January 10
- 11:00 - 11:30 Welcome message and general information. Antonio Cuadrado
- 11:30 - 13:00 SESION 1. Chair: Anna Grochot-Przęczek
Hozumi Motohashi is a full professor at the Department of Gene Expression Regulation, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University. After identifying CNC-small Maf heterodimers as a new transcription factor family members, she is focusing on NRF2 roles in various pathological conditions, especially in cancers. NRF2 functions and its contribution to cellular homeostasis seem to be altered in cancer cells with persistent activation of NRF2 compared with normal cells with transient activation of NRF2 when it is necessary. She is trying to understand the unique activity of NRF2 in NRF2-activated cancer cells from the viewpoint of epigenetic regulation and metabolic regulation.
Ana I Rojo is assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Department of Biochemistry, Medical School, Autonomous University of Madrid. Her professional career is focused on the study of the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases and in the search for novel brain protective therapies. Specifically, she worked on the connection of the progression of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and more recently Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with the loss of the activity of the transcription factor NRF2, a crucial regulator of multiple responses to stress, whose activity decreases with aging. Her studies demonstrate the relevance of normal homeostatic responses, including NRF2, in protection against proteotoxic, inflammatory and oxidative stress, providing new molecular targets to combat neurodegeneration.
Andreas Daiber studied Chemistry at the University of Konstanz (Diploma in 1997), holds a PhD in Biochemistry (graduated in 2000), did his habilitation (graduated in 2006), and since 2008 is a full professor in Molecular Cardiology at the University Medical Center Mainz. >33 significant research grants from the pharmaceutical industry and public funding bodies. 2011 guest professorship at the Université Joseph Fourier at Grenoble, France. From 2014-2016 Chair of COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS). Memberships in national and international scientific communities (SFRBM/SFRRE, ASBMB, DGK), reviewer activities for numerous scientific journals (e.g. FRBM, Redox Biology, ATVB, Eur. Heart J., Nat. Comm.) and funding bodies, editorial board positions (Oxid. Med. Cell. Longev., Cardiovasc. Res., Antioxidants, FRBM, Redox Biology), guest editor (Antioxid. Redox Signal., Redox Biology, Br. J. Pharmacol., FRBM, Antioxidants). He published >170 original research articles, >130 review articles, 25 book chapters, >155 conference abstracts and 2 patents with Boehringer Ingelheim. h-index: 69; >13,000 citations. Special research interests: redox biochemistry, oxidative stress and environmental research in cardiovascular disease.
Anna-Liisa Levonen is currently Professor and Vice Dean of Research at the University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences. She earned her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Helsinki, Finland in 1994 and 2000, respectively, followed by a fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Department of Pathology and Center for Free Radical Biology. Upon her return to Finland, she was recruited to the University of Kuopio (currently University of Eastern Finland), where she has established a research program focusing on the gene regulatory mechanisms activated by oxidative and electrophilic stress, particularly via the redox-activated transcription factor NRF2. She has studied the mechanism of activation of the KEAP1-NRF2 pathway and its role in disease, particularly cancer and cardiometabolic diseases, and has published highly cited original and review articles on the topic.
Juan Antonio Moreno is a Ramon y Cajal Tenure Track Researcher at Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Cordoba University. He is also chief of the Group GE-06 Pathophysiology of renal and vascular damage at Instituto Maimonides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC). Our group is unravelling novel pathogenic mechanisms involved in the development of renal and vascular diseases. We aim to understand the basis for alterations in renal and vascular wall to identify new molecules involved in the progression of these pathologies that may be used as potential diagnostic/prognosis biomarkers and to develop novel therapeutic approaches. Specifically, we are interested in certain cellular and molecular aspects (oxidation, inflammation, apoptosis, fibrosis, intracellular signalling pathways..) involved in the progression of several pathologies (atherothrombosis, diabetic nephropathy, glomerular diseases, acute kidney injury, renal fibrosis, among others). In the last years, we have evaluated the role of Nrf2 in renal diseases and we are interested in the validation of novel compounds targeting Nrf2 to decrease renal damage.
- 13:00 - 14:00 Breakout rooms and lunch.
