Prof. dr. ir. Tina Vermonden Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine and Drug Delivery

After obtaining a PhD in Organic Chemistry at Wageningen University, Tina Vermonden moved to Utrecht University in 2005 to join the Pharmaceutics division as a postdoctoral researcher. Since then, her research has focused on biomaterials science, which is a multidisciplinary field of research encompassing elements of medicine, biology, chemistry, and materials science. In 2020, she was appointed as full professor. Tina’s group focusses mainly on the development of polymeric materials that are suitable as either protein or drug delivery matrices or as scaffolds for regenerative medicine. Important parameters are biocompatibility, degradability and stability in time under physiological conditions.

Bernhardt L. Trout is the Raymond F. Baddour, ScD, (1949) Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees from MIT and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, he performed post-doctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute.

Trout’s research focuses on the development of advanced manufacturing processes and rational tools for formulation and product design, primarily liquid formulations, but also lyophilized formulations. A major aspect of his research focuses on developing both microscopic and macroscopic models to design stable formulations efficiently. In 2007, with several colleagues from MIT, he set up the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing, a $85 million partnership with the objective of transforming pharmaceutical manufacturing. Among other outputs, this led in 2011 to the first end-to-end fully integrated and automated pharmaceutical process (bench scale). He was also Co-Chair of the Singapore-MIT Alliance Program on Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering. In addition to Novartis, he has worked with many other pharmaceutical companies in research or consulting. He has also developed a host of computational methods for the design of biologics products taking into account developability and manufacturability and continues to work in the field of continuous manufacturing. He recently started a project with the FDA on a continuous lyophilization process. In addition, he is Co-Chair of the International Symposium on Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals. He has published over 200 papers and has 18 patents issued or pending.

For more information on Prof. Trout and his research, please visit: http://web.mit.edu/troutgroup/

Photo by Jon Sachs SHASS Communications

Juergen Siepmann studied pharmacy and did his Ph.D. at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany. Since 2004 he is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Lille, France.

His research focuses on controlled drug delivery systems, in particular on the elucidation of the underlying mass transport phenomena, mathematical modeling and the optimization of the devices. He is heading the Inserm (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) research group “Advanced Drug Delivery systems”, counting about 50 members.

Since 2010 he serves as president of the APGI (https://www.apgi.org), and since 2016 as Editor-in-Chief of the “International Journal of Pharmaceutics” (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-pharmaceutics).

Sébastien Lecommandoux received in 1996 his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bordeaux. After a postdoctoral experience at the University of Illinois (UIUC, USA) in the group of Prof. Samuel I. Stupp, he started his academic career at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques as Associate Professor in 1998 and was promoted to Full Professor at Bordeaux INP in 2005. He is currently Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO-CNRS) and is leading the group “Polymers Self-Assembly and Life Sciences”. His research interests include polypeptide and polysaccharide-based block copolymers self-assembly, the design of polymersomes for drug-delivery and theranostic, as well as biomimetic approaches toward design of synthetic viruses and artificial cells. He has published more than 180 papers in international journal with more than 15,000 citations (h-index 61), 7 book chapters and 10 patents (2 being licenced, 1 start-up created). Sébastien Lecommandoux is recipient of the CNRS bronze medal (2004), Institut Universitaire de France Junior Chair (IUF 2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC (2017), Seqens Award of the French Academy of Science (2019), Member of the Academia Europaea (2020). He is Editor-in-Chief of Biomacromolecules (ACS) since 2020 after being Associate Editor since 2013. He is also in the Editorial Advisory Board of several international journals, including Bioconjugate Chemistry (ACS), Polymers (MDPI), Polymer Chemistry (RSC) and Biomaterials Science (RSC).

Graduation at the University of Paris in 1963 and DSc doctorate at the University of Rouen in France in 1969. Junior scientist at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1965. Senior scientist at CNRS in 1971. Founder and Head of the Laboratory of Macromolecular Substances at the National Institute for Applied Sciences at Rouen in 1981. CNRS Research Director (Research Professor) in 1984. Join the University of Montpellier 1 in 1991 to create the Research Centre for Artificial Biopolymers, CNRS Research Mixed Unit 5473. Director of this laboratory that made researches at the interfaces between chemistry, polymeric biomaterials, biology and health until 2007. Emeritus CNRS Research Director since then. Main fields of interest: – optically active polymers, – multifunctional polyelectrolytes, -polymers of therapeutic interest, – macromolecular drugs and prodrugs, -degradable and bioresorbable polymers, – smart polymeric systems. Author or co-author of more than 400 major articles and book chapters, and of 28 patents, several of them licensed to companies. Co-founder of MedinCell and Arterial Remodelling Technologies Companies. Ex-Editor of the Journal of Biomaterials Science: Polymer Edition. Member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. Member of the IUPAC Sub-Committee for Polymer Terminology. Awarded CNRS Silver Medal in 1989, the “Jungfleish” Grand Prix of the French Academy of Sciences in 2001, European Grand Prix of Innovation for the Environment Monaco in 2005 and Grand Prix Georges Winter of the European Society for Biomaterials in 2005.