including antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates.

Vera D’Aloisio

Sales Manager Europe at AmbioPharm, Inc.

era received her Master’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Camerino (Italy) in 2017 and carried out her PhD studies between Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Edinburgh (UK), with a PhD research focusing on the development of peptides as a novel treatment for migraine. After a brief experience as a scientist in a UK-based CRO, in May 2022 she joined the European Sales and Business Development Team of AmbioPharm, a US-headquartered peptide CDMO, where she is Sales Manager, responsible for several European countries.

Nadim Akhtar

Senior Principal Scientist New Modalities at AstraZeneca

Nadim Akhtar, Ph.D., is a Senior Principal Scientist in the New Modalities and Parenteral Development Department (NMPD) in Pharmaceutical Technology and Development (PT&D) function at AstraZeneca. Nadim has been working for AstraZeneca since 2007. During this time Nadim has worked on both early and late-stage portfolio supporting development and commercialisation of small molecules and new modalities i.e., oligonucleotides, peptides, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and mRNA products. Nadim is currently responsible for developing characterisation and control strategies for New Modalities.

Sritama Bose

Head of Chemistry Research and Innovation at NATA

Sritama is an accomplished researcher with more than 15 years of experience in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. With a passion for bridging the gap between laboratory discoveries and patient care, Sritama is dedicated to the translational aspect of drug development. Sritama obtained a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. Sritama completed postdoctoral tenures at Peking University and Stellenbosch University followed by a short stint as visiting scientist at Slovak Academy of Sciences. Thereafter, she joined Durham University, where she gained expertise in nucleic acid chemistry and oligonucleotide synthesis. Sritama joined NATA from Sygnature Discovery, bringing her expertise in drug discovery, organic synthesis and nucleic acid chemistry.

Stefania Corti

Full Professor of Neurology at the University of Milan

Stefania Corti is Full Professor of Neurology at the University of Milan, directing the Neuromuscular and Rare Diseases Unit at the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico. As the Principal Investigator of the Neural Stem Cell Laboratory, her work focuses on the pathogenesis and development of stem cell/molecular therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly ALS, SMA, and SMARD1.

Giorgio Marini

DesignationEuropean Life Science Technical Specialist - CEM

Giorgio Marini graduated in "Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology" in 1997 at the University of Milan. After working as a Product Manager at Buchi AG in Switzerland for a few years, in 2004 joined CEM Corporation as a Life Science Technical Specialist, promoting Microwave Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis around the World in Academic and Pharma Laboratories.

Thomas Müller-Späth

CEO and co-founder of ChromaCon, a YMC company

Thomas Müller-Späth, Dr. sc. ETH, Dipl.-Ing., is CEO and co-founder of ChromaCon AG, a YMC company. Thomas studied chemical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg, Germany, and at UC Berkeley (USA). He obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich in the group of Prof. Morbidelli in 2008 on the topic of multi-column-technology for the purification of proteins. Thomas is inventor of several patents and has authored numerous scientific articles on continuous chromatography for biopharmaceuticals.

Xavier Gerard

Field Application Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific

Xavier Gerard, a scientist specializing in RNA biology, embarked on his academic journey in 2008, completing a MSc in Health and Drug Engineering, Biotechnology, and Management at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Grenoble in France. Subsequently, he relocated to Paris to pursue a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Evry. Since 2012, Xavier has held various positions as a postdoctoral researcher and R&D scientist in organizations dedicated to health research. His dedication to innovation in RNA biology has been a constant throughout his career, with a focus on advancing the next generation of nucleic acid therapeutics. Notably, he has honed expertise in developing oligonucleotide therapeutics, particularly for addressing genetic retinal diseases, with some projects laying the groundwork for clinical trials. Currently based in Switzerland, Xavier serves as a Field Application Scientist for the EMEA region at Thermo Fisher Scientific within the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (NATx) division. In this role, he remains devoted to supporting innovative endeavors and assisting customers in pushing the boundaries of nucleic acid-based therapies.

