Researcher & Project Manager (Vaccine Development) at HIPRA

Professor Cai research interests include synthetic biology, synthetic genomics, yeast genetics and laboratory automation.
Prof. “Patrick” Yizhi Cai received a bachelor degree in Computer Science in China, a master degree in Bioinformatics from University of Edinburgh in the UK, and a PhD in Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from Virginia Tech in the USA. Prof. Cai had his postdoctoral fellowship under Jef Boeke in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Prof. Cai serves as a senior scientific consultant to Beijing Genomics Institute, and is the first Autodesk Distinguished Scholar.
From 2013 to 2017, Prof. Cai had his own research group at the University of Edinburgh with a prestigious Chancellor’s Fellowship, and his lab focuses on Computer Assisted Design for Synthetic Biology, NeoChromosome design and synthesis in the yeast, and DNA assembly automation.
In the summer of 2017, Prof. Cai moved to the University of Manchester as the new chair professor in synthetic genomics. Prof. Cai co-founded Edinburgh Genome Foundry, the International Centre for Synthetic Genomics at BGI, and the GP-Write China Centre at Chinese Academy of Sciences

Professor in industrial fermentation technology ("The Novozymes professor") at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering since January 2013. The focus of my work is the modeling, development and optimisation of industrial fermentation, biocatalysis, pharmaceutical and food production processes.
Central topics in my current work are the application and development of computer-aided tools for elucidation of (bio)process kinetics, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis methods, data-driven modelling and chemometrics (Process Analytical Technology – PAT), continuous production processes, process monitoring and control applied to bioprocesses, and investigation of mass transfer issues related to the characterisation and development of novel and existing processes and bioreactor types, ranging from microbioreactors to full-scale fermentors.

Lab Head at Sanofi-Aventis making innovative biologics. Previously in University of Geneva and in The European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

Dr. Sílvia Osuna (b. 1983, Castelló d’Empúries) is currently a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC) at the University of Girona. Dr. Osuna obtained her PhD with academic honours in 2010 at the University of Girona (Spain) under the supervision of Prof. Miquel Solà and Prof. Marcel Swart. She received the PhD thesis award for the best thesis defended in 2010 at the Chemistry department of the University of Girona. Upon graduation, she moved to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) for a two-year postdoctoral position with the Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF) at the group of Prof. K. N. Houk. In 2013, she was awarded the Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral position, and in 2015 the highly competitive Ramón y Cajal position. Recently, she has been recently awarded an ERC-StG project for developing a new computational protocol for designing new enzymes (ERC-2015-StG-679001, NetMoDEzyme). Thanks to the ERC contribution, she is starting to create her own research group at the IQCC, composed of two PhD students, two master students and two undergraduate students.

I am a Principal Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. I´m a long-term (since 1995) VTT staff member having my background in Pharmacy: MSc in 1991, PhD (Pharm.) in 1996 and Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Pharmaceutical biology in 2009 - all at University of Helsinki. My main research topic at Plant Biotechnology team is currently plant molecular farming including both recombinant proteins and secondary metabolites. Recently we have initiated a project for valorization of park and garden waste into valuable compounds. I´m a member of the advisory board on Biotechnology in Finland and belong to the editorial board of Finnish scientific pharmaceutical journal. I have passion for project management and since 2011, I have been an IPMA certified (C level) Project Manager.

He is expert in cell biology, molecular biotechnology and systemsbiology with a strong focus on development of methods to answer questions related to Protein, Virus and Cell line engineering.
His projects are on one side centered around discovery of gene therapy vehicles, such as AAV and novel bi-specific protein therapeutics, e.g. modulating our immune system for cancer or autoimmune diseases, while on the other side focused on the generation of mammalian cell factories and processes for an efficient production of these AAV- and protein-based biopharmaceuticals.

Scientist - Strain Engineering at FermX. As a synthetic biologist, I have a strong background in molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, which I use to design and construct innovative biological systems. Specialties: Genetic engineering, Metabolic engineering, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Microalgal Biotechnology.