- 14:00 - 15:30 SESION 2. Chair: Ana I. Rojo
Anna Grochot-Przęczek is an assistant professor at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She studies the molecular mechanisms regulating the function of endothelial cells and blood vessels. Her team’s research showed that Keap1, GAPDH and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) form an enzymatic complex catalysing protein S-nitrosation. This process is deregulated in aged endothelial cells and blood vessels, which leads to massive protein aggregation. Currently, she tries to recognise the significance of Nrf2/Keap1 imbalance and the Keap1-dependent loss of proteostasis in the function of blood vessels.
Antonio Cuadrado is full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Department of Biochemistry, Medical School, Autonomous University of Madrid. He studes the molecular mechanisms involved in initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. For the past years his main lane of research has been the validation of transcription factor NRF2, master regulator of cellular homeostasis, with four main lines of activity: i) The transcription factor NRF2 as a new therapeutic target in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. ii) Role of oxidative stress in neuronal death and neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. iii) Pharmacological regulation of autophagy in the brain as a novel therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative proteinopathies. iv) Development of new NRF2-modulating drugs.
Arie Gruzman is associate professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at Department of Chemistry, the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel and the National Representative of the Chemistry and Human Health Division of IUPAC for the term 2022-2023.
Cláudia Guimas Almeida is Principal Investigator of the Neuronal Trafficking in Aging lab at CEDOC, the Chronic Research Center at NOVA Medical School (NMS) in Lisbon since 2013, supported by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT). Ph.D. in Neurosciences (2007) in the Gunnar Gouras lab (Weill Medical College of Cornell University; USA). Cláudia was an EMBO and a Marie Curie Post-doc fellow in Cell biology (2007-2012) at the Institut Curie (France) in Daniel Louvard lab. At CEDOC-NMS, Cláudia is co-coordinator of the Biomedical Research master program (NBR), the scientific Coordinator Microscopy facility, a member of NMS Scientific Council. Cláudia has 19 publications (>4000 citations) on intracellular trafficking mechanisms in healthy and Alzheimer’s disease cells. Her group discovered the cellular mechanisms whereby two top genetic risk factors, Bin1 and CD2AP, contribute to amyloid endocytic production in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EMBO reports 2017, JBC 2021), and whereby normal aging potentiates amyloid production, which may to aging-dependent synaptic decline (Journal of Cell Science 2021). Her group is investigating the mechanisms of synaptic decline in aging and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease to identify novel therapeutic targets to delay or treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Jordi Muntané is Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of Seville (Spain). The group is deciphering the molecular mechanism related to the antitumoral properties of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in liver cancer cells. In particular, the impact in mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative and nitrosative stress and cell metabolism, endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy and apoptosis in the effectiveness of TKIs in liver cancer cells. The translational impact of the research involves the identification of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs) and miRNA and lncRNA signatures in blood from patients used as prognostic value of the disease and treatment response in patients with advanced HCC. In particular for the participation of our group in BenBedPhar network we will be focus on: 1) Molecular mechanism of Nrf2 regulation by TKIs. 2) Impact of NRf2-regulated genes in the antitumoral properties of TKIs and 3) Impact of drugs regulating Nrf2 in liver cancer cells.
- 15:30-16:00 Coffee break. Breakout rooms
- 16:00 - 17:30 SESION 3.Chair: Brigitte Winklhofer-Roob
Đorđe Miljković is research professor and head of the Department of Immunology at the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade. He studies cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. His current main research interests are: role of gut immune cells in autoimmunity, mechanisms of autoimmunity progression/regulation, cell-based therapy of autoimmunity (tolerogenic dendritic cells, regulatory T cells), modulation of autoimmune diseases by synthetic and natural compounds, mutual influence of autoimmunity and sepsis.
Elke H. Heiss is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Vienna in Austria. She is highly interested in sigaling pathways involved in the cellular stress resistance and their rational modulation by small (natural) molecules. For the past years her main (cell-based/ in vitro) research activities have been focussed on (i) dissecting the crosstalk betweeen redox and energy stress signaling and on (ii) identification/characterization of (novel natural/ nature derived) small chemical entities with benefit for the cell`s capactity to efficiently cope with stress.
