Carolina Alhambra is a distinguished expert in Automated Synthesis at Lilly. Since joining the company in 2002, she has made significant contributions to the combichem group at Alcobendas, where she played a pivotal role in implementing parallel synthesis technologies and optimizing reaction strategies.

Carolina later transitioned to the Discovery Chemistry Synthesis Group, focusing on process optimization of critical synthetic routes through automation. In 2016, she took the lead of the High Throughput Automated Lab, and in 2019, she also assumed the role of Group Leader for Analytical Technologies at Alcobendas.

Under her leadership, her team has become a key contributor to numerous projects across Lilly's Global Discovery portfolio. They serve as a hub for developing automated technologies and continuous innovation, applied to optimization, synthesis, analysis, and purification.

Dr Corzana is a Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of La Rioja and the leader of the Chemical Biology research group. His research group focuses on the synthesis and structure of glycopeptides for biomedical applications. He earned his PhD from the same university in 2001 with a dissertation on the preparation of unnatural amino acids. He then pursued two postdoctoral positions: one at the University of Copenhagen with Prof. Engelsen (2001-2003), where he investigated the conformational behavior of starch-derived carbohydrates using molecular dynamics simulations, and another at the Instituto de Química Orgánica General (CSIC) in Madrid with Prof. Jiménez Barbero and Dr. Asensio (2003-2005), where he prepared modified aminoglycoside antibiotics and studied their conformational behavior in water using NMR and molecular dynamics simulations. In 2005, he returned to the University of La Rioja as a “Ramon y Cajal” researcher and became an Associate Professor in 2008. His current research interests include the design and synthesis of glycopeptides to develop cancer vaccines and to detect cancer at early stages of the disease. He has authored more than 160 articles in high impact journals and has delivered more than 30 invited talks at national and international conferences. He was recently awarded the “José Barluenga Medal 2024” by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) in recognition of his outstanding contributions.

She is Full Professor of Organic Chemistry since 2009, and visiting Professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (Paris-Saclay University), the University of Picardie in France and the University of Hokkaido in Japan. She is the Head of the Group of Bioorganic Chemistry of Carbohydrates and has served as Director of the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Seville, and as responsible of the Science Section in the Research Commission of the US.

The research lines of her lab revolve around the general theme "Carbohydrates for health and well-being" with a focus on the development of new therapies, for orphan diseases and global health problems. She has made several contributions for the application of the “chemical mimic” concept to the design of glycoconjugate mimetics as drug candidates or diagnostic probes for metabolic diseases (lysosomal storage disorders), age-related diseases (Alzheimer disease), cancer (tumor-associated carbohydrate mimetics) and immunomodulation (adjuvants, and anti-inflammatory compounds).

Dr. María Méndez Pérez is a distinguished scientist and medicinal chemistry group leader at Sanofi's Integrated Drug Discovery Unit in Frankfurt. With Sanofi since 2006, she currently spearheads programs in immunology and neurology, focusing on implementing novel technologies and workflows to expedite the DMTA cycle. As a global portfolio coordinator, she helps stirring the global Integrated Drug Discovery portfolio. Throughout her tenure at Sanofi, she has significantly contributed to the delivery of leads and clinical candidates within various target classes, modalities, and disease areas. Dr. Méndez Pérez holds a Ph.D. in catalysis from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and completed postdoctoral research as a Humboldt fellow at both the Max-Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung and the Technical University in Berlin, bringing a wealth of expertise to her current role.

Gunda I, Georg, Regents Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, earned a B.S. in pharmacy and a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from Philipps Universität Marburg, Germany. After postdoctoral studies (University of Ottawa, Canada), she became a faculty member at the University of Kansas. In 2007, she joined the University of Minnesota, where she leads the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2011-2020). She is a fellow of the AAAS and the ACS. 2017, she was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the ACS. 2020, she received the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the ACS and, in 2023, the Carl Mannich Medal from the German Pharmaceutical Society. Her medicinal chemistry and drug discovery research has been communicated in 270 publications. She is co-inventor of one marketed drug and three drugs in clinical trials. She has trained over 100 students, postdocs, and visiting scientists.

Tilly Bingham is a drug discoverer with >20 years’ experience of working in the pharmaceutical R&D sector in ‘large pharma’ (Organon, Schering-Plough, MSD), Biotech (Redx Pharma), CRO (Concept Life Sciences) and is currently CSO/COO at GIO Therapeutics and Executive in Residence at Cumulus Oncology.

