Jessica Andreani

CEA, Paris-Saclay France - Jessica Andreani is a CEA researcher in computational biology and bioinformatics at the Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (Paris-Saclay, France). Her research focuses on the structural prediction of macromolecular assemblies, in particular protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions. To this end, her methodological interests include the integration of diverse sources of information, such as evolutionary and omics data, as well as deep learning approaches.

Enrica Bordignon

University of Geneva, Geneva Switzerland - Enrica Bordignon is Professor of physical chemistry at University of Geneva (Switzerland). Her group applies electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methods to study the structure and dynamics of proteins, including membrane proteins and complexes. She studied Chemistry at the University of Padova in Italy (Master degree in 1999) and received a PhD at the same University in 2003. With a Humboldt fellowship, she then moved as a post doc to the group of Prof. Steinhoff at the University of Osnabrueck, Germany to learn site-directed spin labeling EPR techniques. From 2008 to 2013 she worked as senior post doc in the group of Prof. Jeschke at ETH Zurich, where she expanded her scientific knowledge on dipolar spectroscopy (DEER) on complex protein systems. In 2013 she became associate professor at the Free University Berlin, and in 2016 she moved as associate professor at the Ruhr University Bochum where she stayed until September 2021, when she moved to Geneva as full professor. Her main biological interests are multidrug resistance transporter proteins, Bcl-2 proteins, toxins and liquid-liquid phase separation.

Bruno Canard

AFMB, Marseille France - Bruno Canard obtained his PhD at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, in 1991, under the supervision of Dr. Stewart T. Cole as a microbiologist/molecular biologist and biochemist, enrolled in Paris University. He did his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in Pr. Charles C. Richardson laboratory on the enzymology of viral replication enzymes. He made important contributions to the field of structure-function of replicative viral enzymes, from the heavily competitive HIV reverse transcriptase-mediated drug resistance field to enzymes from the most neglected RNA viruses.

Over the past 25 years, he has contributed to the field of RNA virus research in biochemistry and structural virology, mainly. In 2002, upon an invitation to a Nidovirus meeting following his discovery of the Dengue virus methyltransferase (MTase) involved in RNA capping, he joined the Nidovirus scientific community few months before emergence of the worldwide SARS crisis. He has since built and directed a successful ~25 persons team which has gained international visibility and leadership regarding viral enzymes: structure, function, and drug-design. The current pandemics has cast light on his past and current achievements in the Nidovirus field, together with less than a handful of prestigious laboratories in the world. Perhaps the real added value to his work is that all crystal structures achievements, most of which were unpublished before, were accompanied by thorough functional and mechanistic analysis. Most of his major contributions to the field are multi-disciplinary in essence, and include high profile collaborating labs, such as the long-time partner  Neyts lab in Leuven, Belgium. He has created the Antiviral Drug-Design Platform in Marseille in 2002, currently lead by Pr. Jean-Claude Guillemot, which is performing medium to large-scale target-based screens of viral replication inhibitors, mostly contracting for corporate companies. He has participated to 14 European research projects, with an experience as a co-ordinator of a large-scale viral structural genomics European project (VIZIER, 24 labs, 12 M€ budget, 2004-2009), as well as workpackage leader of several European projects (SILVER, IMI-CARE, SCORE). He is author of >250 peer-reviewed publications, and laureate of ISAR Young investigatior award 2008, Grand Prix Scientifique 2022 de l’Institut de France (Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca), and Senior Pasteur Alumni Prize, Institut Pasteur 2022.

Diane Dosso

Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Paris France - Since October 2018, Diane Dosso has joined the Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology (Paris) where she is responsible for archives and the ANR FondaScience project. With a scientific background (Bachelor's degree in molecular physicochemistry, Paris XI-Orsay), she later discovered the world of archives at the Pasteur Institute (PhD in history of science, Paris VII-D. Diderot). She further complemented her academic journey with the master's degree in "Digital Technologies Applied to History" from the École nationale des chartes. Her thesis focused on the biochemist Louis Rapkine (1904-1948) and the scientific mobilization of Free France. Specializing in the exile of refugee scholars in the 1930s, she is currently involved in the Géo-Récits project (narrative cartography).

Didier Gourier

Professeur émérite Chimie-ParisTech - Université Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL), Paris France - After obtaining his PhD in materials science from Pierre et Marie Curie University, Didier Gourier began his career as an engineer at Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (now Alcatel) from 1979 to 1981, before leaving industry to join Chimie-ParisTech. His field of research is the physical-chemistry of functional materials for applications in diverse fields, such as sodium and lithium batteries, materials for ionizing radiation detection, or nanomaterials for non-invasive optical medical imaging... From the 2000s onwards, he also focused on the spectroscopy of organic matter in the early solar system, in connection with the origin of life. In 2014, he set up a joint research team between Chimie-ParisTech and the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF), and was scientific manager of the project for the new particle accelerator installed at the Palais du Louvre (New-AGLAE). He was Scientific Director of Chimie-ParisTech from 1993 to 2006, advisor to the Research Directorate of the French Ministry of Research from 1998 to 2003, and a member of the CNRS Strategy Mission from 2006 to 2009. He is also interested in issues of ethics and scientific integrity, first as a member of the CNRS Ethics Committee from 2012 to 2021, and currently as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour. Didier Gourier is Honorary Professor at the Institut Universitaire de France and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Jost Enninga

