Andreas BERNKOP-SCHNÜRCH
Head of the Institute of Pharmacy I University of Innsbruck
Thiolated Cyclodextrins: Mimicking the Workhorses of Our Body
Chairman for Pharmaceutical Technology and Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology at University of Innsbruck; founder and CSO of Thiomatrix Forschungs- Beratungs GmbH; founder of MucoBiomer GmbH (meanwhile part of the Croma Holding) and Green River Polymers GmbH
He pioneered various novel technologies such as thiolated polymers (thiomers), charge converting nanocarriers for mucosal drug delivery and advanced lipid-based formulations for oral peptide drug delivery. Andreas Bernkop-Schnürch has been awarded more than twenty international and national awards including the Houska Award 2007, Ernst Brandl Award 2015, Gattefossé North America Award 2017 and Phoenix Science Award 2022. He is author of over 500 research articles, reviews, patents and books. His publications have been cited over 30,000 times. The Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) lists him as Highly Cited Researcher.
Carmen Isabel ALVAREZ LORENZO
Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology I University of Santiago de Compostela
3D printing of cyclodextrins for biomedical applications
Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo (PhD Pharmacy, 1998) is Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) (1998-2001) and “Ramón y Cajal” researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela (2001-2006). Her work lies at the interface between pharmaceutical technology, biology, materials science, and medicine. Her research interests include drug and gene nanocarriers, stimuli-responsive and imprinted networks, biomimetic materials, supramolecular assemblies, scaffolds, and drug-eluting medical devices. She has coauthored more than 350 papers, 30 book chapters, 18 patents, and +430 contributions to scientific meetings, and co-edited two books. Her publications have been cited over 20,000 times (h-index: 74; Google Scholar). She has supervised 26 PhD students and 10 more are on-going. She is a member of the Editorial Committee of relevant journals (e.g., J. Control. Release; Carbohydr. Polymers) and she is Editor of Int. J. Pharm. and Int. J. PharmX. She is Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and she is currently the Director of the Institute of Materials at USC (iMATUS).
Gustavo GONZÁLEZ-GAITANO
Head of Department/ Director | Professor of Physical Chemistry | Department of Chemistry | University of Navarra, Spain
Cyclodextrins, Surfactants and Self-assembly
Full Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Universidad de Navarra (UN, Spain), he started working in the cyclodextrins field in 1997. His research activity spans the fields of Supramolecular Chemistry, Soft Matter and Materials Science. Complexes of cyclodextrins and polymers for pharmaceutical, environmental and analytical applications, self-assembly of surfactants, polymers and biopolymers, and production, characterisation and properties of nanocomposites and fibrous polymer materials, are among the topics he has devoted his research, the most relevant contributions being in the use of scattering and spectroscopic methods for the study of cyclodextrin rotaxanes and polyrotaxanes in solution and in solid phase. Author of over 100 scientific papers and book chapters, and led or participated in more than 30 research projects and contracts with companies, his research activity has gone in parallel with academic duties as Deputy Director of Studies and Vice-Dean of the School of Sciences of the UN. Visiting Professor of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain) and Senior Lecturer at King’s College London (UK), since 2015 he holds the position of Head of the Department of Chemistry, and is currently a member of the research groups SUMBET (Supramolecular Materials for Biomedical and Environmental Technologies) and BIOMA (Instituto de Biodiversidad y Medioambiente) of the Universidad de Navarra.
Jindřich JINDRICH
Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry | Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
Positively charged cyclodextrins - from selectors to anchors
He has been working as Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague since 2017. His most important results: Activities in the area of cyclodextrin (CD) chemistry – development of methods for synthesis of regioselectively substituted CD derivatives and use of the new CD derivatives in applications such as separation methods, construction of chemosensors, selective complexation, and catalysis. Development of database applications: databases for projects CZ-OPENSCREEN, Biomodels4Health, database of cyclodextrin complexes CyclodexDB (https://db.cyclodextrins.org). Patent applications on substances for modification of surfaces of negatively charged solid support.
