Jesmond Dalli is a Professor in Molecular Pharmacology at the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Queen Mary College. He is also the director of the Lipid Mediator Unit at the William Harvey Research Institute. He received a B.Sc (Hons) in chemistry and biology and an M.Sc in biology from the University of Malta. He then read for and completed a Ph.D at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London with Prof. Mauro Perretti. Prof. Dalli subsequently moved to Prof. Charles N. Serhan’s laboratory at Harvard Medical school and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he held a faculty post and was the co-director of two NIH funded lipid mediator profiling cores. His research efforts are focused on the structural elucidation of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid-derived bioactive lipid mediators, assessing their cellular targets and the molecular mechanisms through which these mediators exert their actions in the resolution of inflammation. He has co-authored over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and holds several patents. He is the co-founder of a Spinoff company that is developing resolution-based diagnostics. Has also received several prizes including the, Eicosanoid Research Foundation Young Investigator award, the William J. Gies Award from the IADR/AADR and William Harvey Young Investigator Award.

Roberto Danovaro is nominated President of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (National Institute of Marine Biology Ecology and Biotechnology) from 2013 to 2022 by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR). Before that Mr. Danovaro was a Professor at the Polytechnic University of Marche. Director of the Department of Marine Sciences (2004 to 2010), Director of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (2011 to 2014) at the Polytechnic University of Marche. Pro-Rector (Delegated to the Research) at the Polytechnic University of Marche (2010-2013). President of the Scientific Council of WWF Italy, Steering Board Member of OECD (Fostering Innovation in Ocean Economy). Member of the Scientific Council of several research institutions and panels (IUCN, UNEP, EU), editor in chief of international journals (Chemistry and Ecology – Taylor & Francis and Marine Ecology – Wiley) and coordinator of several EU and international programs. President of the Italian Society of Ecology (2011-2013), and of the Italian Society of Limnology and Oceanography (2008-2011). President of the European Federation of Scientific Technological Societies (2008-2012). Member of the Academia Europaea (European Academy of Science) and of EU Academy of Sciences (EUAS). Roberto Danovaro received the World Prize BMC Biology (London, 2010), the Award of French Society of Oceanography (2011), and the ENI Award “Protection of the Environment” (2013). In December 2020 has been recognised by ExpertScape as the top World Scientist in the Category “Ocean and Seas” in the decade 2010-2020.

Rob Finn is the Lead of the Microbiome Informatics team at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute. This team produces MGnify, a world leading resource for the functional and taxonomic analysis and archiving of microbiome derived sequence data. In addition to making large numbers of datasets available that have been processed in a systematic way, the resource allows scientists to upload their own data, either privately or publicly, and assemble and analyse their data. The MGnify resource contains one of the largest public collections of assembled metagenomes, which have been used to derive billions of proteins. In the past year, MGnify has also started to produce biome-specific catalogues of metagenome assembled genomes, derived from the aforementioned assemblies and community contributions. Collectively, these are providing new insights into the microbial diversity found in a range of environments.

Aurelio Hidalgo is Associate Professor (Profesor Titular) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and an expert in protein discovery and engineering for biocatalysis. He leads the High-throughput Discovery lab at CBMSO.

Aurelio Hidalgo did his Ph.D. thesis at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) on wastewater bioremediation and obtained the Award for best Ph.D. in 2001. Subsequently, he did a first postdoctoral stay at the Instituto de Catálisis y Petroleoquimica (CSIC, Madrid), working on cloning, expression and purification of thermozymes and immobilization of enzymes and multienzyme systems. In a second postdoctoral period he worked at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald on directed evolution of enzymes, developing his own methodologies and tools for targeted random mutagenesis, as well as high-throughput screening and immobilization methods.

After obtaining a Ramón y Cajal tenure track, he joined the Department of Molecular Biology of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Center of Molecular Biology "Severo Ochoa". During this stage (2007-2011), he did research on thermostabilization of proteins by protein engineering to increase their stability and enantioselectivity, as well as to broaden their substrate selectivity. At the end of 2011, he became Assistant Professor (Profesor Contratado Doctor) at UAM. Since then, he has obtained several grants both from National schemes (4) and the European Union (6), of which he has coordinated 3. During this period, his research has focused on the development of methods, both in vivo and in vitro, to discover new enzymes for biocatalysis, as well as tailor them for application. After a 12-month research stay at the University of Cambridge, he has recently incorporated microfluidics as another tool for high-throughput screening in his laboratory.