Tilly’s early career was spent working as a medicinal chemist in CNS therapeutic areas where her research focussed on design strategies for getting small molecule therapeutics across the blood brain barrier for targets including the GPCRs OX2R, V1R and CGRP. Then, as Head of Research and Operations at Redx Pharma she oversaw the discovery and development of oncology and fibrosis clinical candidates, including the clinical candidate porcupine inhibitors RXC004 (oncology), RXC006 (fibrosis,/AZD5055), Pan RAF inhibitor (JZP815) and FDA approved BTK inhibitor (Pirtobrutinib /Jaypirca®).

Tilly is a member of the EFMC executive committee (European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology), a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry BMCS interest group and is co-editor of Progress in Medicinal Chemistry.

Teresa de Haro studied Chemistry at the Autonoma University of Madrid and graduated in 2005. She completed her Master Thesis in Organic Chemistry at the same university in 2007. After a medicinal chemistry internship at Eli&Lilly (Madrid) she joined the lab of Prof. Nevado at the University of Zurich where she received her PhD in Organic Chemistry with summa cum laude in 2012. Then, she joined the group of prof. Fürstner at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kolhenforschung working in total synthesis of natural products. In 2013 she joined Eli&Lilly (UK) before started at UCB in 2014 as a senior scientist in medicinal chemistry in UK and moving to UCB Belgium in 2018 as Principal Scientist. Since then, she has contributed to immunology, CNS and infectious diseases (Malaria) programs and her main goal is to discover and develop new treatments that can bring value to patients. Teresa has received the 2023 EFMC Prize for Young Medicinal Chemist or Chemical Biologist in Industry.

Dr. Maria Marco was born in Madrid, Spain, and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Organic Chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid. After spending a year as a graduate trainee at GlaxoWellcome in Madrid, she found her vocation as a researcher and decided to take the opportunity to move to King’s College London to carry out her Ph.D. under Dr. Nicholas Leadbeater's supervision. On completion of her Ph.D., Maria started working at GlaxoSmithKline in Tres Cantos. Her research interests have been focused on finding new treatments for Neglected Tropical Diseases. Starting with the search of antimalarials, she worked in the optimization of molecules both in phenotypic and target-based projects. Given their great unmet medical need, in 2011 she moved to the Kinetoplastid unit where she has been working on finding new treatments for Visceral Leishmaniasis first and Chagas Disease. All these projects have been carried out in partnerships with university of Dundee or Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and have contributed to the progression of 3 assets to clinical studies. Maria also serves as Board member of the SEQT.

Juan J. Nogueira received his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2011. After a one-year postdoc at the University of Bordeaux (2012-2013), he was awarded the postdoctoral Marie Curie fellowship to move to the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry in Vienna (2013-2018). Then, he worked for one year as a postdoc at the Australian National University (2018-2019) before joining the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid under the Attraction of Talent Program of the Region of Madrid (2019-2024), where he is currently Permanent Professor since April 2024. His research focused on the simulation of biological processes by classical and quantum mechanically approaches.

Isabel Rozas was born in Madrid, Spain. After a B.Sc. in (Organic) Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1981, Spain) she carried out postgraduate research at the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (CSIC, Madrid, Spain) obtaining her PhD degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1987. She performed post-doctoral research in the University of Saskatchewan (1989-91, Canada), and at Queen’s University in Kingston (1993-94, Canada). After working for 14 years at the mentioned Institute of Medicinal Chemistry, in 2000 she moved to the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) as a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry. In 2003, she became director of the Medicinal Chemistry course; in 2005, was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin; in 2006, she became Senior Lecturer, and in 2007 was elected by her colleagues as Head of Organic, Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, a position that she held for three years. In 2010, she became Professor in Chemistry.

Her main area of research is framed within the Medicinal Chemistry field, and, thus, her group works in the modelling, preparation and biophysical and biological evaluation of: (i) agents targeting nucleic acids (DNA minor groove and Guanine-quadruplexes) as anticancer or antiprotozoal therapies; (ii) guanidine-based inhibitors of protein kinases; (iii) compounds targeting adrenergic alpha2- or specifically alpha2C-receptors with application as antidepressants or antipsychotic agents; (iv) piperazine guanidinium derivatives as anti-tuberculosis agents; and recently (v) compounds targeting TMPRSS2 protease as potential anti Covid-19 therapies. In addition, she has an interest in the theoretical study of non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds. She has published over 173 papers and collaborates with several groups in Ireland, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, Canada and USA. Since February 2019 until November 2022, she was an Editor of Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and now is a member of the Advisory Board for both Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters as well as Special Issue Editor for Results in Chemistry.