Institut Pasteur, Paris France - Jost Enninga heads the research unit « Dynamics of host-pathogen interactions » within the Department of Cell Biology and Infection at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. He performed his Ph.D. studies in the Laboratory of Cell Biology at the Rockefeller University, New York, under the supervision of Dr. Guenter Blobel. There, he focused on how viruses subvert host cellular trafficking processes. Afterwards, Jost moved to the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2004 to study the early events of bacterial host cellular invasion with Dr. Philippe Sansonetti and Dr. Guy Tran Van Nhieu. Between 2008 and 2012, Jost built up his own junior team at the Institut Pasteur. He heads his own research unit since 2013, and he has been deputy director of the Cell Biology and Infection Department between 2014 and 2019. He has also been serving on many national and international committees, including INSERM, the CNRS, the DFG, and he is on the editorial board of Cellular Microbiology and Frontiers in Immunology. His team investigates the intracellular niche formation of different bacterial pathogens, including Shigella and Salmonella.  Main questions are membrane trafficking subversion by the pathogens, and how specific intracellular localizations trigger distinct immune responses. His research unit develops imaging-based technologies combining light and electron microscopy that allow the analysis of host-pathogen interaction dynamics with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Jost’s research has been acknowledged nationally and internationally, for example through the Pasteur-Vallery-Radot prize in 2018, a Schlumberger award and 2 ERC grants. He has organized workshops on advanced imaging technologies in France, Israel, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Anne Houdusse

Institut Curie, Paris France - Anne Houdusse is a CNRS research director at the Cell Biology and Cancer department at the Institut Curie, Paris, France. With undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ecole Normale Superieure and Pasteur Institute, Paris, Anne Houdusse was trained as a structural biologist and a chemist. Anne moved to Brandeis University, USA in 1992 with a HFSPO fellowship. There, with Carolyn Cohen and Andrew Szent-Gyorgyi, she laid the foundation for her challenging work on structures of conventional myosin, the engine responsible of muscle contraction. In 1999, she established her independent laboratory as well as the expertise of structural biology at the Institut Curie. She is recognized internationally as an expert on the allosteric nanomachines that produce force within our cells, and which are essential for their dynamic organization, their capacities to contract and to migrate. Studies of myosin V and myosin VI have established the essential elements of how all molecular motors produce directional force. Her current research aims in developing synergies and multi-disciplinary research to decipher cell mechanisms controlled by nanomotors. She also participate in the development of drug candidates against these motors to treat human diseases, such as cardiomyopathies, cancer and malaria. Her contributions have been recognized in 2009 with the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award, with the CNRS Silver Medal and her election as an EMBO member in 2013, and the Prix Lecocq of the French Academy of Sciences in 2018. She has been elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 2019.

Stefan Knapp

Frankfurt University, Frankfurt Germany - Prof. Stefan Knapp studied Chemistry at the University of Marburg and the University of Illinois. He did his PhD in protein crystallography at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and continued his career at the Karolinska Institute as a postdoctoral scientist (1996-1999). From 1999 to 2004 he worked at Pharmacia Corporation and from 2004-2015 at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at Oxford University. From 2008 to 2015 he was a Professor of Structural Biology at Oxford University (UK) and between 2012 and 2015 he was the Director for Chemical Biology at the Target Discovery Institute. He joined Frankfurt University in 2015 as a Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Since 2017 he is the CSO of the SGC at the University of Frankfurt.

Ohad Medallia

University of Zurich, Zurich Switzerland - Ohad Medalia joined the Department of Biochemistry in November 2010 as Associate Professor. He was promoted to Full Professor of Biochemistry in September  2017.

He is an acknowledged expert in the field of cryo-electron tomography. His research focuses on macromolecular structures and mechanisms in eukaryotic cells, such as the integrin-mediated cell adhesion, intermediate filament assemblies, the organization of nuclear lamins and the nuclear pore envelope.

Ohad Medalia studied chemistry at the University of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Thereafter, he obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. He conducted postdoctoral studies at the Max-Planck Institute in Martinsried, Germany in the laboratory of Wolfgang Baumeister, one of the pioneers of cryo-electronmicroscopy. In 2005 Ohad Medalia returned to Israel and became research group leader and Assistant Professor at the Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva. He was promoted to Associate Professor at the Ben Gurion University in 2009.

Anastassis Perrakis

Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Oncode Institute, Amsterdam The Netherlands - Anastassis (Tassos) Perrakis is a research team leader at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Oncode Institute, and a professor at the University of Utrecht. His team aims to understand important cellular pathways in the context of the biochemical, biophysical and structural properties of the macromolecules that constitute them. Concurrently his team develops software and resources for accurate and complete macromolecular structures.

