Confirmed Speakers

salomep@i3s.up.pt

Biography

Salomé Pinho developed her PhD research 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 IPATIMUP - 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 and ICBAS 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, PNAS 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, coordinating EU-funded and US-funded consortiums in the field of glycobiology and inflammation and being PI in an ERC Synergy grant. 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.

UCIBIO, Departamento Ciências da Vida

NOVA School of Science and Technology, Caparica

2829-516 Lisbon, Portugal

CellmAbs, co-founder and CTO

p.videira@fct.unl.pt

Paula A. Videira is the leader of the Glycoimmunology Research Group at UCIBIO and Associate Professor in Immunology and Glycobiology at NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (NOVA-FCT, Portugal). Prof. Videira is highly motivated to comprehend the intricate roles of glycans in disease, and dedicated to translating Glycosciences into innovative immunotherapies. She co-directs CDG&Allies and, in 2019, co-founded CellmAbs, a successful spin-off focused on developing glycan-based immunotherapies for oncology. In 2024, CellmAbs clsoed a historic negotiation with a major pharmaceutical company to advance into clinical trials. She has also co-founded Valvian, a novel biopharmaceutical company centered on novel AI-driven immune therapies. Her academic background includes a degree in Biochemistry, a MSc and PhD in Biotechnology, and an Habilitation in Biology from NOVA FCT. She was an Erasmus fellow at Bergen University (Norway, 1994-1995), a research fellow at CERMAV (France, 1999), and a post-doctoral researcher at IST (Portugal, 2002-2005). Her leadership in Glycoimmunology developed as an Assistant Professor at NOVA Medical School (2005-2015) and at NOVA FCT (2015-2023). She has established a solid international network, coordinating 18 projects, including GLYCOTwinning and ProDGNE. She has also held visiting professorships at Bologna University (Italy, 2007), Harvard Medical School as an EMBO and Fulbright Fellow (USA, 2011 and 2013), and at the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil, 2014-2023).

Ikerbasque Research Professor

Scientific Director

CIC bioGUNE

Bizkaia Technological Park, Building 801A-1º

48160 Derio-Bizkaia (Spain)

Tel. +34 944061300 

Jesús Jiménez-Barbero is Ikerbasque Professor and Scientific Director of CIC bioGUNE since 2014. He was trained at Madrid (PhD), and postdoc in CERMAV-CNRS (Grenoble), University of Zurich, National Institute for Medical Research (Mill Hill), and Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh). Before moving to CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao), he was CSIC tenured scientist, senior research scientist, and Professor at Madrid (IQOG-CSIC and CIB-CSIC). He was President of RSEQ (Royal Society of Chemistry of Spain) and Head of the Chemistry Panel of the Ministry of Science. His lab employs a multidisciplinary approach of chemical synthesis, protein biochemistry and molecular biology, biophysics, molecular modelling, and structural biology (X-Ray and CryoEM), with special emphasis on NMR to unravel the molecular basis of the recognition of glycans by receptors related to biomedical events, including cancer and infectious diseases. His systematic studies have contributed to our general understanding of glycan-mediated interactions and have been disseminated in over 650 scientific publications and 300 invited and plenary lectures. He has supervised 39 PhDs and 40 postdocs and awarded with the National Prize of Research in Chemical Sciences & Technology of Spain (2023), International Whistler Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (2010), Gold Medal of the RSEQ (2018), and Humboldt award (2024), among others.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter H. Seeberger

Director

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces

Department of Biomolecular Systems

Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam

+49-331-5679300

Peter.seeberger@mpikg.mpg.de

Professor

Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry

14195 Berlin

GERMANY

Vice President

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Peter H. Seeberger a chemist, was a tenured professor at MIT and ETH Zurich before becoming director at the Max-Planck Institute in Potsdam in 2009. Since 2021, he is in addition a Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and since 2023 the Founding Director of the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) that received initial funding of €1.25 billion. His research spanning topics from engineering to immunology has been documented in >680 journal articles and >60 patent families and was recognized with >40 international awards. Peter Seeberger supports open access publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is a co-founder of the Tesfa-Ilg Foundation that works in Ethiopia and several successful companies.

Prof. Flaviana Di Lorenzo is currently Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Naples Federico II and CEINGE Institute of Advanced Biotechnology in Naples. She is the Principal Investigator of a 5-year ERC Starting Grant project and leads a research group of seven members, including three postdoctoral researchers (a chemist, a cell biologist, and a neurobiologist) and four PhD students (two chemists and two biologists), working at the intersection of organic chemistry, NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and (glyco)immunology.

