Conférenciers Invités

Camilla Abbehausen

Camilla Abbehausen has been an Associate Professor at the University of Campinas (Brazil) since 2022. She earned her Chemistry degree from the same institution in 2003, where she was awarded the Regional Chemical Council Prize for outstanding academic performance. Prior to her academic career, she worked at Dow Corning Co. in Technical Support for health and personal care applications, earning the prestigious Application Engineer and Technical Service Excellence Prize in 2009.Dr. Abbehausen completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Campinas in 2014. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research, under the supervision of Prof. Nicholas Farrell at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), focused on the interaction of gold compounds with zinc fingers. In 2015, she joined the University of Campinas as an Assistant Professor, where she established the Research Group on the Study of Metalloenzymes and Metallodrugs (GREMMLENZ).Her research focuses on the intersection of inorganic chemistry and biology, particularly the interaction of metal compounds with proteins and the medicinal applications of metal-based compounds. Currently, she is investigating the effects of organometallic compounds as antiparasitic and antiviral agents.

James Coverdale

Dr James Coverdale is a Chartered Chemist (CChem) and Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Birmingham, where team are developing new metalloproteomic and elemental mass spectrometry techniques to study the subcellular fate of catalytic anticancer metallodrugs in cells. James was part of the team awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Horizon Prize for “pioneering work on catalysis of redox reactions by synthetic organometallic complexes” and received the 2024 Royal Society of Chemistry Spectroscopy Award for his contribution to the field.

Éva Anna Enyedy

Prof. Dr. Éva Anna Enyedy is the Head of the Department of Molecular and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Szeged (Hungary) and Leader of the Bioinorganic Chemistry Research Group. Her research focuses on the development and characterization of anticancer metal complexes and organometallic compounds, with respect to their solution speciation and physico-chemical properties that influence their pharmacokinetics. Her studies combine spectroscopic, electrochemical and separation techniques in order to elucidate and understand the relationships between structure, stability, redox activity, interactions with target or transporter macromolecules and biological activity for different families of metal complexes. Correlation analysis of this type of thermodynamic and kinetic data can greatly contribute to a better understanding of the differences in anticancer effects of metal or organometallic complexes. She is the author of over 150 scientific publications with more than 3,000 independent citations.

Amanda Jarvis

Dr Jarvis conducted her undergraduate studies at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) and received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of York (UK). She then joined the group of Dr Philippe Dauban (ICSN, Gif-sur-Yvette, France) to work on Rh(II)-catalysed nitrene chemistry, before moving back to St Andrews to work with Prof Paul Kamer on the development of artificial metalloenzymes.  In 2017, Dr Jarvis started her independent career as a Christina Miller Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in 2019. In 2022, she was promoted to Senior Lecturer. Her group works on combining traditional homogeneous chemistry with biocatalysis through the design of artificial metalloenzymes.

Alessandro Marrone

Alessandro studied and started up his academic career in “Università Gabriele d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara” (UdA). He took degree in “Medicinal Chemistry and Technology” in 2000 and graduated in Drug Sciences in 2005. Since 2018, Alessandro is associate professor and teaches General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy (UdA). His research activity is mainly focused on the application of several computational chemistry methods, ranging from pure QM to empirical methods or based on their combination, to the investigation of inorganic and organometallic systems.

Takashi Matsuo

Takashi Matsuo graduated from Kobe University in 1996 and received his Ph.D. degree from Kyoto University in 2001. He then had worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Kyushu University and Osaka University from 2001 to 2006. During this period, he also worked as a visiting scholar at University of Washington (USA) in 2003. In 2006, he was appointed as an assistant professor at Osaka University and was promoted to an associate professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 2009. His current research interests include the application of olefin metathesis catalysts for bio-relevant chemical studies and the regulation of protein functions by protein-protein interactions. He has also conducted mechanistic studies of metal complex-catalysed chemical reactions and enzymatic reactions in terms of physical organic chemistry.

Toshiyuki Moriuchi 

Toshiyuki Moriuchi received his doctoral degree in 1995 from Osaka University. He became Assistant Professor at Osaka University and was a postdoctoral fellow at California Institute of Technology (Professor Jacqueline K. Barton group, 1996–1997). Dr. Moriuchi was promoted to Lecturer in 2004 and Associate Professor in 2008. He was appointed Professor at Osaka City University in 2018 and Osaka Metropolitan University in 2022. His current research interest focuses on the development of functional molecular systems based on self-organization programs of biomolecules. Dr. Moriuchi received the Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists (1997), AJINOMOTO Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2004), HGCS Japan Award of Excellence 2011 (2012), The 15th Kansai Branch Award of the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2017), and Nagase Foundation Award 2018 (2018).