Alice Pyne

University of Sheffield, UK - Dr Alice Pyne is a Senior Lecturer and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Sheffield. Following her undergraduate degree in Physics at Bristol and her EngD in Biophysics at UCL, Alice was awarded EPSRC and MRC fellowships to establish her independent research group. Her research combines high-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the development of open-source image analysis tools to determine how the structural and conformational heterogeneity of individual (bio)molecules affects fundamental biological processes. Alice is spearheading an international effort to promote quantitative data analysis in AFM, developing TopoStats as an automated image processing and analysis pipeline for AFM. She was recently awarded the Royal Microscopy Society’s AFM & SPM award in recognition of her efforts.

Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti

Institut Pasteur, Paris France - I am a virologist with a particular interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms of viral replication and their relevance to human health. My research focuses on the replication mechanisms of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). I have a dual medical and scientific background. I obtained my medical degree from the Necker Enfants Malades University (Paris 5), and in parallel I completed my scientific studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm (1996-200). I did my PhD (2005-08) on Influenza A viruses at the Institut Pasteur under the supervision of Dr N Naffakh in the unit of Pr S van der Werf. I started working on RSV during a collaboration initiated in 2011 with the team of Dr JF Eléouët at the VIM INRAe Jouy-en-Josas. From 2014, I continued this work in the laboratories of the UFR Santé of the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines. In 2016, I was recruited as MCU-PH, then PU-PH at the UVSQ and the Ambroise Paré Hospital, and since 2019 I lead an ATIP-Avenir team. In January 2023, I moved to the Institut Pasteur with my team to continue studying RSV viral factories and the late stages of RSV replication in the host cell and to bring my medical skills and expertise in RSV to the National Reference Centre for Respiratory Infections.

Philippe Rondard

Institut Génomique Fonctionnelle, Montpellier France - Leads a research team in the field of the neuropharmacology of the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), in particular those activated by the two major neurotransmitters, glutamate and GABA. His studies on the molecular mechanism and allosteric modulation of these receptors have led him to develop innovative biochemical and biophysical approaches. To control their activity in vivo, he has developed camelid single domain antibodies.

Joanna Timmins

IBS, Grenoble France - Joanna Timmins obtained her B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, UK, before moving to the EMBL Grenoble outstation, where she performed her Ph.D. She then conducted her post-doctoral training followed by a 5-year scientist position at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), where she became interested in the DNA repair machinery of the radiation-resistant bacterium, Deinococcus radiodurans. Since 2011, Joanna Timmins is Head of the ‘GenOM’ team at the Structural Biology Institute (IBS) in Grenoble, France. Her team is particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying the recognition of DNA lesions amidst a vast excess of undamaged DNA, which constitutes the initial step of all DNA repair pathways. Her research focuses on DNA repair in D. radiodurans, but also in humans in the context of anticancer drug resistance. More recently, she has also become interested in chromatin organization and dynamics in bacteria, and how they affect processes such as DNA repair. Her team uses a combination of biochemical, biophysical, structural biology and cell imaging approaches to tackle these challenging projects.

Carine Tisné

IBPC, Paris France - Carine Tisné is a CNRS research director at the Institute of Physical-Chemical Biology (IBPC, Paris), where she is deputy director of the IBPC and leads a research team in the field of RNA biology in the microbial gene expression unit. Her team aims to understand at the molecular level how RNA maturation, including processing and modifications, occurs and impacts cellular processes. Her research combines different techniques of structural biology (NMR, X-ray crystallogyraphy and cryoEM), biochemistry and genetics to tackle these challenging questions.

Tristan Wagner

Max Planck Institute, Bremen Germany - The group led by Tristan Wagner at Max Planck Institute (Bremen) aims to understand, at the molecular level, how methanogens are surviving and growing in extreme environments. To answer these questions, these microorganisms are cultivated and the different chemical reactions occurring inside them are studied. The enzymes involved in the conversion of minerals and gases are proteins that orchestrate strange reactions highly challenging for chemists. They extract these enzymes, and sort them out from other proteins by using the native purification, to decipher the molecular secret of their reaction by using X-ray crystallography.

Florent Waltz

Biozentrum, Basel Switzerland - Dr. @FlorentWaltz is a postdoc in the lab of Ben En­gel at the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland. Florent is a Swiss National Science Foundation and former Alexan­der von Hum­boldt Post­doc­toral research fellow, who is interested in the structural and functional diversity of mitochondrial molecular complexes involved in gene expression and energy metabolism. He uses a variety of methods in his work, ranging from genetics to structural biology, with a focus on cryo-electron tomography, which he uses to explore the molecular landscapes of mitochondria throughout evolution. His research focuses on photosynthetic organisms to advance our understanding of the complex molecular mechanisms underlying energy production and gene expression in mitochondria and its link with chloroplast.