Biosciences Steering Panel

Clive Lee

Clive Lee is Professor of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and Visiting Professor of Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering in Trinity College Dublin (TCD). After obtaining his PhD in bone biomechanics, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and was awarded his MD in 1997. His research interests are in microdamage and bone remodelling related to osteoporosis and functional anatomy.

He is a Chartered Engineer, past President of the Section of Bioengineering of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (2000-02) and past President of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine (2003-07). He was awarded the Fulbright Medal in 2003, the Samuel Haughton Silver Medal, and his ScD for published work, in 2010.  He is on the Editorial Boards of Technology & Health Care and the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. He is currently Honorary Secretary of the Anatomical Society and Chair of the Life Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

Diederick Grobbee

Diederick Grobbee is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University  Medical Center Utrecht and chair of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and  Primary Care. He obtained an MD at the Utrecht University and a PhD in Epidemiology at Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Prof. Dr. Grobbee has been a (principal) investigator in many large scale epidemiologic studies and randomized trials of interventions for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. His experience covers the full range of epidemiologic study designs including trials, cohorts and case-control studies. Topics include hypertension, diabetes, risk factors in children and youngsters, coronary heart disease, women’s health, cardiovascular ageing, heart failure and non-invasive vascular imaging.  Prof. Grobbee has over 850 scientific publications and numerous international citations.

Diederick Grobbee is a board member of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, board member of the Netherlands Heart Foundation and board member of the Academic Alliance for Clinical Trials. He is a past president of the Netherlands Epidemiological Association and has been on the editorial board of several journals and (inter)national scientific, search and site-visit committees. He is member of the board of the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation and editor in chief of the Journal for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

Eva-Mari Aro

Eva-Mari Aro works in the Department of Biology, University of Turku. She is a professor in Plant Physiology and Molecular biology, since 1987.  Research of her team focuses on photosynthetic membrane protein complexes, regulation of photosynthesis by environmental and metabolic cues and on biofuel production in cyanobacteria as well as on plant stress physiology.

She has been a visiting researcher at the University of California Berkeley, USA, CSIRO Canberra Australia, CEA Cadarache, France, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and Stockholm University, Sweden. She has acted as the vice president of Scandinavian Society of Plant Physiology and the president of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research (ISPR) 2004-2007. Currently, she belongs to the board of the European Plant Society Organization.

Professor Aro is a chair of the Finnish Centre of Excellence "Integrative Photosynthesis and Bioactive Compound Research at Systems Biology Level" funded by the Academy of Finland and participates in several EU FP7 and Nordic research networks. She is an Honorary professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the member of the international board of the Millennium Technology Prize.

Georg Stingl 

Georg Stingl is Professor and Chairman of the Division of Immunology, Allergies and Infectious Diseases at the Department of Dermatology, University of Vienna Medical School. He also held the position of Associate Professor of Dermatology, University of Innsbruck Medical School and was a fellow and guest researcher at National Institutes of Health, Bethsada, MD, U.S.A. 

Dr Stingl's research interests have centered on the exploration of the skin immune system under both physiological and pathological conditions. Areas of his investigation include the interaction between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cutaneous leukocytes; the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis; the use of genetically engineered cancer vaccines as therapeutic tools for metastasizing melanoma; a new series of topically applied immunomodulators in the treatment of inflammatory and neoplastic skin diseases.

Dr Stingl has received several prestigious research awards such as the William Montagna Award and the Stephen Rothman Award from the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID). In 1999, he received the Honorary Doctorate from the Semmelweis Medical University in Budapest. He is a member of the Executive Board of both the Austrian and German Academy of Sciences. Dr Stingl is former President of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung (ADF), the European Dermatology Forum (EDF) and the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR). He also served as the ESDR Deputy Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 

Marc Van Montagu

Marc Van Montagu is the founder and Chairman of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries (IPBO) of the Ghent University, and the president of the European Federation of Biotechnology. He was full-professor and director of the Laboratory of Genetics at the Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, and scientific director of the Genetics Department of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB).

Prof. Van Montagu is known for his discovery of the gene transfer mechanism (together with his colleague Prof. Jozef Schell) between Agrobacterium tumefaciens and plants, and for the development of methods to alter Agrobacterium into an efficient delivery system for plant genetic engineering. This mechanism is now used worldwide for producing genetically engineered crops.  He is also one of the pioneers of the construction of the first plants producing the Bt (Bacillus thuringensis) insecticide, and the construction of the first herbicide tolerant plants. He developed plant molecular genetics, in particular molecular mechanisms for cell proliferation and differentiation and response to abiotic stresses (high light, ozone, cold, salt and drought).

He has received numerous outstanding awards for his pioneering work, including the prestigious “Japan Prize”. He has been a member of the Flemish Academy of Sciences since 1990 and is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Science (USA) since 1986 and the agricultural Academy of Russia and France. He has produced more than 1000 publications in international and national journals and books and holds 6 Doctor Honoris Causa Degrees.

Ulf Landegren

Ulf Landegren received his MD and PhD in cellular immunology at Uppsala University, Sweden, followed by a postdoc at Caltech in USA. He is currently professor of molecular medicine at Uppsala University and Principal Investigator at the Uppsala Berzelii Centre.

The group of Ulf Landegren is innovating and  developing and applying advanced molecular tools for analyzing nucleic acids and proteins in research and medical diagnostics analysis. Areas of expertise include construction of molecular probes and their enzymology, as well as their application for biomedical research, diagnostics and drug development. Over the years his lab has established a series of important molecular procedures, and the lab is increasingly engaged in bringing the methods to medical application by interacting with clinicians and with the biotech and pharma industries.