Wen-Hsuan Chang

Head of Target Validation at AcuraStem

Dr. Wen-Hsuan Chang is the Head of Target Validation at AcuraStem. She leads the biology team on the NeuroRx® technology platform. Dr. Chang’s team has performed the detailed work to understand the therapeutic mechanisms underlying our drug programs, and utilizing that knowledge for clinical biomarker development. They are continually assessing new targets for advancement into AcuraStem’s preclinical pipeline, continually innovating the patient-specific models of the NeuroRx® technology platform to recapitulate new aspects of disease, and expanding the platform into new indications. Dr. Chang previously led the establishment and validation of the NeuroRx® platform from the biology side. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California. After her Ph.D., Dr. Chang performed postdoctoral work in the laboratory of AcuraStem’s co-founder and scientific advisory board chairman, Dr. Justin Ichida at USC, where she identified key mechanisms by which the C9orf72 repeat expansion causes neurodegeneration in ALS and frontotemporal dementia.

Afaf El-Sagheer

Research Fellow at Oxford University and a professor at Suez University

Afaf studied chemistry in Egypt and did her PhD at Southampton University then moved back to Egypt to become a lecturer then Professor at Suez University. She was a Research Fellow at Southampton university from 2006-2013 followed by a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University from 2013-2022 working with Professor Tom Brown. She is currently an assistant professor at Southampton University working in the area of therapeutic oligonucleotides and modified mRNA and their delivery. Afaf has expertise in therapeutic oligonucleotides, sequencing, biophysical, biochemical and cell studies. She has pioneered click chemistry and other synthetic methods to assemble novel, long and modified biocompatible DNA/RNA constructs for custom gene synthesis/editing and their applications in biology and medicine. Some of the reagents she developed are commercially available from Glen Research and the work was highlighted on National DNA Day and in research outreach. She has more than 180 publications including high impact factor journals, patents and book chapters with H-index 44 (Google Scholar). She was invited to give talks in UK, Europe, USA and China.

Claire MacLeod

Grand Challenge Lead of the oligonucleotide programme at CPI

Claire MacLeod is currently the Grand Challenge Lead of the oligonucleotide programme at CPI with responsibility for a programme of development and manufacturing activity, most notably the Grand Challenge 3 project at the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre. Prior to this role, Claire has 13 years experience in pharmaceutical development including projects at the drug substance-drug product interface and continuous manufacturing.

Sergey Burov

Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry and Head of R&D Laboratory at Cytomed JSC

Sergey Burov is Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry and Head of R&D Laboratory at Cytomed JSC (Russia). His research interests comprise different aspects of peptide synthesis and application as potential drugs and components of drug delivery systems. His laboratory takes part in the kg scale synthesis of peptides and small molecules using the protocols of green chemistry. He is an author of 70 scientific papers and 16 patents.

Sophie Corbet

EMEA Bioprocessing Technical Service Manager at Dupont

Sophie Corbet is EMEA Bioprocessing Technical Service Manager, for the bioprocessing segment in EMEA, and for nutrition in France. She holds a Chemistry and a Chemical Engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille. Sophie has more than 20 years of experience in the industry. Between 2010 and2015 she worked for the Global Ion Exchange Resins Tech Center as an Improvement Engineer and a Technology Manager, involved in most of the technologies used in IER chemistry at Chauny and at several toll manufacturers. She was also the Tech Center expert responsible for development and production of pharmaceutical and high purity resins produced at the site. She joined the Technical Services & Development team in 2015.

HELAL ABUJUBARA

PhD student in Medicinal Chemistry

A Ph.D. Candidate in Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, working under the supervision of Prof. Alesia Tietze. His research focus on the chemical synthesis and functional studies of bioactive and transmembrane peptides, which includes the development of novel bioconjugation methods. During his Ph.D., he has co-authored three publications, wherein two of them as a first author, which are published in international peer-reviewed high-impact factor journals, such as Chem. Sci., Chem Eur. J. and ACS Synth. Biol. He won the best poster award at the IOPC in Milan/Italy in June 2023

Jean Chmielewski

Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University

Jean Chmielewski is the AW Kramer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a faculty member in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Her research interests include the design of antibiotics that target intracellular pathogenic bacteria, the development of agents that modulate drug efflux transporters, and the design of novel biomaterials for regenerative medicine.