Presently, she is the Chairperson of the Division of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry in the ICI (Institute of Chemistry of Ireland) and member of the Council of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (EFMC).

Noureddine Khiar is a Research Scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) with a multidisciplinary background spanning biochemistry, pharmacology, molecular pharmacochemistry, and asymmetric synthesis. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the University of Strasbourg, followed by multiple postdoctoral fellowships across the United States and Europe.

He is the founder and leader of the "Asymmetric Synthesis and Functional Nanosystems (Art&Fun)" group, dedicated to pioneering methods in synthesizing chiral sulfur derivatives and exploring their catalytic applications. The group also specializes in the design, synthesis, and bio-functionalization of nano- and micromaterials, aimed at diverse bioapplications. Dr. Khiars work has received widespread recognition, with contributions including book chapters and 103 publications in high-impact journals across organic synthesis, multidisciplinary chemistry, materials science, and nanomedicine. His team has demonstrated significant technology transfer potential, with a portfolio of 10 patents, 2 of which are licensed to private enterprises. In 2015, he co-founded Nanosel, a spin-off dedicated to cancer diagnostics and therapeutics using nanotechnology, where he served as Chief Scientific Advisor until 2017.

Over his career, Dr. Khiar has supervised 13 completed doctoral theses, with 2 ongoing, alongside more than 20 postdoctoral researchers. Many of his former students hold prominent roles in academia and industry. He has also mentored over 20 Master’s thesis projects.

In scientific leadership, Dr. Khiar has held several prominent roles, including Deputy Director (2007–2009) and Director of the Institute of Chemical Research (IIQ) in Seville since 2017. Since 2021, he has also served as Director of the Cartuja Scientific Research Center (cicCartuja), which includes three research institutes: the Institute of Chemical Research (IIQ), the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF), and the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS). He is member of the coordinating committee of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform "Global Health" (PTI+ Salud Global) and manages the CSIC Chemical Library (Quimioteca CSIC), a strategic initiative for drug discovery and pandemic preparedness.

I obtained my PhD from the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CSIC, Madrid, Spain) in 1995. Following this, I moved to the Netherlands, supported by EMBO and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grants, to work as a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands). There, I pursued further training in molecular biology, protein chemistry, and NMR spectroscopy. Later, I secured a permanent position as an Associate Scientist at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada), the leading cancer treatment center in Canada. At this time, I focused on the structural characterization of oncoproteins and tumor suppressors, as well as the development of new technologies for structural genomics. After this period, I accepted a role as an Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca in Alderley Park (Manchester, United Kingdom), the company's largest oncology research center. During this time, I concentrated on the structural characterization of pharmaceutically relevant targets and the design of drugs using NMR and computational chemistry studies. Additionally, I was part of a core group responsible for evaluating and selecting targets involved in cell invasion and metastasis. In 2005, I was recruited by the Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe (CIPF, Valencia, Spain) to lead the Structural Biochemistry Laboratory and the NMR facility as a Principal Investigator. In May 2015, I joined the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe (Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain) as Director of the Drug Discovery Unit, and concurrently led the Joint Unit in Clinical Metabolomics CIPF/IIS La Fe. Four years later, I was offered several senior management positions (Director of Translational Research and Deputy Director in November 2020) and scientific roles (Director of the Molecular Therapeutics Program and Senior Investigator of the Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory) at the University of Navarra´s Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada (CIMA, Pamplona, Spain), and I joined the institution in May 2019. In September 2022, I was promoted to Scientific Director at CIMA.