Her research focuses on the structural characterization of bacterial glycans and glycolipids and their role in immune modulation, with applications in microbiome research and biomedical sciences. She has played a key role in developing chemistry-based approaches for microbial glycan profiling in biological samples, bridging fundamental research with biomedical applications. Her scientific excellence and leadership have been recognized with the prestigious 2024 Nowotny Award, granted by the International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society (IEIIS) for her outstanding contributions to the study of bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that shows potential for further scientific development.

Prof. Di Lorenzo has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, including high-impact papers in Chemical Reviews, Angewandte Chemie, and Nature Communications. She has also contributed to six international book chapters and secured multiple competitive research grants, including from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), European Commission, etc.

Prof. Di Lorenzo has extensive international collaborations, with research stays and joint projects at Osaka University (Japan), the University of Münster (Germany), and EMBL Heidelberg (Germany), NIH Bethesda (USA), and many others.

Cláudia Nunes is an Assistant Researcher at CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials at the University of Aveiro. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Aveiro since May 2008. The main scientific interests include the development of biomaterials based on polysaccharides for application in the biomedical and food areas. Her experience is recognized by the publication of 2 patents, 9 book chapters and 115 articles in International Journals cited in the Science Citation Index, with 3500 citations (h = 35). She already supervised 2 post-doctoral fellows, 17 PhD (5 finished), 48 MSc, and 50 last year students. She coordinated (5 projects) and participated in several research projects funded by national and European programs in collaboration with industry (30 in total).

José Gamelas interests concern the development of cellulose- and lignin-based materials, design of cellulose-based organic-inorganic composites/hybrids, and the applications of these materials from classical packaging to the preservation of cultural heritage. He has been included in the "World's top 2% scientists" list for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, based on data collected in the Scopus database (sub-area Polymers). He has coordinated two FCT projects and currently coordinates a European project (ERA Chairs). His work has attracted over €2.3 million in funding for his institution.

Miguel Cerqueira is a Staff Researcher at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, where he focuses on developing new strategies for a more sustainable and healthy food system using innovative technologies and materials. He has served as both principal investigator and team member on several funded projects and contracts with companies.

Miguel holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from the University of Minho and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Minho in collaboration with the University of Vigo. In 2014, he received the Young Scientist Award, and in 2018, he was included in the list of "Highly Cited Researchers" published by Clarivate Analytics.

Rita Ventura is the head of the Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory at ITQB NOVA since October 2005. Her main research interests are asymmetric synthesis, the total synthesis of natural compounds and analogues with improved biological properties, carbohydrate chemistry, stereoselective organocatalysis, biocatalysis and medicinal chemistry. R. Ventura’s Lab main research aim is to synthesise biologically active molecules, to modify their structure in order to enhance or modulate their biological properties and to contribute to the understanding of the biological phenomena in which they play a crucial role. This knowledge is important for the design and synthesis of new molecules that can interfere with the molecular mechanisms responsible for pathogenic behaviours, with potential innovative therapeutic applications. R. Ventura obtained a PhD degree in Chemistry from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa in 1999 and graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa in 1995. R. Ventura has published 76 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters and 7 patents. R. Ventura is currently Team Leader of the organic synthesis tasks of 5 projects. She has coordinated 3 FCT projects and an European Stroke Research Foundation (ESRF) project. She has been Co-PI and team member of over 25 research projects funded by national, European and industry programs. R. Ventura was co-founder and CSO of the startup Extremochem, 2013-2023. Extremochem developed new synthetic small organic molecules to stabilise biopharmaceuticals, part of the research is patented. It was sold to Hovione in 2023. 

Lígia Rodrigues holds a degree in Biological Engineering, a MSc in Biotechnology and a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering. She is an Associate Professor with Aggregation, President of the Pedagogical Council and Vice-President of the School of Engineering. She is also Associate Director of the Center for Biological Engineering at UMinho and responsible for the research subgroup in Synthetic Biology within the BioSystems group that she coordinates at CEB. Her research focuses on using synthetic biology approaches to design and build new microbial cell factories or improve existing ones for the sustainable production of value-added compounds. She has won several research grants and research contracts with industry. Published more than 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She was involved in the creation of several spin-off companies in the areas of Biotechnology and Life Sciences. She was Director of DEB (2019-2022), Associate Director of DEB (2017-2019), Member of the College of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the Order of Engineers, Northern Region (OERN) (2019-2022) and member of the OERN Disciplinary Council (2022-2025).