Aurélien Thomen

Product Manager at CAMECA’s NanoSIMS

After obtaining his PhD in Cosmochemistry at MNHN, Paris, France, Aurélien Thomen joined the University of Hawaii as an Assistant Lab Manager. He then moved to the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. As a Director of its NanoSIMS facility, he collaborated with AstraZeneca to develop a novel NanoSIMS-based method for quantifying subcellular drug concentrations. Aurélien is now CAMECA’s NanoSIMS Product Manager.

Marta De Zotti

Associate Professor at University of Padova

Marta is an associate professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Padova. Her research interest is focused on the synthesis and application of stable helical peptides of the naturally-occurring family of the peptaibols e.g., as peptide-based biomolecular devices (in collaboration with Prof. Emanuela Gatto of the University of Tor Vergata) or as ecofriendly plant-protection products.

Leendert van den Bos

CEO at EnzyTag

Dr. Leendert van den Bos obtained his MSc- and PhD-degree in bio-organic chemistry from Leiden University. He joined Organon BioSciences as a Scientist in 2007 and worked subsequently for Schering-Plough, Merck Sharp & Dohme and Aspen Pharmacare mostly in the field of Process Research & Development. Leendert holds an Executive MBA from Nyenrode University.

Rita Maria Di Lorenzo

R&D Manager at University of Naples Federico II

Dr. Ritamaria Di Lorenzo, Ph.D. is R&D Manager at the RD Cosmetics Research and Development Laboratory of the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Naples Federico II, where she designs and develops research projects in the fields of Personal care, Beauty, Hair care and transdermal delivery. During her PhD in Drug Science, specialising in Cosmetic Chemistry, she was involved in the identification of new active ingredients and technologies from natural sources and up-cycling to be conveyed in cosmetic products. In 2021, she was engaged abroad, in Spain, at the DermoCosmetic centre of the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC), in collaboration with L'Oréal R&I Group.

Ariadna Grau Campistany

R&D Manager at LipoTrue

Dr. Grau-Campistany takes part in the R&D Management at LipoTrue, a fast growing and high technological company of active ingredients, involving a team of experts with strong know-how in the fields of cosmetics, skin biology and state-of-the-art technologies, among others. Having graduated in Chemistry with a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, Spain, Ariadna has extensive expertise in the field of chemistry and biochemistry, especially peptides and proteins and the development of final products and active ingredients for cosmetic application. Her strong scientific background in this fields is evident in several publications and patents.

LETTERIA GRECO

Business Manager at Evonik

Pharmacist with Master’s Degree in Cosmetics Science, she started her experience in a Fragrances House in Germany. After coming back to Italy, worked in Cosmetics Raw Materials field, first as R&D Technician, then as Marketing Product Manager and then as Sales Manager. Today she works as Business Manager in Evonik. Passionate about Activity and Safety of cosmetics ingredients.

Christian Schwarz

CEO at Numaferm

Christian is the co-founder and CEO of the biotech company Numaferm that was founded 2017 as a spin-off of the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. He is biochemist and biotechnologist by education and completed his PhD in the field of type 1 secretion systems at the same university between 2009 and 2012

Joan Attia

Global R&D Director at Lucas Meyer Cosmetics

With a master’s degree in Neurosciences and a PhD in Biomolecules & therapeutic pharmacology, I spent more than 18 years working on skin research. After the development of new medical devices suitable for skin repair, I joined IFF-LMC’s R&D in 2014. After 5 years managing the development of the biological screening platform and the active ingredients development, I accepted to oversee the global research and development department for the company in 2019. We are developing innovative raw materials (active and functional and delivery systems) by sourcing, designing, testing and producing new ingredients to formulate sustainable cosmetics.