Dr. Carvalho studies the underlying mechanisms that are in the origin of insulin resistance and diabetes and related complications, across the lifespan. She has discovered that low insulin receptor substrate-1 protein levels in adipose tissue are predictors of pre-diabetes. She investigates specific biomarkers and pathways that are associated with insulin action and metabolic dysfunction in insulin sensitive tissues, from bench to bedside. In addition, she has been evaluating how specific markers are important in tissue regeneration under diabetes conditions. Recently, she has started to investigate the effect of nutraceuticals to improve insulin action and metabolism, including essential amino acids and sulforaphane, among other. In the context of early insulin resistance development, inflammation, and aging.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1N_kjxvZYzSAP/bibliography/public/
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6264-3632
https://www.cnc.uc.pt/en/research-group/obesity-diabetes-and-complications
Gina Manda is the head of the Radiobiology laboratory at “Victor Babes” National Institute of Pathology, Bucharest, Romania. She is currently studying the molecular mechanisms underlying: i) low-grade inflammation and disturbed redox signaling in chronic diseases (Alzheimer’s disease), and ii) the responses of normal and tumor cells elicited by radiation exposure in experimental settings relevant for anti-cancer therapies (radio- or photodynamic therapy) or for space medicine. One of the main interests is to develop at preclinical level therapies that target NRF2, in order to: i) increase the efficacy of anti-cancer therapies using targeted NRF2 inhibitors; ii) counteract using NRF2 activators the deleterious effects of galactic cosmic radiation on astronauts during long-term travel in the deep space, an issue that is highly relevant in this era of intensive preparations for space exploration.
Roberto Motterlini is Director of Research (DR1) at INSERM U955 within the Faculty of Health, University of Paris Est, France. He has a long-standing interest in the regulation, activity and biological significance of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a ubiquitous defensive protein that degrades heme to carbon monoxide (CO) and biliverdin. His studies focused on the role of Nrf2 as a transcription factor in controlling HO-1 gene expression and uncovered the vasodilatory, anti-ischemic and anti-inflammatory properties of CO. His research led to the development of CO-releasing molecules (CO-RMs), small active compounds that deliver controlled amounts of CO in vivo and have been shown to exert important pharmacological actions to counteract vascular, inflammatory and metabolic disorders. More recently, Dr. Motterlini’s group has characterized a new class of hybrid compounds, termed HYCOs, which have the ability to activate Nrf2 and simultaneously release CO. These hybrid molecules with dual function have been demonstrated to exert therapeutic effects in inflammatory models of disease such as skin wound, psoriasis and multiple sclerosis.
- 17:30-18:00. Breakout rooms
January 11
- 9:30-11:15 SESION 4. Chair: Guy Cohen
Aleksandra Piechota-Polanczyk is associate professor at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her research interests focus on finding new anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory proteins that could be potential markers and/or targets in treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Currently she is a PI of the project “Fibrosis or senescence – why lack of transcriptionally active Nrf2 protects against colon dysfunction”, where she wants to evaluate the role of Nrf2 in the causes of fibrosis and cellular senescence in vivo and in vitro.
Albena Dinkova-Kostova is Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Dundee School of Medicine. She graduated in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Sofia University (Bulgaria) and obtained her PhD degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Washington State University (USA). She subsequently trained in Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (USA), where she continues to hold an Adjunct Professor position. She joined the University of Dundee in 2007 as a Research Councils UK Academic Fellow. In her research, at the interface of Chemical Biology and Medicine, she is committed to understanding the role of Keap1 and Nrf2 in mediating the cellular and organismal responses to oxidative, inflammatory, and metabolic stress, and is working towards development of pharmacological Nrf2 activators for protection against chronic disease. She was named among the top influential academics in Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2019, 2020, and 2021 lists.
The synthesis of thyroid hormones depends on the intake of miconutrients including iodine and selenium, and it entails the active production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in thyroid follicular cells to oxidize iodine and iodinate thyroglobulin, the thyroid hormone precursor. At the same time, like all other tissues, the thyroid gland must also defend itself against oxidative stress, for which it relies on antioxidant defense systems to maintain its own homeostasis in the face of continuous self-exposure to ROS. Over the last few years, my group has identified multiple links between the Keap1/Nrf2 antioxidant response pathway and thyroid physiology, as well as various thyroid pathologies, including autoimmunity, goiter, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and cancer. This presentation will summarize the main results of these studies and will highlight future perspectives, with a focus on translational implications (i) for the pathogenesis and treatment of thyroid diseases; (ii) for basic research studies using animals with genetically or pharmacologically modified Nrf2 activity; and (iii) for the use of Nrf2-modulating compounds in clinical studies..
