Gianni studied biology and obtained his PhD in 2000 from the University of Perugia (Italy). In 2001, he moved to the UK (first to Leicester then to Nottingham) and worked on genome evolution, population genomics and telomere biology using the budding yeasts, S. cerevisiae and other closely related species. In 2011, he moved to Nice (France) as CNRS researcher where he leads a team working on yeast population genomics and complex traits analysis. He is an elected member of EMBO and is Editor in Chief of the journal Yeast (Wiley).

Jeanne is a CNRS permanent researcher at the Ecology Systematics and Evolution lab in France, working on parallel adaptation of cheese fungi. She is interested in the mechanisms involved in adaptation, including horizontal gene transfer, sexual reproduction, gene flow and genetic diversity. In her project, she is using a combination of complementary approaches, including population genomics, comparative genomics, historical data and Laboratory experiments to study the repeatability of evolution using cheese fungi as models

Jose Paulo teaches Microbiology in the Nova School of Sciences and Technology at the New University of Lisbon, in Portugal. His research focuses on yeast diversity at large and on the evolutionary genomics of microbe domestication. He is particularly interested in combining the study of field yeast ecology with the investigation of genome evolution during domestication, both in Saccharomyces and in other less known but biotechnologically important yeasts. He coordinates the Portuguese Yeast Culture Collection, a service and research collection strongly committed to supporting yeast researchers worldwide

Jos leads the Food and Indoor research group at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute. His research is centred on three themes: 1) Taxonomy of food and indoor fungi, and the translation of these data into novel, rapid tools for identification and detection, 2) Fundamental research aiming to find novel solutions to prevent of food spoilage, and 3) Applied (tailor-made) projects for industry (e.g. prevention of food spoilage, development of (rapid) identification tools and biodeterioration testing). Jos is chair of the International Commission on Food Mycology (ICFM), and member of the International Commission on Penicillium and Aspergillus (ICPA).

Lars leads a research group and is Deputy Head of the Bio Pilot Plant at the Leibniz-Hans Knoll Institute in Jena, Germany. His own research interests include Development and characterization of online measurement techniques, viscous biological systems, and mixed culture processes

Eva is Senior Tenured Scientist at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). She is currently the leader of the Biosystems and Bioprocess Engineering group. She is a physicist who became attracted to biology. Her research in applied systems biology focuses on the mathematical modelling, optimisation, and control of biological systems and bioprocesses, with applications in the food industry. The team has contributed with methods and tools to automate model identification and systematise process optimisation. Currently, they are studying the dynamics of fermentation processes led by single or multiple microbial species.

Kiran is Director of Research at the MRC Toxicology Unit (University of Cambridge, UK). His research interests include architecture and evolution of metabolic networks, especially metabolite exchange in microbial communities. His lab brings together computational (metabolic modelling, bioinformatics, and machine learning) and experimental (microbiomics and metabolomics) approaches to tackle emerging questions in microbial ecosystems.

Marc was for 25 years the Food historian for the Historic Royal Palaces, England, looking at food and dining over the last 1000 years. Most famously the reconstruction of the kitchens of King Henry VIII and the reconstruction and use of the Royal kitchens at Kew Palace. Now a consultant Marc works on food and drink-based research and experimental projects across the world. Working on Colonial brewing and distilling on the East coast US led to his involvement with the project to reconstruct and use a Tudor Brewery to reproduce 16th century beer.

Hyun Ah is a Professor in the Department of Life Science at Chung-Ang University in Korea, where she directs a laboratory of Molecular Systems Biology. Her research interest is the understanding of basic principles of life process in various yeast species with biotechnological potential through “Multi-Omics” technologies to obtain comprehensive information that is applicable to the development of industrial yeasts producing next-generation therapeutic proteins and high-value metabolites. Moreover, via the integration with functional glycomics, her additional research aim is to elucidate the mechanism of glycan-based host-pathogen interaction in yeast infection. She currently serves as an editor of FEMS Yeast Research.

Eveline is an Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering Sciences at VUB in Brussels, Belgium, where she leads a research group on synthetic and molecular microbiology. Diverse research lines are focused on the engineering of microbial cell factories for biobased and sustainable production of chemicals and materials. Since 2017, the group is involved in an interdisciplinary research consortium that studies the use of filamentous fungi for mycelium-based material applications. Eveline is currently also chair of the Board of Directors of the FEMS-affiliated Belgian Society for Microbiology.

Gero is a Professor in the School of Biosciences at University of Exeter, UK. He is a fungal cell biologist, interested in dynamic processes in filamentous fungi. Working for decades on fundamental principles in organelle and cell organisation, he recently turned his focus towards applied areas of research. This includes (a) fungicide mode of action and development, (b) infection strategies of plant pathogens and (c) understanding secretion pathways in biotechnologically relevant filamentous fungi. Gero is the Director of the Bioimaging Centre and visiting Professor at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands

Michael is a Senior Research Director with INRAE. He leads INRAE’s TRANSFORM division (600+ staff members) and is the current coordinator of the distributed European Research Infrastructure IBISBA. Michael’s research field is biotechnology, with previous focus on carbohydrate modifying enzymes and biomass upgrading. Michael founded IBISBA in 2014 and has been actively involved in its growth ever since. His current ambition is to launch IBISBA as a fully operational research infrastructure within the next 2 years.

Arturo is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds a joint appointment in molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on how microbes cause disease and how the immune system defends itself. Dr. Casadevall serves as chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Casadevall’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Society for Microbiology Founders Distinguished Service Award, the National Institutes of Health Merit Award, and the Rhoda Benham Award from Medical Mycology Society of America. He is Editor in Chief of the ASM journal mBIO.

Sophie and her team have developed a battery of yeast strains derived from the non-conventional yeast Starmerella bombicola for the production of a portfolio of novel glycolipid biosurfactants. Sophie subsequently embarked on the quest to develop sustainable, scalable and efficient production processes (fermentation and purification) for these novel compounds of which some multiple were scaled up to the multiple ton scale. Sophie recently co-founded the UGent and BBEPP spin off company AmphiStar based on the technologies developed at UGent and BBEPP, which aims to make biosurfactants mainstream on the market.