Olivier Ludemann-Hombourger

Global Director Innovation & Technology, PolyPeptide Group

Olivier Ludemann-Hombourger is the Global Director Innovation & Technology and Member of the Management Committee of PolyPeptide. He received his PhD in 2001 from the “Institut National PolyTechnique de Lorraine” in France, in collaboration with Novasep Process, for which he was leading the R&D activity over 10 years. He worked during three years for Lonza in Braine l’Alleud (Belgium) as head of Operations, before joining PolyPeptide as General Manager of the French entity for 7 years, until taking his current global position in 2019.

Victoire Laude

Research Scientist at Vapourtec

Victoire Laude is a Research Scientist at Vapourtec. Victoire obtained her chemical engineering Master’s degree at the National Chemical Engineering School in Clermont-Ferrand (France), completing her research project under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Gordon at Western Sydney University (Australia). Since 2019, Victoire’s work at Vapourtec has been focused in the application of continuous flow for the synthesis of peptides and proteins in solid phase and process scale up.

Tina Boville

o-founder and CEO of Aralez Bio

Tina Boville is the co-founder and CEO of Aralez Bio, a startup using directed evolution to unlock noncanonical amino acids. She has been recognized as one of MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35, an Activate Fellow, and a Biotech Founder to Watch. Boville received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Colorado and then conducted her postdoctoral research at Caltech as a Resnick Prize Postdoctoral Fellow, where she co-developed the tryptophan synthase platform that Aralez Bio uses today. Boville founded Aralez Bio in 2019 alongside Dr. David Romney and Prof. Frances Arnold, and since then the company has raised venture funding, won prizes from the Rothenberg Innovation Initiative and Caltech Rocket Fund, and counts top 10 pharmaceutical companies among its customers.

Paola Perugini

Associate Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences - University of Pavia

Associate Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences - University of Pavia, Coordinator Master II level in Cosmetological Sciences, Scientific Director in Etichub srl, Academic Spin-off - University of Pavia

Irene Izzo

Associate Professor at University of Salerno

Irene is Associate Professor at University of Salerno where she obtained a PhD in Chemistry in the field of the synthesis of bioactive marine natural products. She spent research periods at University of Strasbourg as a post-doctoral research fellow and at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona as visiting scientist. Since 2014 she has been teaching at Master ChemBioTech, organized by the École européenne de chimie, polymères et matériaux and School for Biotechnology of Strasbourg, a course dedicated to the solid-phase synthesis of biomacromolecules. Her research field is total synthesis of natural products (steroids and peptides) and their analogues, mainly peptidomimetics. In particular, ionophoric, antimicrobial and glycosidase inhibition properties of cyclic peptoids have been investigated. She is Associate Editor of SynOpen (Thieme).

Walter Cabri

Senior VP I&D at Fresenius Kabi and Professor of Organic Chemistry in UNIBO

After more than 33 years in the industry in large (Pharmacia; BMS, Fresenius Kabi), medium size (Sigma-tau & Antibioticos) and small (Dipharma) companies Walter joined, as Full Professor of Organic Chemistry, the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna. In Fresenius Kabi as SVP API I&D he is still scientifically support Chemical/Analytical Development and Regulatory Affairs. Awards: Federchimica Prize (1993 Anthracyclines chemistry); Ciamician Medal (1995 SCI for the work in organometallic catalysis); Bristol-Myers Squibb President Award (1996); Prize for the Industrial Application of Organic Chemistry (2013 SCI/Organic Chemistry Division). He was CMC leader for the registration in 2011 of Eurartesim an Artemisinin Combined Therapy against Malaria. The main areas of interest are in the fields of drug discovery (oncology, CNS, antibacterial agents, Malaria), protein-protein interactions, pharmaceutical green chemistry, peptides and complex drugs. Co-author of 113 papers; 100 patents; one Book “From Bench to Market” Oxford University Press 2000.