Gerasimos (Gerry) Sykiotis is associate professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne and senior staff physician in the Service of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism at Lausanne University Hospital. He is a physician-scientist specialized in clinical and basic endocrinology with a particular focus on thyroid physiology and thyroid diseases, including hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer. Since 2015, he is responsible for the thyroid endocrine clinic at Lausanne University Hospital. His clinical research focuses on the needs of patients with thyroid diseases, including quality of life among thyroid cancer patients and survivors. His basic research, funded primarily by the Swiss National Science Foundation, focuses on the roles of cellular homeostatic systems in thyroid physiology and pathophysiology.
Ioannis Trougakos obtained his Ph.D. in Cellular-Developmental Biology from the University of Athens (UoA), Greece. He has worked as Research Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany; at the Centro De Biologia Molecular “Severo Ochoa”, Spain and at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece; he was also research visitor at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Currently he serves as Professor and Director of the “Cell Biology” lab at the Faculty of Biology, UoA; he directs three MSc UoA courses, he is vice Chairman of the Faculty of Nutrition and Dietetics, UoA, a member of the Coordination Board of the UoA Centre of Excellence on “Bioactive Natural Products” and also adjunct Professor of “Systems Biology of Ageing and Cancer”, at the European University Cyprus, Cyprus. Prof. Trougakos has received fellowships from the EU and the Hellenic State; has participated in many international courses, has been honored with various awards and he was an invited lecturer in international conferences and Universities; he was also invited Reviewer for the 2019 World Cancer Report. His scientific-research interests are focused on the understanding of the molecular-cellular basis of ageing and age-related diseases. He has published >165 Publications/Chapters in Peer Reviewed International Scientific Journals or Books. His group is funded by National and International grants, by foundations, as well as by contractual activities with the industry.
Kateřina Valentová is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Biochemistry from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of Palacký University in Olomouc and Head of the Laboratory of Biotransformation at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Her main professional interests include biologically active natural products, mainly (poly)phenols, their bioavailability, metabolism and biotransformation, but also their biological activity including the effect on signaling pathways. Her team consists of synthetic chemists experienced in modifications of flavonoid scaffold.
Giovanni E. Mann is Professor of Vascular Physiology in the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, UK, President of SFRRi and Editor of FRBM Reviews and Special Issues. His research group is investigating Nrf2 transcriptional activation of antioxidant defense genes in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells exposed to oxidative stress in diseases such as gestational diabetes and ischemic stroke. He demonstrated the critical importance of conducting cell culture under oxygen levels relevant to specific tissues and organs. His research encourages a paradigm shift in the field, enabling researchers and Pharma to improve translation of molecular findings in vitro to disease pathology and high-throughput screening of NRF2 therapeutics for treatment coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and wider field of vascular biology.
- 11:15-11:30 Coffee break. Breakout rooms
- 11:30-13:00 SESION 5. Chair: Brigitta Buttari
László Virág is full professor at and head of the Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary. He studies the molecular mechanisms involved in oxidative DNA damage signaling with special regard to the role of protein PARylation. In recent years his research focused on the following lines of activity:
i) how do macrophages protect themselves from PARylation-dependent cell death (parthanatos);
ii) how PARylation regulates macrophage polarization in cancer;
Mª Luisa Ferrándiz Manglano is full professor of Pharmacology at the University of Valencia. Her main lines of research include: anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity of new compounds of natural and synthetic origin; experimental models of acute and chronic inflammation; implication of the Nrf2/heme oxygenase-1 pathway in the development and resolution of chronic inflammatory processes. In recent years, her research focuses on the development of animal models of arthritis and experimental osteoarthritis, studying the mechanisms involved in these chronic joint pathologies and evaluating new targets and therapeutic strategies.
Mª Carmen Montesinos is tenured professor of Pharmacology at the University of Valencia. Her main lines of research are related to the physiological effects of the activation of adenosine receptors and their involvement in promotion of wound healing and in the anti-inflammatory effect of anti-rheumatic drugs. Currently, her research focuses on the study of the pathological processes involved in inflammatory skin diseases in order to improve current therapeutic options.