Head CPM, Full Professor of Proteomics and Glycomics and Head of the Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

m.wuhrer@lumc.nl

https://cpm.lumc.nl/research/glycomics-209/manfred-wuhrer-26

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/manfred-wuhrer#tab-1

Short Biography:

Manfred Wuhrer is Professor of Proteomics and Glycomics and head of the Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics at the Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands. He focuses on the development of mass spectrometric methods for glycomics and glycoproteomics, and their application in clinical research and biotechnology. Clinical applications cover the fields of rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, as well as various metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.

Head of LUCID Research

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) | Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden |Netherlands | Phone: +31-71-5265065 | 

Biography:

Cornelis (Ron) Hokke is professor in glycobiology of host-pathogen interaction at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), The Netherlands. His research is largely focused on glycosylation at the host-pathogen interface, for discovery and development of intervention tools. The major focus is on helminth infections such as schistosomiasis, filariasis and hookworm infections that affect hundreds of millions worldwide. Ron and his team conduct research on glycan antigens and glycoconjugates produced by these parasitic worms and study their involvement in parasite development as well as immune responses in the hosts. They apply in vitro and in vivo models of infection and immunity, and study anti-glycan responses in clinical samples from endemic areas and controlled human infections with parasitic worms conducted by clinicians at LUMC. Innovative approaches such as glyco-engineering of parasites, application of antigen microarrays and mass spectrometry are explored, allowing translation of the research into novel vaccines and diagnostics. Ron is head of research in the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID-R), and coordinator of the Horizon Europe consortium WORMVACS2.0 which develops vaccines against parasitic worm infections.

www.lumc.nl/en/afdelingen/lucid/ch-hokke/

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/cornelis-hokke#tab-2

www.wormvacs.org/ 

Joana Gomes is an Associate Researcher in the Glycobiology in Cancer group at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health of the University of Porto (i3S).

Her research focuses on understanding the role of glycosylation in gastrointestinal cancer therapy resistance and immunomodulation, towards the identification of key biomarkers for patients’ stratification and novel cancer therapeutic clinical applications.

Joana holds a BSc in Biochemistry, a MSc in Molecular and Oncology Medicine, and an international joint PhD in Biomedicine (University of Porto) and Microbiology (University of Paris) with her PhD developed at Institut Pasteur (Paris), IPATIMUP (Porto) and Copenhagen University (Denmark).

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8832-2703

Mara Braga works at the Green and Sustainable Processes Laboratory, whose research strategies and activities mainly focus on using “green”, sustainable, safe, biomimetic and environmentally friendly processes for developing value-added products, materials and applications. These activities and strategies are mainly foreseen for the development of applications in the agri-food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical for drug delivery, biomedical and tissue engineering areas and include the use of supercritical fluids (namely supercritical carbon dioxide); water/ethanolic solvent systems; natural-based polymers and phytochemicals obtained from renewable sources (e.g. plant raw materials and agro-industrial residues) and biomimetic synthesis/processing strategies.

Dr. Yan Liu is an Associate Professor in Glycosciences at Imperial College London. With over two decades of expertise in glycan array technologies, she has a profound interest in understanding the roles of glycans in mediating interactions with their binding partners across diverse biological settings. She co-established, with Prof. Ten Feizi FRS, the ICL Carbohydrate Microarray Facility, now a renowned global resource. Her current research focuses on deciphering glycan-mediated interactions at the host-microbiome interface across respiratory, digestive, skin, and reproductive systems. She has a growing interest in developing novel glycan-based molecular tools for studying glycan involvement disease-associated microenvironments in autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurological diseases, through interdisciplinary collaborations.

Dr. Liu leads a team dedicated to maintaining a vibrant Carbohydrate Microarray Facility for the broad scientific community. She is a partner leader of the Horizon Europe-funded ‘GLYCOTwinning’ Network, the recently launched ‘AUREUS’ MSCA Doctoral Training Network, and the UK 'FluTrialMAP' research consortia. Actively engaged in the MIRAGE initiative and GlyGen glycan microarray data repository, she advocates for global standards in glycan microarray data reporting and sharing, aligning with FAIR principles to advance glycan-mediated molecular interactions in the AI era.