Professor Landegren is a member of EMBO, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and HUGO, a visiting senior scientist at the RIKEN Institute, Yokohama, and a Fellow of the School of Engineering, Tokyo University. He sits on scientific advisory boards for several biotech companies and research organizations, and co-chairs a work package on techniques and reagents for molecular analysis in the emerging EU infrastructure on biobanks – BBMRI and its Swedish equivalent BBMRI.SE. His lab has spun out five companies and several of his inventions have been licensed to leading biotech companies.

Virginijus Siksnys

Virginijus Siksnys is Head and Chief Scientist of the Laboratory of Protein-DNA Interactions at the Institute of Biotechnology in Vilnius, Lithuania. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1982 from Moscow State University. He did postdoctoral work at the Institute of Applied Enzymology in Vilnius, Lithuania and worked as a Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, Germany. He has received an International Science Foundation award and an EC fellowship.

His research focuses on the structure and function of restriction enzymes and Protein-DNA interactions.

György Pósfai

György Pósfai has been director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 2004. 

Dr. Pósfai obtained a summa cum laude University Doctor and, in 1989, a PhD Degree with his work on the identification and description of the genes of restricting-modifying enzyme systems. His dissertation published in 2004 under the title „Genome Manipulation in the Escherichia coli Bacterium” earned him the doctoral degree of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences („MTA”).

Between 1986 and 1989, he spent two and a half years at Wisconsin University, USA, in the laboratory of Waclaw Szybalski, in a post-doctoral position. In the year 1991, he worked in the laboratory of Wilhelm Guschlbauer in Saclay, France. Between 1992 and 1994, he spent another two years in the USA, in the laboratory of Waclaw Szybalski, as a visiting researcher.

Dr. Pósfai’s special fields are molecular biology, microbial genomics and synthetic biology. He was a member of a team that identified the genome sequence of two bacteria – one being a pathogenic bacterium – and their comparative genomics analysis. Applying novel genome engineering procedures, he created bacteria with a simplified gene portfolio: the minimal coli cell, which can be used for both research and biotechnology purposes. At present, Dr. Pósfai’s research focus is on the minimisation of microbial cells through the application of synthetic biology methods and their optimisation for biotechnology purposes and the examination of the evolution of simplified cells.

Dr. Pósfai has participated in the work of several Hungarian scientific juries and committees and evaluates articles of a number of international journals and has taken part in the elaboration of the synthetic biology programme recommendation of the European Science Foundation. He is a member of the American Microbiological Society and the Hungarian Biochemistry Association. As the end of 2008, he had 31 international scientific publications and the number of independent references to these amounted to 2,035.

Jean Weissenbach

Jean Weissenbach is director of research at the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) and the director of Genoscope, the national Centre of Sequencing. During his career he focused on molecular biology and the study of genomes. He is one of the pioneers of the exploration and analysis of genomes en in particular the human genome. 

He graduated as a pharmacist at the université de Strasbourg, where he also received his Ph.D on a study of tRNA. (1977) His post-doctoral work mainly involved cloning  and human interferons.

Dr. Weissenbach is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and the French Academy of Sciences. He is associated member of the French Academy of Pharmacy. He received numerous (international) prizes and has more than 400 publications in international magazines.

Maria Salome Soares Pais

Maria Salome Soares Pais received her PhD on Plant Biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieur in Paris. Between 1982 and 2003, she was a full professor at the Department of Plant Biology of the Science Faculty of the University of Lisbon. During her career, she has been responsible for Research Programmes at the Centre for Biological Engineering; Professor in charge of the Centre for Electron Microscopy and Head of the Department of Plant Biotechnology.

Prof. Soares has been member of several executive boards such as the program on Assessment of the Impact of Genetically  Modified Plants and  the Program on Plant Adaptation. Currently, she is member of the Interministerial Commission for Permanent  Consultancy on Transgenic Organisms, member of the Scientific Committee of National Geographic Magazine in Portugal and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies for Seniors from Academy of Sciences of  Lisbon.

Vaclav Paces

Vaclav Paces is professor at the Department of Genomics and Bioinformatics and president of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Hryniewicz Waleria

Waleria Hryniewicz, MD., Ph.D is Professor at the National Institute of Medicines and the director of Centre for Quality Control in Microbiology. She is  the President of Polish Society of Microbiologists, National Consultant in Clinical Microbiology, ECDC National Focal Point for Surveillance and Antimicrobial Resistance, Board Member of JPIAMR .She is also a member of Microbiology Committee and Bioethical Committee of Polish Academy of Sciences. Her present research interests cover mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance, molecular typing, population analysis of human pathogenic bacteria, their  virulence factors, invasive bacterial infections, vaccine preventable infections.  

Alexandre Quintanilha

Alexandre Quintanilha is professor and science dean of Biophysics at the Biomedical Institute (ICBAS) of the University of Porto as well as Director of the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC). He received his Ph.D on Solid State Physics at Witwatersrand University.

He has been visiting investigator at the department of Solid Physics at the University of Paris, adjunct professor of Physiology at the Molecular and Cell Biology Department of the University of California at Berkely, USA; Assistant Director of the Energy and Environment Division and Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

Prof. Quintanilha’s research interests are physiological Stress in animals, including humans, microorganisms and ecosystems. Cellular and molecular targets, defense mechanisms, adaptation and regulation. He has over 100 publication in international journals and is member of the editorial board of several international journals.