Membership in scientific boards: 2014- Academic council for Ph.D. studies, program „Organic Chemistry“, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague – member 2017- Chemistry Section Scientific Council, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague – member 2018- Academic council for Ph.D. studies, program „Organic Chemistry“, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague – head Grants and their evaluations: Co-PI on grant of Ministry of Industry and Trade (Trio FV10082), Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TP01010040), a co-worker on grants of Czech Science Foundation (13-12496S, 13-01440S), Ministry of Industry and Trade (TIP FR-TI3/370), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (LO1419 Biomodels4Health, LO1220 CZOPENSCREEN). Reviewer for Grant Agency of Charles University; National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Hungary); Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France).
Publications: Total 67 WOS publications, 1047 citing articles, h-index 19
Juan M. BENITO
Research Professor | Institute for Chemical Research, CSIC | University of Sevilla, Spain
Advancing Synthetic Viruses via Hierarchical Cyclodextrin Self-Assembling
Juan M. Benito holds a PhD degree in Chemistry (University of Sevilla, 2001). Between 2002 and 2004 he worked at Carlsberg Laboratory (Copenhagen, Denmark), under the supervision of Prof. Morten Meldal as MSCA Fellow. At the fall of 2004 he enrolled the Institute for Chemical Research (Univ. Sevilla – CSIC) as “Ramón y Cajal” research fellow and in 2006 he was promoted as Tenured Scientist. In 2007 he was distinguished with the “Premio de Investigador Joven” from the “Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla”.
His research is focused at the study of the supramolecular interactions involving carbohydrates in the broader sense, in which cyclodextrins are key players. The two fundamental axis of his scientific activity are:
- The development of molecular systems for the targeted delivery of specific therapeutic agents (from small molecular drugs to nucleic acids).
- The insight into the mechanisms ruling supramolecular recognition and self-assembling phenomena of carbohydrate-based materials and their potential applications.
As a consequence of such activity, Juan M Benito has already produced over 80 scientific publications (60 Q1 and 21 D1 accordingly to ISI WoK) and book chapters, as well as several licenced patents.
Among the most important achievements, it is worth mentioning the design of a new type of therapeutic agent carrier based on molecularly well-defined amphiphilic cyclodextrins and other carbohydrate-based scaffolds. The functional capabilities of these carriers can be manipulated and programmed ad hoc by means chemical synthesis to tailor their delivery and environmental interaction capabilities to particular types of payloads and biological media. This research has attracted the biopharmaceutical industry interest. Indeed, at the emergence of mRNA-based vaccine technologies, he has enroled in several public-private collaboration agreements aimed at the implementation of this research into next generation nucleic acid-based therapies.
Levente SZŐCS
Research and Development Director I CycloLab R&D Ltd.
The real DIMEB! The truth behind CAS number 51166-71-3
He graduated as a pharmacist at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Semmelweis University in 2010. He started his PhD studies at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. His main research topic was the determination of particle-specific physicochemical parameters of biomolecules and drugs using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). During his doctoral studies, he participated in a cooperative research program with Richter Gedeon Vegyészeti Gyár Nyrt, the purpose of the project was to deliver drug molecules into the central nervous system through the blood-brain barrier in order to treat neurodegenerative diseases.
In 2016, he obtained a complementary degree in legal studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Pázmány Péter Catholic University, and in 2017 he became a quality assurance specialist pharmacist.
He joined CycloLab in 2017, as deputy head of quality insurance, but he was involved in several R&D activities as well.
He took a key role in three successful official (OGYÉI) inspections (2018, 2022 and 2023) and participated in more than 20 international customer and supplier GMP and ISO audits as a lead auditor.
From the 1st of January 2022, he is the research and development director of CycloLab. Within this position, he coordinates all academic and industrial research activities and manages approx. 20 people within the company. He coordinates the synthesis of several cyclodextrin derivatives from laboratory scale to pilot and industrial scale.
He is a member of the Hungarian Innovation Association, the Carbohydrate, Antibiotic and Nucleotide Chemistry Working Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Chamber of Pharmacists.
He has presented his research results at many international conferences in the fields of analytical chemistry, separation sciences, organic and carbohydrate chemistry, and have so far published a total of 11 publications in high-impact, internationally recognized scientific journals. He is also an inventor in a patent: Process for the synthesis of selectively alkylated cyclodextrins (PCT/IB2022/061481).
He is an active author of the blog www.cyclodextrinnews.com. The aim is to share the latest scientific and interesting facts about cyclodextrins.