Malay Patra

Prof. Malay Patra is an Associate Professor with tenure at the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India. He earned his PhD from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and subsequently worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later became a Senior Scientist at the University of Zurich before starting his independent career as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at TIFR, Mumbai. His research focuses on the rational design of multi-targeted anticancer agents, sugar chemistry, targeted drug delivery, and chemical biology. Prof. Patra has published 63 papers in top international journals and holds 10 patents.

Anaïs Pitto-Barry

Anaïs Pitto-Barry was appointed as CNRS Researcher at the Institut Galien Paris-Saclay (Université Paris-Saclay, France) in 2021 after starting her independant scientific career at the University of Bradford (UK) in 2019. Previously, she obtained her PhD degree from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) with Prof. R. Deschenaux where she focused on the mesomorphic or biological properties of dendritic and metallodendritic assemblies. In 2012, she joined the University of Warwick (UK) to work with Profs R.K. O'Reilly FRS and A.P. Dove on the synthesis, self-assembly, and characterisation of polymeric micelles. She then worked with Profs P.J. Sadler FRS and N.P.E. Barry on the applications of metallated compounds at the University of Warwick and the University of Bradford. Her research interests encompass the use of polymers for the transport of inorganic compounds for biomedical applications. Her research activities focus on the design of polymers used as cargo to carry organometallic complexes or boron atoms for cancer applications.

Bogna Rudolf

Bogna Rudolf obtained her PhD in 1998 at the University of Lodz (Poland). After a few post-doc positions in France (ICSN Gif-sur-Yvette, ENSCP Paris) she obtained her habilitation in 2011 at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz where she started her independent career. Her Team research interests encompass the synthesis of organometallic compounds and their application in biochemistry (anticancer drugs, antioxidants, metallocarbonyl labels, enzyme inhibitors, CO releasing molecules (CORMs)).

José Ruiz

Prof. José Ruiz received his PhD in Chemistry in 1984 at University of Murcia (UMU). Afterwards, he moved to the Sheffield University (UK), where he spent 2 years as a Post-doctoral Researcher in the P.M. Maitlis group, working in transition organometallic hydrides. In 1987, he got a permanent position as a Lecturer at UMU. Since 2002, he started his independent career and drove his interest towards the field of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry. In 2007, he became Professor at UMU and founded the Metallodrugs Discovery Group. He is also leader of the Non- Conventional Anticancer Metallodrugs Group at the Murcian Institute of Biosanitary Research (IMIB). He has served as President of the Spanish Society of Bioinorganic Chemistry (AEBIN, 2017-2022). Throughout his scientific career, he has authored more than 130 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, leading to more than 4,600 citations. His h-index is 40. Prof Ruiz has supervised 13 Doctoral Theses. Since 2013 he secured over 750k € in funded research grants.

Thomas Scattolin

Thomas Scattolin completed his PhD in Chemistry in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Fabiano Visentin at University of Trieste. In 2019 he was a visiting scientist in the laboratories of Prof. Antonio Togni at the ETH in Zurich. Throughout this period, he developed a straightforward route to allyl palladium complexes stabilized by N-trifluoromethyl NHCs which proved to restrain the growth of high grade serous ovarian cancer tumoroids. One year later, he joined the group of Prof. Steven P. Nolan at Ghent University as a postdoc researcher. In 2021, he worked as postdoc researcher at CRO Aviano, Italy, within the CaTHENa project (Cancer THErapy by Nanomedicine). Since 2022, he is assistant professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Padova. His research activity, which is documented by more than 80 articles and two patent applications, primarily focuses on the synthesis and reactivity of late transition metal complexes with applications in medicinal chemistry and homogeneous catalysis.

Felix Zelder 

Felix Zelder is an adjunct professor at the University of Zurich. His research interests focus on fundamental and applied chemistry studies of vitamin B₁₂ derivatives and the development of new analytical rapid tests. In 2009, he was awarded the Mercator Prize of the University of Zurich and a 2nd prize “Emerging Technologies 2016 Food and Water” of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Pingyu Zhang

Pingyu Zhang is a distinguished professor and deputy director of the Department of Chemistry at Shenzhen University. She earned her PhD in 2015 under the mentorship of Professor Hui Chao at Sun Yat-sen University. Subsequently, she worked as a Newton Fellow in Professor Peter J. Sadler's group at the University of Warwick from 2015 to 2017. Since 2017, she has been a faculty member at Shenzhen University. In 2023, she was recognized as a Young Chang Jiang Scholar by the Ministry of Education. Her accolades include the Second-Class Natural Science Award of Shenzhen (first contributor, 2023) and the Dalton Division Horizon Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2022). Professor Zhang's research focuses on the fundamental study of metal complex drugs for tumor-driven therapy, particularly the development of light- and sound-sensitive anti-tumor drugs and innovative therapeutic strategies. Notably, she was the first to identify the potential application of metal complexes in sonodynamic therapy, which could be used for the treatment of deep tumors. She has published over 80 research papers and has been granted 14 Chinese invention patents.