Speakers

Plenary Lectures (PL)

 

 Dr. Andrew Kellett

Dublin City University, IE

  Andrew Kellett is Professor of Inorganic and Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University, Ireland. His group are based at the Nano Research Facility (NRF) and focus on artificial gene editing, metallodrug discovery, and therapeutic nucleic acids. He is a back-to-back coordinator of the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) ClickGene and NATURE-ETN. His lab is supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the Irish Research Council (IRC), and the SFI funded centres for Pharmaceuticals (SSPC) and Medical Devices (CÚRAM). He is a graduate of Maynooth University (B.Sc.) and Technological University Dublin (PhD), was appointed as the A.F. Graves Fellow at the Focas Research Institute and thereafter joined the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University. In 2022 he was named the SSPC's 'Investigator of the Year' and recently received a prestigious Irish Research Council (IRC) Laureate Consolidator Award.   

 

Group: https://andrewkellettgroup.com

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrew_kellett

  

Dr. Ramon Vilar

Imperial College London, UK

   

Ramon Vilar is a Professor of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry and Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London. He was previously Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology (2019-23) and Director of Research in the Chemistry Department (2015 to 2023) in the same institution. His research focuses on the development of novel tools and technologies to interrogate biological systems spanning several areas such as medicinal inorganic chemistry, chemical biology, molecular recognition and molecular imaging. Some of the areas of interest include the role that unusual nucleic acids' structures (e.g. G-quadruplexes and triplexes) have in defining their biological function; the biological role metal ions play in living systems; the development of metal complexes as potential anticancer and antibacterial drugs. The group also has an interest in the development of molecular tools for the detection and removal of environmentally harmful species (such as arsenic, cyanide and lead) in water.

GroupVilar Research Group | Research groups | Imperial College London

X/Twitterhttps://twitter.com/vilar_group

 

 

Dr. Gerard Roelfes

University of Groningen, NL

 

Gerard Roelfes is professor of Biomolecular Chemistry & Catalysis at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He obtained his MSc and PhD (2000) from the University of Groningen. His PhD research he carried out under supervision of Prof. Ben L. Feringa, in a joint project with the group of Prof. Lawrence Que Jr. (Univ. Minnesota), in whose lab he carried out part of the work. After his PhD he went for a post-doctoral stay with Prof. Donald Hilvert at the ETH-Zürich (Switzerland). In 2003 he returned to the University of Groningen as a junior research group leader. He became Assistant Professor in 2006, Associate Professor in 2010 and since 2015 is Full Professor. Additionally, since 2022 he is the scientific director of the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry at the University of Groningen. Among other honors, he is recipient of ERC starting and advanced grants. His research interests are enzyme design, bio-orthogonal catalysis and catalysis in living cells.

Group: roelfesgroup.nl

X/TwitterRoelfes Group (@RoelfesGroup) / X (twitter.com)

 

 

 

Invited Lectures (IL)

 

 

Dr. Caterina Ramogida

Simon Fraser University, Canada

 

Caterina is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry department at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. She holds a joint appointment with the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF – Canada’s particle accelerator centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Her biomedical research program is focused on nuclear medicinal inorganic chemistry. This includes the design, synthesis, and characterization of bifunctional chelating ligands for exotic therapeutic and diagnostic radiometals, the production and purification of medically relevant radiometals, and the design, synthesis, and evaluation of multi-modal scaffolds for radiotheranostic applications. She currently serves on the Board of the International Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, and co-leads a trans-Canada Transformation program called “Rare Isotopes to Transform Cancer Therapy”.

Group: https://ramogidagroup.weebly.com/

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaterinaRamogi1

 

 

Dr. Jessica Rodriguez Villar

University of Santiago de Compostela, ES

 

Jessica graduated in Chemistry at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in 2012. She completed her PhD (2016) at the same university under the supervision of Profs. J. L. Mascareñas and M. E. Vázquez, working on the development of new strategies for the specific recognition and modification of DNA using synthetic systems. Then, she joined Dr. Bourissou's group at the LHFA (Toulouse, France) as Ramón Areces and Marie Curie Fellow. During this time, her work was based on the design, synthesis and characterization of new Au(III) complexes and the study of their catalytic properties. In 2021, she returned to the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela as a "Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación" researcher. She has recently obtained a “Ramon y Cajal” grant, starting her independent career at Universidade de A Coruña. She has been visiting scholar at the ICIQ (Spain), at the University of Munich (Germany) and at the IRB (Spain). She has received several awards, including the Award for the best PhD thesis in Chemical Biology from the RSEQ-GEQB and the Young Postdoctoral Researchers Award from RSEQ. Her current research focuses on the development of new transition-metal-mediated reactions for the functionalization of biomolecules. 

Group: https://investigacion.usc.gal/investigadores/120507/detalle

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rguez_Villar

 

 

Dr. James Coverdale

University of Birmingham, UK

 

Dr Coverdale is a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Biology. His previous experience within industry and academia has provided him with analytical expertise in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. He lectures on medicinal chemistry to students on the MPharm course. James’s research focuses on the role of metals in medicine, and the development of new bioanalytical techniques relating to bioinorganic chemistry. Dr Coverdale was awarded Chartered Chemist status in 2021, in recognition of his on-going professional practice.

 

Group: Dr James Coverdale - School of Pharmacy - University of Birmingham

X/Twitter: Dr James Coverdale (@DrCoverdale) / X (twitter.com)