He considers it extremely important to build the scientific careers of young colleagues within CycloLab, which is why he also supports their further education, be it postgraduate or doctoral training.
Oliver MINGE
Head of Innovation | Wacker Chemie AG – Biosolutions
Cyclodextrins in Food Applications – an Industrial Perspecitve
Oliver studied Chemistry at Technische Universität München, where he was focusing on Silicon and Polymer Chemistry during his studies.
After his Ph.D. in 2004, he started his industrial career at Wacker’s central research division.
After several positions within the Wacker group over the years where his field of responsibility increasingly shifted towards biotechnology,
Oliver is now responsible for R&D and Innovation at Wacker Biosolutions, the life science branch of Wacker and home of Cyclodextrins.
Sophie BEEREN
Associate Professor | Technical University of Denmark
Templated enzymatic synthesis of δ-cyclodextrin
Sophie Beeren is an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where her group is working to combine enzymology with supramolecular chemistry and develop Enzyme-Mediated Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry as an approach to obtain unusual oligosaccharides.
Originally from Australia, Sophie obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2006, then worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen before establishing a new research group at DTU in 2017. Her research is supported, amongst others, by an ERC-Starting Grant. She has published 34 articles, 2 book chapters and one patent and has supervised more than 35 PhD, MSc and BSc students.
Stanisław WACLAWEK
Head of the Environmental Catalysis Laboratory | The Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technology and Innovation | Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic
Cyclodextrin-based materials for water treatment
Stanisław Wacławek currently works at the Technical University of Liberec (since 2013), where he has also obtained his Ph.D. degree (2017). He obtained his habilitation (D.Sc.) at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, becoming an associate professor (at TUL) in 2022.
He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cincinnati (US) and Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (DE). His field of interest is nanomaterials in the environment, remediation techniques, and catalysis. He has completed a half-year internship at the SiREM/Geosyntec company and two months internship at the University of Guelph (Guelph, ON, Canada). He is coordinator / manager of several research projects, including the prestigious Czech GAČR jr (from 2020).
He also serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Advanced Oxidation Technologies and Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S. He is also an Editorial Board Member of Chemical Engineering Journal and Catalysts journal. Stanisław Wacławek is in 2% of the most-cited scientists in the world according to Scopus and a Publons 2019 awardee: Top reviewers in Environment and Ecology – September 2019 and Top reviewers in Cross-Field – September 2019.
Tibor VELLAI
Head of Department, Department of Genetics I Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Cyclodextrin derivatives induce autophagy in animals models. Studying neuroprotective and anti-aging effects
He has been working as Head of Department, Department of Genetics, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Budapest, Hungary since 2008.
Teaching activity:
- Lectures and practical courses in genetics, developmental genetics, microbial genetics,
- molecular biology and evolutionary biology for biologists, teachers and medical students.
- Supervisor of M.Sc. diploma works: over 50
- Supervisor of completed Ph.D. works: 18
- Currently supervised Ph.D. students: 6
Current research interest:
- Regulation and mechanism of the aging process; Cellular and developmental functions of autophagy; Genetics of cell death (apoptosis, autophagy, necrosis); Databases for signaling crosstalk; Sex-determination and dosage compensation
- Experience with genetic models: Caenorhabditis elegans (nematode), Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly), Danio rerio (zebrafish), Escherichia coli (bacterium), mammalian cell cultures
Public professional activity:
- Editorial board member: Zoological Research (2008-); BMC Developmental Biology (2008-2013); Autophagy (2008-2014); Scientifica (2012-2014); FEBS Open Biol (2013-2018)
- Presidency member of the Society of Hungarian Geneticists
- Council member of the Institute of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, ELTE
- Co-chair of the Molecular Biology, Genetics and Cell Biology Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)
- Vice-president of the Biology Doctoral School, ELTE
- Leader of the genetics PhD program
- Referee for various national and international grant organizations and scientific journals (e.g., Nature)
- Elected for a membership in HAS (2021)
Most significant research findings:
Uncovering the role of the kinase target of rapamycin (TOR) in aging control (PMID: 14668850); exploring the central role of autophagy in the regulation of the aging process (PMID: 18219227); demonstrating the role of transposable elements and N6-adenine methylation in lifespan determination
Research papers in peer-reviewed journals: 88