Andrey Y. Abramov is a Professor at the Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. He studies the role of mitochondria, calcium signalling and redox biology in physiology of the Central nervous system and in the mechanism of the pathology of neurodegenerative disorders. In the last decade in collaboration with Professor Dinkova-Kostova we identified novel and underestimated role of Nrf2 in mitochondrial bioenergetics
- 13:00 - 14:00 Breakout rooms and lunch.
- 14:00 - 15:45 SESION 6. Chair: Gina Manda
Manuela G. Lopez is MD PhD and full professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) Spain. Currently, she heads the Institute Teofilo Hernando for drug discovery (http://www.ifth.es/) that belongs to UAM. Her group, “NeuroprotectionLab”, has particular interest in the identification of new potential therapeutic targets to develop innovative and disease modifying therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, with special focus in modulating neuroinflammation (microglia-astrocyte interaction), oxidative stress and autophagy. Within the field of NRF2, she has contributed to the understanding of NRF2 in pain, depression, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, together with the development of different NRF2 multitarget drugs in collaboration with medicinal chemists. Currently, she is coordinating a drug development project to identify Keap1-NRF2 inhibitors with potential use in Alzheimer’s disease.
Mihaela Matovina is the Research Associate in the Laboratory for Protein Biochemistry and Molecular Modeling (LBPMM) at the Division of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, and Assistant Professor at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia. LBPMM is investigating the physiological role of dipeptidyl peptidase 3 protein, including its role in the regulation of the KEAP1-NRF2 pathway. Our current investigations are focused on experimental and computational analysis of KEAP1-DPP3 interaction, as well as the effects of DPP3 mutations found in cancer on the interaction with KEAP1 and the expression of NRF2-controlled genes.
Niki Chondrogianni is a Director of Research at the Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation. She focuses on the genetic and environmental factors that govern ageing, longevity and age-related diseases with emphasis on proteasome regulation. She is seeking for compounds that may act as proteasome activators and thus may serve as anti-ageing agents while dissecting at the same time the involved molecular pathways. She is equally interested in identifying compounds than can decelerate protein aggregation and thus the progression of proteinopathies with emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease using C. elegans as a model in combination with human cells of neuronal origin and murine primary neurons. Various molecular pathways have been revealed to be involved in such beneficial results including the Nrf2/SKN-1 pathway. She is a national and international patent holder that resulted in the development of novel anti-ageing products that act through the activation of the proteasome system (two relative product series in the national/international market).
Kemal Ugur Tufekci is an assistant professor of Molecular Neurobiology at the Izmir Democracy University of Turkey. He studies the neuroinflammatory mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric diseases. In recent years, he has focused on the protective role of the NRF2 transcription factor in NLRP3 inflammasome activation associated with neuropsychiatric disorders by utilizing in vivo and in vitro models.
Michel is an assistant professor of neuroimmunology at the Polish academy of science at the department of experimental genomics. He studies the molecular mechanisms involved in the interaction between CD4+ T cells and the neural and glial initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases in connection with the gut. He is interested in i) understanding the role NRF2 in CD4+ differentiation, reprogramming and migration. ii) Development of new NRF2-modulating drugs that can decrease inflammation and hence improve neurodegenerative disease prognosis.
- 15:45-16:00 Coffee break, Breakout rooms
- 16:00-17:30 SESION 7. Chair: Manuela G. López
Tugba Boyunegmez Tumer is Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. Her research team has mainly focused on understanding the molecular effects of natural product-derived and synthetic small molecules on chronic inflammatory diseases and associated degenerative conditions, particularly, cancer and neuroinflammation. Her lab combines in vitro/in vivo assays, multi-omic tools and in silico computation, modelling and ADMET approaches for rational lead discoveries. Working on the interface of molecular pharmacology, molecular biology, and biochemistry, NRF2-KEAP1 signaling pathway stands at the center of her studies. She has been working on Strigolactones (SLs) and their potential health benefits in chronic inflammatory diseases since 2016 in the scope of EUROCAROTEN Cost action. Besides, she has moved her interest in design and synthesis of H2S releasing compounds including novel isothiocyanate derivatives as NRF2 activators. Prof. Tumer is the leader of several national projects with international collaborators, and she is working group member of Cost Actions CA15136 and CA20121.