Concepción Alonso got the BS from the University of Valladolid, the PhD from the University of the Basque Country (1998) and subsequently performed a postdoctoral stay at the University of California in Davis (USA) working in the group of Prof. Mark J. Kurth developing the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds by combinatorial methodologies. After 2-year postdoctoral time, she rejoined the Department of Organic Chemistry I of the University of the Basque Country as a postdoctoral researcher. During this time, she made a stay at the National Center for Oncological Research (CNIO, Madrid) together with Prof. Claudio Dalvit in order to gain knowledge about the application of NMR in the development of kinase inhibitors. In 2011, she obtained the permanent position of Doctor Researcher in the Organic Chemistry Department of the Basque Country University, and in 2012 obtained the University Associate Professor position of the University of the Basque Country University, where she is currently. Through her research experience by the moment, she has a total of 73 research articles, some of them in journals with a high impact index. At moment, two more articles are in the process of revision in the journal offices. She has also collaborated in the development of 3 book chapters. She has participated in 71 national and international scientific conferences and in 24 competitive research projects of international, national and regional scope.

Dr. González Vera graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Granada. He then completed his Ph.D. (Cum Laude) at the Institute of Medical Chemistry (IQM) of CSIC, Madrid, on the development of peptidomimetics with application in cancer. In 2006, he joined Prof. Barbara Imperiali's group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge-USA) as a postdoc in Chemical Biology with an Alfonso Martín Escudero fellowship. His work focused on the development of fluorescent peptide biosensors for the study of protein kinase activity. Subsequently, he continued his scientific career in the field of Chemical Biology as a Juan de la Cierva researcher (2009-2011) in Prof. Mª Luz López’s group at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), on the development of fluorescent probes for the study of GPCRs. In 2012 he rejoined IQM (2012-2014) as a postdoc (JAE-Doc CSIC contract), where he initiated and led a new research line directed towards the development of novel fluorescent probes and lanthanide antennas for the study of protein phosphorylation and protein-protein interactions. From 2015-2017 he joined Prof. May Morris’s group at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (CNRS) in Montpellier, France, with a Marie Curie fellowship, on the development of luminescent biosensors for tumor biomarker detection & drug discovery. Since February 2017 he belongs to the Nanoscopy Lab (FQM-247) at the University of Granada and since 2022 he is Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry. His research is directed towards the development of luminescent probes & biosensors, and advanced microscopy techniques for the study of complex biological systems, to address fundamental biological questions at the interface between chemistry and biology.

Dr. Nathaniel I. Martin
Professor of Biological Chemistry
Leiden University

Nathaniel Martin was born and raised in Western Canada and obtained his PhD degree from the University of Alberta in 2004. He subsequently performed postdoctoral studies at the University of California Berkeley and in 2007 moved to Utrecht University (The Netherlands) to start his independent career. In 2018 Professor Martin was appointed Chair of Biological Chemistry at Leiden University where his research group works on developing new molecular strategies to address antibiotic resistance (www.martinlab.nl). With a firm foundation in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry, the approaches used by the Martin lab include the design and synthesis of new antibiotics as well as developing small molecule inhibitors of different resistance mechanisms. Prof. Martin has received a number of grants and awards in support of his research from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). To date, Prof. Martin has published 135 research papers and is named inventor on 10 patents. Since 2023 Prof. Martin is associate editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, where he oversees submissions on infectious disease. When not thinking about antibiotics Nathaniel can most likely be found watching his favorite ice-hockey team.

Prof. Deprez-Poulain trained as a chemical engineer (JUNIA HEI, Lille, FR 1996), holds a BS in Chemistry (Juniata College, PA, USA 1995), an MSc in Organic Chemistry (Lille University, FR,1996) and PharmD (Lille University, FR,2009). She completed her PhD under the supervision of Pr Tartar (1996-1999) in combinatorial chemistry applied to drug discovery (Lille University and CEREP, FR). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, she was appointed Senior Lecturer in General Chemistry in 2001 and has been Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Lille School of Pharmacy since 2010. She was a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2015-2020) and the recipient of several awards, including the SCT/Servier Research Encouragement Prize (2009) and the Michel Delalande Prize in Pharmacochemistry awarded by the National Pharmacy Academy (2020). She was President of the French Medicinal Chemistry Society (2021-2022) and is a member of the council of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (EFMC). Her research expertise focuses on the inhibition of metalloproteases for therapeutic use. She is currently coordinating the European CAPSTONE-ETN project (www.capstone-etn.eu) dedicated to the modulation of ERAPs in immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases.

She has published over 70 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including J. Med. Chem, Nat. Comm, Nat. Med, Ang. Chem. and is the inventor of several patents.

