Peter Wipf University of Pittsburgh – USA
Peter Wipf was born in Aarau, Switzerland. He received his Dipl. Chem. in 1984 and his Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Zürich under the direction of Professor Heinz Heimgartner. After a Swiss NSF postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Robert E. Ireland at the University of Virginia, he began his appointment at the University of Pittsburgh in the fall of 1990. Since 2004, he is a Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Chemical Methodologies and Library Development (UPCMLD) and is a co-Leader of the UPCI Molecular Therapeutics and Drug Discovery Program. Peter Wipf’s research focuses on the total synthesis of natural products, organometallic and heterocyclic chemistry. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award (2015), the Mosher Award and the Morley Medal (2013), and the Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products (2009). In 1998, he received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2010), the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, 2004), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2002). He has been an Associate Editor of ACS Med. Chem. Lett. since 2009 and serves on the Board of Directors of Organic Syntheses (since 2013) and Organic Reactions (since 2007). He has published 600 papers, patents, and book chapters.
Bente Frølund University of Copenhagen – DK
Bente Frølund is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Denmark. The research focus is on GHB pharmacology, ionotropic GABA and nACh receptors, and GABA relevant transporters, covering development of selective ligands as pharmacological tools and the basis for potential therapeutics. Special focus on development of photo/radioligands for determination of localization, mobility and activation of target proteins, and engineered molecular probes for ligand-protein crystallization, identification and probing of binding sites, bioorthogonal chemistry and targeted delivery of relevant ligands. The list of publication embraces peer-reviewed articles, book-chapters on medicinal chemistry aspects and patents on the discoveries obtained. Head of the interdisciplinary Molecular NeuroProtection research cluster at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology and member of the International Advisory Board of ChemMedChem and the Scientific Advisory Board of ‘Center of Interdiciplinary Research on Medicines –CIRM’, University of Liege, Belgium. Co-founder and VP MedChem of Ceremedy Aps.
Dieter Schinzer University of Magdeburg – DE
Dieter Schinzer is Full Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Magdeburg, Founder, Consultant and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of MOLISA (Molecular Links Sachsen-Anhalt) GmbH, Magdeburg and Consultant with several Pharmaceutical Companies. His current research is focused on organometallic chemistry (silicon-, tin-, and manganese chemistry), developement of new synthetic methods and application to the total synthesis of bioactive natural products, drug design by structure-activitiy-relations (SAR), molecular modeling, and computer applications in chemistry.
Donna Huryn University of Pittsburgh – USA
Donna M. Huryn is Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a PI of the University of Pittsburgh Chemical Diversity Center (UP-CDC). She also holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Chemistry. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, and Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Penn. After graduate school, she joined the Chemistry Research Department at Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc, and contributed to drug discovery efforts in inflammation, HIV, and cancer. In 1997 she joined Wyeth Research, in the Chemical Sciences department. She held a number of positions there, including Director of CNS Medicinal Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Sciences Interface Department. Under her leadership, compounds entered clinical trials for asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and depression. In 2004, she left the pharmaceutical industry to join academia, where her research interests include the identification of small molecule probes of biological systems, particularly those targetting cancer, infectious disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Professor Huryn has served as a permanent member of several NIH Medical Chemistry A Study Section, and was a member of the NSF Committee of Visitors. She has held a number of elected positions within the American Chemical Society at both the local and national levels, and is an Associate Editor to ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Organic Letters, member of the Editorial Board of Organic Reactions land a Fellow of the American Chemical Society
Giovanni Appendino University of Piemonte Orientale -IT
Dr. Appendino is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Università del Piemonte Orientale, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Novara (Italy), since 2000. Research activity in his laboratories takes inspiration from plant natural products to address problems in various realms of biomedical investigation, from pharmacology and nutrition (new drug leads and health-promoting dietary ingredients) to organic/medicinal chemistry (new synthetic methodologies and optimization of natural product drug leads) and cell biology (novel mechanisms of action). Author of over 350 peer-reviewed articles and 15 book chapters on the chemistry and bioactivity of plant natural products. Editor-in-Chief of the journal Fitoterapia and member of the Advisory Board of the PharmaNutrition, Natural Products Reports, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, and Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products. Recipient of the Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Award of the Phytochemical Society of Europe (1991), the Medaglia Quilico of the Società Chimica Italiana (2009) and the Bruker Prize of the Phytochemical Society of Europe in 2014 for his studies on bioactive natural products.
Dennis Liotta Emory University – USA
Dennis Liotta, PhD, serves as Executive Director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University. Dr. Liotta is recognized as one of the premier discoverers of novel therapeutics in the United States, having been the inventor of record for several clinically important antivirals and associated with the invention of ten FDA approved therapeutics. Dr. Liotta joined Emory in 1976. Since that time, he has authored over 230 research publications and more than 70 issued US patents. Dr. Liotta has also supervised numerous postdoctoral and graduate students and has received several teaching awards, including Emory University’s Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest faculty honor given at Emory. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. Dr. Liotta was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014 and the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame in 2010. Dr. Liotta also is the co-director of the Republic of South Africa Drug Discovery Training Program and a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship.
Bruno Botta University of Roma La Sapienza – IT
Bruno Botta is full professor of Chemistry. In November 2014, he was nominated Deputy Provost for the Internationalization. During the years 2011-2020, he has been Head of the Department of Chemistry and Technology of Drugs at Sapienza University of Rome. From 2015 to 2019, he used to be Chair of the Cost Action CM-1407 “Challenging organic syntheses inspired by nature – from natural products chemistry to drug discovery”. In 2012, he cofounded the Molecular Links Rome (MoLiRom s.r.l.), a spin-off Company of Sapienza University of Rome involved in the synthesis, extraction and production of bioactive substances of natural origin and protein-based products. His research interest during the years has been focused on the structure elucidation and synthesis of biologically active compounds derived from living plants. He spent 20 years (1987-2007) working on the field of plant tissue cultures in combination with chemistry-directed toward the understanding of biosynthetic pathways of the compounds under investigation. During the years, some plant enzymes (such as those belonging to the peroxidases family) have been isolated and purified and some kinetic studies have also been performed. During the last 25 years, Professor Botta also focused his attention on both the synthesis and host-guest studies of artificial receptors of the resorcarenes family. During the last 9 years, he focused his attention on the Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway which plays a pivotal role in the initiation, proliferation, invasion and metastasis of various cancers (inter alia medulloblastoma). He is author of 190 publications, including 10 patents (4 national and 6 international – USA and Europe), and, besides that, he is author and co-author of 10 books. For the Italian publishing house Edi-Ermes he edited 2 text books of Organic Chemistry.