Vladimír Křen is Senior researcher in the Laboratory of Biotransformation, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Republic in Prague and a full Professor of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry at Palacký University, Olomouc. Long-time expert in the chemistry and chemoenzymatic transformation of flavonolignans of silymarin, in the biotransformation of natural products by enzymes and microorganisms, but also in glycosidases and glycosyltransferases, pharmacology of glycosides, glycobiology. 370 publications, h = 46; ORCID: 0000-0002-1091-4020
Irina Milisav is a full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, employed at Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Pathophysiology as a Research Associate and at Faculty of Health Sciences on a teaching post. She studies adaptive stress responses that boost cellular defences in liver cells (hepatocytes). Her group discovered an adaptive stress response of hepatocytes that prevents unnecessary apoptosis triggering when the stress-adapted hepatocytes are exposed to subsequent moderate stress (PACOS). ROS signalling mobilizes antioxidative defence and PACOS. Her group also investigates the effects of selected second generation antipsychotics on the liver as a part of a Marie Sklodowska Currie ITN project and the role of stress responses in drug-induced liver injury (DILI).
Maria do Carmo Pereira completed the PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1998 at the University of Porto, Faculty oe Engineering (FEUP), and a graduation in Chemical Engineering in 1993 at the same university. She is Associate Professor at FEUP and the Group Leader of Supramolecular Assemblies at the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE). The main research areas that she is working are: i) Nanotechnology and interfacial phenomena; supramolecular interactions including novel nano-engineered biomaterials for therapeutic applications; development of nanostructured electrochemical immunosensors for detection of neurodegenerative diseases.
Joana A. Loureiro is a researcher at the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE) since 2010 and Invited Assistant Professor at Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) since 2018. Joana did her bachelors and masters in chemical engineering followed by a bachelors and masters in pharmaceutical sciences. She received her PhD degree in chemical and biological engineering from FEUP in 2013. Since 2010, Joana has been working in the field of drug delivery nanosystems for brain diseases treatment. She has expertise in protein misfolding and pathogenic biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Her main research areas of interest comprise: i) nanotechnology and interfacial phenomena; ii) effects of fluorinated systems and peptides on the aggregation of amyloid-beta peptide; iii) conformational studies of proteins and peptides self-organized systems and polymer surfaces; and iv) design and production of inorganic and polymeric nano-systems for pharmaceutical application..
Nesrin Kartal Ozer is Professor at Marmara University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Istanbul,Turkey. She graduated with a BSc in Pharmacy from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey and she has received her PhD in Biochemistry in Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine. She moved then to Marmara University, Istanbul. She was a Visiting Scientist at St.George’s Hospital, Medical School, Department of Biochemistry, London, UK (1985-1986); Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland (1993-2004) and University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany (2008).
In her research she published ~ 100 articles and she was invited speaker at ~80 international meetings. She was the organizer ~10 scientific meetings and conferences.
As member of International Organizations, it is worth mentioning her membership in the International Advisory Committee, Oxygen Club of California (1999- today); FEBS Advanced Course Committee Member (2003-2006); FEBS Fellowships Committee Member (2021-2024), Secretary General Society for Free Radical Research-Europe (SFRR-E) and Member of the Council (2003-2009) and President of SFRR-E (2013-2014).
She was awarded The Oxygen Club of California Award and “Life Time Honorary Member” in 2006 “In recognition of outstanding research contributions on the role of vitamin E in atherosclerosis and to fostering the field of free radical biology” and The Society for Free Radical Research-Europe Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 “In recognition of Lifetime Extraordinary Scientific Achievements in the Field of Free Radical Research”.
Her research focus on endoplasmic reticulum stress, redox signaling and cell death in metabolism related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In parallel she has carried out research on the molecular function of tocopherols in these diseases.
Aleksandra Buha Djordjevic is an associate professor of Toxicology at the Department of Toxicology, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Pharmacy. Her main research interest is toxicology of mixtures and endocrine disrupting chemicals. In the field of NRF2 signalling, her special interest is towards the role of this pathway in the toxicity of environmental toxicants. She is the PI of the national project Decoding the role of exposome in human endocrine health funded by The Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. She is author/co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, her h index is 22 and her work has been cited more than 1400 times according to SCOPUS. Dr. Buha Djordjevic has been included in the Stanford University list of top 2% scientists in the world for 2020.
- 17:30-18:00 Breakout rooms
- 18:00-18:30 Round table and Concluding remarks