Simona Masiero

Associate professor at the University of Milan

Associate professor in Botany at the University of Milan, my group is exploring the molecular and physiological mechanisms controlling fruit senescence and maturation as well as seed/fruit cross talk in the model species. Within the frame of more applied research interests, we use the yeast-two hybrid approach to obtain peptide aptamers to be used as sustainable pesticides in agriculture.

Felix Wojcik

Specialist at Novo Nordisk

Felix Wojcik received his doctoral degree in bioorganic chemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin for his research at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. From 2014 to 2019 he pursued his postdoctoral studies in chemical biology at Princeton University. In 2019 he joined Novo Nordisk in Denmark and currently holds a specialist position in research chemistry with a primary focus on drug discovery and new technologies.

Oleg Werbitzky

managing partner at ALPHA LYNCIS

Oleg Werbitzky is managing partner at ALPHA LYNCIS. Dr. rer. nat. in Chemistry, TU München >25 years in senior management roles in Life Science, FMCG and Services Industries. Wide experience in industrial manufacturing and technology transfer; expert in industrial manufacturing of peptides and oligonucleotides; >10 years of experience in supervision of manufacturing of regulated products Author of 17 scientific publications and inventor of 20 patents.

Laura Nevola

Co-founder & CSO/COO at IDP Pharma

Dr. Nevola is a medicinal chemist and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. After specializing in the design and development of peptide-based drugs (Sapienza, Yale, IRB), in 2015 she founded IDP Pharma, where leads the operations and scientific vision of the company, building a pipeline of 5 innovative products (inventor of 9 patents) and bringing the first one into clinics.

David Laffan

Drug Substance Consultant at AlphaLyncis

David Laffan carried out his PhD under the supervision of Ian Paterson on the synthesis of the macrocyclic skeleton of erythromycin At Cambridge, after which he started work in the fine chemicals industry with Lonza in Switzerland. After six years he moved from the CDMO industry to the pharmaceuticals industry by joining Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) Process R&D. At AstraZeneca he has led the chemical development of numerous compounds from initial selection through to marketing submission, launch and post approval change. As Senior Director Chemical Development at AstraZeneca his group had responsibility for all of the late stage development of New Modalities (Oligos, Peptides, ADCs etc). He retired recently from that role and has joined with former colleagues as part of AlphaLyncis in providing Drug Substance development expertise.

Holger Stalz

LC/MS Product Specialist Austria & Switzerland at Agilent

Biography Dr. Holger Stalz works since 2011 as a product specialist for LC/MS for Agilent in Austria and Switzerland. He leads a team of European BioPharma Specialist focusing on biopharmaceutical applications and has been coordinating the development of new analytical solutions and methods for protein therapeutics and oligonucleotide-based products.

Claudia Scaccabarozzi

Market Specialist Molecular & Biological Research at Agilent

After a master’s degree in medical biotechnology and molecular Medicine and a background working at Medical Cytogenetic and Molecular Genetics Lab of Istituto Auxologico Italiano in Milan, she joined Agilent as a genomic inside sales representative, and then as a market specialist, and spent the last 8 years in the company developing knowledge about the molecular biology research market.

Patrick Endres

Manager – Product Management EMEA at Tosoh Bioscience

Patrick holds an M.Sc. degree in Bioengineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and joined Tosoh Bioscience in 2016. After various technical positions within the company he is currently heading the European Product Management Team, responsible for the product positioning and benchmarking of Tosoh Bioscience’s process resins, HPLC, and UHPLC columns, as well as detectors. He authored multiple application notes and scientific papers and regularly presents Tosoh’s solutions to scientists and customers, as well as at international conferences.

Sonja Merkas

Consultant - Creator & Doer

Her contact with oligos started with her PhD and PostDoc in 2003, and continued with invaluable 10 years of experience with nucleic acid therapeutics at Novartis. For the past 3 years, she has dedicated herself to sharing her learnings and expertise with companies, CDMOs, startups and investors in the realization of potential therapeutics and their business growth. Sonja's focus is mainly on CMC, development & manufacturing, business and operations improvements and transformations, BD, E2E supply chain, and project & program management.