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.

Jesper Østergaard is Professor of Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry at Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen. Dr. Østergaard is a pharmacist (1999) and obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutics working on molecular interaction studies and prodrug design in Copenhagen in 2003. Subsequently, he became Assistant and Associate Professor (2003, 2006) and since 2019 Professor at Department of Pharmacy. Main research interests include development of methods for physical-chemical characterization of drug substances and delivery systems, drug transport, dissolution and release. Focus is on the development of analytical methods for in vitro dissolution and release testing (including UV imaging), and on molecular interactions and stability assessment related to profiling of drug substances and delivery systems using capillary-based methods such as capillary electrophoresis (CE) and Taylor dispersion analysis/Flow induced dispersion analysis (TDA/FIDA). He has published >150 scientific papers. Dr. Østergaard is the co-founder of two spin-outs from University of Copenhagen.

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.