​First International STIMULUS Conference
28-29 September 2023, Darmstadt (Germany)
 

Associate Editor JACS, Managing Director Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. Prof. Tanja Weil received her PhD from Mainz University in 2002. She held several leading positions in harmaceutical industry (2002-2008) before she accepted an Associate Professorship at the National University of Singapore (2008-2010). In 2010, she became Director at the Institute of Organic Chemistry III at Ulm University. Since 2017, Tanja Weil is Director of the Division of Synthesis of Macromolecules at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz. She has received a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), the Otto Hahn Medal and the Karl Ziegler Award. Her scientific interests focus on synthesis strategies to design interactive materials and to control material-cell communication.

Senior Scientist of Biopolymers & Biocomposites at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE PFI) Dr. Gary Chinga Carrasco was born in Chile and moved to Norway in 1987. He is Cand. scient. (cell biology 1997) and Dr. ing (chemical engineering 2002). He was one of two recipients of the Norwegian Wood Processing Association Award 2019 for nanocellulose research and winner of the 2021 - TAPPI’s International Nanotechnology Division Mid-Career Award. He is associate editor of the Bioengineering Journal, Section - Nanotechnology Applications in Bioengineering. Currently, lead scientist at RISE PFI in the Biopolymers and Biocomposite area.

Flow Cytometry Application Specialist at Sysmex Partec GmbH (Germany)

Multidisciplinary Sepsis Group - Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa) Dr. Roberto de la Rica obtained his PhD degree in 2007 at the National Center for Microelectronics in Spain, where he studied the fabrication of biosensors with microfabricated transducers. He then expanded his expertise in bionanotechnology through international postdoctoral stays at Hunter College-CUNY (USA), University of Twente (the Netherlands), Imperial College London (UK) and Strathclyde University (UK). In 2026 he was awarded a Ramon y Cajal tenure-track contract to start his own lab in Spain. He is the Technology Coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Sepsis team at the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands since 2019. There, he is developing new technologies for the rapid diagnosis of severe infections and sepsis. He is also the founder and CEO of Nanodecal, a spin- off company aiming at bringing new solutions for diagnosing respiratory infections to market.

Head of Research - Nanochemistry & Bioimaging, Laboratory of Biophotonics & Pharmacology (Strasbourg, France) Andrey Klymchenko obtained his PhD degree in 2003 from Kyiv National University. Then, he worked as post-doctoral fellow in the University of Strasbourg and Catholic University of Leuven. Then, he joined CNRS in 2006, received CNRS Bronze Medal in 2010 and was promoted to Director of Research in 2014. In 2015, he obtained ERC consolidator grant BrightSens. In 2021, he received Prix du Dr et de Mme Henri LABBE from French Academy of Sciences and he was elected a member of Academia Europaea. He is a leader of “Nanochemistry and Bioimaging” group and a co-founder of a start-up BrightSens Diagnostics. He is a co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed articles and 12 patents.

Chief Scientific Officer, Nexbiome Therapeutics (France). Karine has spent 11 years focusing her research on molecular and cellular interplays involved in immune-mediated disorders in academic facilities in Paris, France (Institut Cochin and Institut Pasteur) and in London (National Institute for Medical Research). Since 2012, she has been working on drug and biomarker development in the R&D department of several start-up companies. She has also led several clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas including metabolic diseases and cancers. Karine holds a PhD in Immunology.

Professor Bio-Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology Jan van Hest obtained his PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 1996 with prof E.W. Meijer. After a postdoctoral stay with prof D.A. Tirrell, he joined the chemical company DSM. In 2000 he was appointed full professor at Radboud University Nijmegen. As of September 2016 he holds the chair of Bio-Organic Chemistry at TU/e. The group’s focus is to develop well-defined compartments for nanomedicine and artificial cell research, with application potential in cancer treatment and immunology.

Professor of Nanotechnology and Bioengineering Group at Atlantic Technology University (ATU) Sligo, Ireland Executive Editor, the Chemical Engineering Journal, Ireland

Associate Professor (Reader), Infection & Immunity, St George’s University of London, founder and director of TiKa diagnostics Dr. Hilpert has 25 years of experience in the synthesis of peptide libraries, screening, and optimization of peptides and was cited more than 10,000 times. Since 2003 he studies the design and optimization of short antimicrobial peptides in solution as well as tethered to surfaces. He also works on BioSAXS as a method to classify the mode of action of antimicrobial compounds.

Co-Director, National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC), University of Southampton, UK. His research focuses on the understanding of complex microbial consortia and biofilms associated with surfaces, their ecology, evolution and life-cycle dynamics, and how they respond to environmental stresses including therapeutic compounds. Through NBIC, he has worked to develop national, international and interdisciplinary strategies in research and innovation to address the challenges relevant to biofilms.

Director of BioPRIA and Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash University, Australia. He is also Director of the ARC Industry transformation Research Hub- Processing Advanced Lignocellulosics (PALS). Previously, Gil was Team Leader/Senior Research Scientist at Kimberly- lark (2000-2005) and Paprican Professor in Chemical Engineering, McGill University (1993-2000). His expertise is the application of (bio)polymers and Interfacial Engineering to biodiagnostics and lignocellulosic materials. His research team aims at developing novel paper biodiagnostics and implementing biorefineries based on the concepts of green chemistry and sustainable processes. Gil has supervised over 50 graduate students and is currently on the Editorial board of JCIS, Carbohydrate Polymers, Cellulose, Bioresource and Nordic Pulp and Paper Research Journal (NPPJ). He published over 240 scientific articles and holds 17 patents, many of which are used every day in commercial products.

Professor of Sustainable Functional Polymers Group at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Prof. Bruns research interests are bio-inspired polymer nanosystems and materials, biocatalysis in polymer chemistry and sustainable polymer chemistry. He studied chemistry at the Universities of Freiburg (Germany) and Edinburgh (UK) and graduated with a PhD in Macromolecular Chemistry from the University of Freiburg under the supervision of Prof. Rolf Mülhaupt and Prof. Joerg C. Tiller in 2007. After a postdoc in the biotechnology group of Prof. Douglas S. Clark at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the University of Basel in Switzerland where he received the Venia Docendi (Habilitation) for Chemistry in 2014. From 2013 to 2018 he was Associate Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry at the Adolphe Merkle Institute of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) funded by a prestigious Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship. He then joined the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK) as full Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry from 2018 before relocating once more to TU Darmstadt at the end of 2021.

Research assistant at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts Göttingen

Professor & Head of the chair for BioMedical Printing Technology at the Technical University of Darmstadt