Valle obtained her BSc in Chemistry in 2008 and in that year, she joined the Medicinal Chemistry Institute at CSIC with Prof. A. Martínez and C. Gil to develop neurogenic and neuroprotective drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In 2012, she obtained her PhD and in 2013, she joined The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla with Prof. P. Dawson. There, she focused in the development of Quantum Dot nanoparticles, peptide synthesis and biosensor development. In 2016, she returned to Spain as Juan de la Cierva fellow at the Centre for Biological research from CSIC. In 2018, she established her own research group thanks to a Junior Leader fellowship from la Caixa. In 2021, she moved her lab to IMDEA Nanociencia, thanks to Ramon y Cajal fellowship, and is now head of the lab of Biosensors in Neuroscience.

Our research is focused on the use of chemical tools, including inorganic nanoparticles or Quantum Dots, to understand biological mechanisms in pathological conditions of neurodegenerative diseases. Our goal is to better characterize the complex mechanisms of neuroprotective agents in models derived from patients to find effective drugs with a high potential for clinical transfer. In parallel, we develop innovative strategies to discover drugs against Alzheimer's disease and effectively increase their brain permeability in combination with organic nanoparticles.

Maria-Laura Bolognesi is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on the development of small molecules for neurodegenerative and neglected tropical diseases. She has authored over 200 publications and has given over 100 invited lectures worldwide. She has been Visiting Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (2009), PVE Fellow at the University of Brasilia (2014-2018) and Professeur Invité at the Université Caen-Normandie (2018). She is President of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (term 2021-2024), Associate Editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (ACS) and member of the Advisory Board of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry. From 2024, she has been nominated by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research Systems (ANVUR) as Coordinator of the Group of Evaluation Experts (GEV) for Chemistry.

Juan Miguel Jimenez, PhD, FRSC

Executive Director and Discovery Chemistry Site Head for Beerse, J&J Innovative Medicine

Medicinal Chemist with 28 years experience in drug discovery in pharmaceutical/biotech industry. Responsible for the oversight of drug discovery programs spanning from Hit-to-Lead through NME declaration. Involved over 20 pre-clinical candidates' nominations reaching different stages of clinical trials up to Phase II/III.

Obtained his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry at University of Barcelona (Faculty of Pharmacy) in 1993. Postdoctoral studies at Stanford University (USA) as a Fulbright Fellow in Paul Wenders group in 1994-1995. He obtained his first industrial appointment in 1997 in Almirall (Spain) where he was Section Head before joining in 2003 Vertex Pharmaceuticals (UK) as Senior Project Leader. Subsequently, he was appointed Senior Director Head of Medicinal Chemistry UK in 2014. In 2017 he joined Galapagos NV (Belgium) as Senior Director, Head of Medicinal Chemistry and was appointed VP, Head of Drug Innovation before moving to his actual position at J&J in 2022.

Salomé Pinho developed her PhD research in cancer glycobiology at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of Univ. Porto (IPATIMUP) and at Boston Medical School, MA, USA from 2006 to 2009. She performed her postdoctoral work at University of Porto in the glycobiology and glyco-immunology fields. Presently, she is a Principal Investigator and Group leader at i3S-Institute for Research and Innovation in Health at University of Porto, Portugal and affiliated Professor at Faculty of Medicine at University of Porto. Her research activity is focused on understanding the role of posttranslational modifications by glycosylation in the regulation of key protein function involved in chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer, envisioning potential clinical applications. The goal of her research group is to disentangle the spatiotemporal regulation of glycans in health and disease and to decipher its biological information to better understand its impact in defining the magnitude, the nature and the fate of the immune responses associated with inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer envisioning novel prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies. She is author of several publications in international peer-reviewed journals including Nature Reviews Cancer, Nature Immunology, Gastroenterology, Science Translational Medicine among many others. She supervises a research team composed by Post-Docs, PhD students, Master students and young researchers. She is the Principal Investigator of several national/international projects, also coordinating EU and US-funded consortiums in the field of glycobiology and inflammation. She received the Young Investigator Award from the European Association for Cancer Research (2012), The Pfizer award in Clinical research (2021) and the Glycobiology Significant Achievement Award (2020) by the American Society of Glycobiology, among other prizes and distinctions. She is currently the Vice-President of The Portuguese Society of Immunology.

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