In addition, Prof. Hidalgo has a proven track record in science communication, having participated in ESOF2018 and the European Researchers' Night 2018, 2019 and 2022. He also has a proven track record in teaching and learning for Higher Education, having participated in teaching innovation projects and communicated those results in conferences on teaching.

Dr. Koistinaho is a biotechnology professional with over 20 years of experience in commercializing early stage biomedical inventions. Dr. Koistinaho is a founding partner of a new €90 million venture capital fund, managed by Innovestor Life Science Oy, and invests in strong health sciences based companies in the Nordics and Baltics. Prior to that Dr. Koistinaho led technology transfer operations at the University of Helsinki, being responsible for the identification of inventions, managing University’s patent portfolio, licensing and spinning out companies arising from academic excellence. She is a co-inventor in over 30 patents and a founder of three start-ups based in cutting edge science in Finland. Having served in several managerial positions and as a biotech entrepreneur, Dr. Koistinaho has gained deep experience in pharmaceutical discovery and development, IPR generation and prosecution, fundraising, out-licensing and other corporate transactions. Dr. Koistinaho did her postgraduate training at Eli Lilly and Company in the United States. She holds an Adjunct Professorship in Neurobiology at University of Eastern Finland and completed her PhD thesis in collaboration with Stanford University and Scios Inc., USA. Since 2013, Dr. Koistinaho has been a member of the Board at Finnish Bioindustries and she holds directorships in several life science companies in the Nordics.

Reached research director level positions in both industry and academia; acquired extensive experience from all parts of the knowledge-value-chain: research, technology, innovation, patenting, product development, knowledge management, business models, and commercialization. In more details: Professional career includes experience from leading positions in both private sector business and public research institutes. After PhD and post doc position at University of Copenhagen, scientist in DANIDA Research Institute (1978-86). The major part of the career, 1986-2007, in R&D positions in private industry (Novo, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes A/S) finishing in top research career position (Director of Research, in Molecular Biotechnology) within Novozymes R&D. Professor (adj), University of Copenhagen, 2000-2010. From 01.02.07 back in academia, first as Head of Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2006-2008; from 01.09.08 as Dean of Research and Professor in Biotechnology at Aalborg University, Denmark. Campus director, AAU Cph 2009-2013; Director of Research for Aalborg University 2012-2015. Professor, Research Leader, Technical University of Denmark 2015-2018. Founder & Owner of own company, “BioEconomy, Research & Advisory” 2018-

See website: www.ll-bioeconomy.world

Maria Lucas is the Co-founder and CEO at Zymvol, Maria holds a PhD in Quantum Chemistry. She has over 8 years of experience in management and 9 years prior experience working as a senior researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. EU Women Innovators prize in 2020.

Vice President, Unit Head Enzymes & Biocatalysts

Alexander Pelzer was born in 1986 Studied biology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf Scholarship from the CLIB-Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology for doctoral studies at the Institute for Molecular Enzyme Technology (IMET) of the Jülich Research Center Focused on the biochemical and physiological characterization of different enzymes from pseudomonads Broad scientific education in biocatalysis, gene expression, and omics technologies Alexander specialised on the development of industrial enzymes, i.e. application-related identification, protein engineering as well as product development. A short stay at AB Enzymes, Finland, arouse his interest in applying science for industrial challenges.

Alexander at BRAIN Biotech: 2014: Research scientist and project manager in the Enzymes & Biocatalysts Unit 2017: Platform Coordinator of the Tailor-Made Biocatalysts Technology Platform Since 2018: Head of the entire Enzymes & Biocatalysts Technology Unit

Jörn Piel received a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany, and conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Washington, Seattle. Subsequently, he was Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and Associate Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Bonn. In 2013 he became Full Professor of Microbiology at ETH Zurich. Research of the lab focuses on natural products from uncultivated and other poorly explored bacteria, their role in host-microbe interactions, the identification and utilization of new biosynthetic enzymology, and ecology- and genome-based methods of natural product discovery.

Erik Selander is associate professor in marine sciences, University of Gothenburg. His research focus on chemical sensing and signaling in marine plankton. Eriks group pioneered the identification of alarm signals from zooplankton, copepods, that induce defensive traits in phytoplankton prey organisms including toxin production in notorious harmful algal bloom forming organisms. He is the author of approximately 50 publications on chemical interactions in marine plankton.

Ida is a professor at University of Bergen, Department of Biological Sciences. The overall theme in mher research is to understand the ecology and physiology of microorganisms living in deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems by the use of culturing, molecular biology and biochemistry. She has since 2007 studied microbial communities in the hydrothermal vents located on the Arctic Mid-Ocean and she is currently leading the research theme “Bioresources” in the Centre for Deep Sea Research.