Prof. Özlem Yeşil ÇELİKTAŞ
Ege University, Türkiye
Talk Title: Humanizing the Preclinical Pipeline with Organoid-on-Chips
Prof. Dr. Ozlem Yesil-Celiktas is a faculty member at Ege University, Department of Bioengineering and co-affiliated to METU MEMS Center. Her research lies at the intersection of neuronal and pulmonary diseases, tissue engineering and biomaterials. She leads Biomimetic Microsystems research group, which applies a multidisciplinary approach to design and develop organoid-on-chips that enable to elucidate cellular and molecular mechanisms governing tissue pathology, offering protection during injury and providing a viable preclinical tool to assess the safety and efficacy of new therapeutic regimens.
Prof. Serdar DURDAĞI
Bahçeşehir University, Türkiye
Talk Title: TACTIC: A Novel Game-Theoretic Multi-Objective Ranking Paradigm for De Novo Drug Design and the Discovery of Selective PARP1 Hit Inhibitors through a Shapley-Driven Active Learning Loop
Prof. Dr. Serdar Durdağı is a scientist specializing in computational biophysics, pharmaceutical chemistry, and computer-aided drug design. His research is centered on advancing the understanding of protein–protein and protein–ligand interactions through the development of innovative computational frameworks. Working at the intersection of molecular biology, chemistry, and computational science, he focuses on rational drug design, molecular modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, and machine learning-based approaches for therapeutic discovery. He currently serves as Founding Dean and Professor at the School of Pharmacy of Bahçeşehir University.
Prof. Dr. Durdağı received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Hacettepe University, his M.Sc. in Computational Chemistry from Bilkent University, and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Computational Biophysics from the Free University of Berlin, where his doctoral thesis was awarded summa cum laude. Over the course of his academic career, he has held research positions at internationally respected institutions including the University of Calgary, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, and Innsbruck University. Since 2011, he has served as a principal investigator and research group leader, leading a large interdisciplinary team and contributing extensively to the training of graduate researchers.
A major dimension of his work is the development of novel computational methodologies for drug discovery, particularly in structure-based and ligand-based virtual screening, molecular simulations, drug repurposing, and machine learning-driven QSAR modeling. In parallel with his academic research, he has established startup companies in Boston and Istanbul, including Istanbul MedChem and ATPharma, focusing on computer-aided drug design and development. His scientific and translational work reflects a sustained commitment to discovering new therapeutic strategies for challenging diseases, especially through the integration of computational and experimental approaches. He also serves as the Biophysical Society Ambassador for Türkiye for the 2024–2026 term.
Prof. Dr. Durdağı’s contributions to science have been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) Academy Award in Health and Life Sciences and the TÜBA Academy Medal in 2023, the Aziz Sancar Incentive Award of the Health Institutes of Türkiye in 2017, the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award in Health Sciences in 2016, and the Science Academy BAGEP Young Scientist Award in 2014. In addition to his research achievements, he has served on the editorial boards of several international journals and has built a distinguished publication record in computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and molecular biosciences.
Prof. François FAGOTTO
University of Montpellier, France
Talk Title: The EpCAM case: How studying embryos has helped transform our view of a major carcinoma marker
François Fagotto studied Biology and did his PhD at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He then did a first postdoc at Columbia University, New York, with Fred Maxfield, a pioneer of live imaging, to study pH regulation in embryonic endosome-like storage granules. He then joined the lab of Barry Gumbiner at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, working on various aspects of the Wnt pathway, from its role during embryonic development to the mechanism of β-catenin nuclear transport. A collaboration with Frank Constantini lab led to the discovery of Axin, the central scaffold protein building the β-catenin degradation complex. In 1997, he started his own team at the Max-Planck Institute of Developmental Biology in Tübingen, continuing to work on β-catenin and Axin. In 2002, he was appointed at McGill University, Montreal, where he started to work on the cellular basic of morphogenesis, specifically on the mechanisms of tissue segregation. His work led to the demonstration of principle of “high interfacial tension” as motor for cell sorting, contradicting the popular differential adhesion hypothesis. Since 2015, he is University Professor of Montpellier, France, and team leader at the CRBM-CNRS Institute. He is exploring the cellular basis of tissue dynamics and remodelling using a combination of cellular and biophysical approaches. In parallel to embryos, he has used human cancer cell lines to uncover a new function of the carcinoma-associated EpCAM in regulating cell and tissue adhesive and migratory properties.
CV and complete list of publications can be found at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1495-2112
Prof. Gianluca Maria FARINOLA
University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy
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Gianluca Farinola is Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, where he served as Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation during the six-year term 2019–2025.
He is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University, Boston, USA (since 2019).
Farinola served as President of the Italian Chemical Society in the past three-year term (2023–2025), and is presently member of the Executive Board of EuChemS (2026-2029).
He has been a visiting professor at Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Université d’Angers, Université de Strasbourg, and the University of Münster.
He was a member of the Scientific Committee of the CNR Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies (2019–2022) and served as an advisor to the Bicameral Parliamentary Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate on environmental matters (2016–2018).
Gianluca Farinola’s research focuses on the design and synthesis of functional organic and biohybrid materials, including living materials, with applications ranging from optoelectronics to biomedicine.
He is the author of more than 230 publications in international journals and has presented his work in over 120 national and international conferences and schools at universities and research institutes.
Gianluca Farinola is a Fellow of Chemistry Europe, a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, and a Member of Academia Europaea. In Italy, he is a member of the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere. He has received several awards for his studies, including the Ciamician Medal of the Italian Chemical Society and the Award for Innovation in Organic Synthesis from the CNIMPIS interuniversity consortium.
Prof. Murat KASAP
Kocaeli University, Türkiye
Talk Title: Profiling the Cell Surface Proteome of Breast Cancer Cell Lines Using a Novel Biological Biotinylation Strategy
Prof. Murat Kasap graduated from the Department of Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University. He completed his Master’s and Doctoral (PhD) studies in the Department of Biochemistry at Virginia Tech in the United States. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Kasap conducted postdoctoral research on cell biology at the University of Arkansas. In 2004, he was appointed as a faculty member at Kocaeli University.He earned the title of Associate Professor in Biochemistry in 2010 and in Medical Biology in 2015, before being promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 2016. Since 2007, he has focused his research on proteomics, utilizing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technologies. With over 70 publications in high-impact international journals, Dr. Kasap organized a major international congress on protein research at Kocaeli University in 2024. He continues his active research within the Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine. Notably, his work on the early diagnosis of breast cancer was honored with the Doctor Clubs Award in 2022. Dr. Kasap currently serves as a member of the TÜSEB (Health Institutes of Turkey) Scientific Board and the TÜBİTAK TEYDEB Executive Board. He is married and the father of two children.
Assoc. Prof. Mattia MORI
University of Siena, Italy
Talk Title: G-quadruplex structures as targets against pathogenic bacteria and AMR
Mattia Mori is an Associate Professor in medicinal chemistry at the University of Siena (Italy) since 2021. He received the international PhD degree in structural biology from the University of Florence (Italy) in 2009 and subsequently carried on postdoctoral research at Sapienza University of Rome and the Italian Institute of Technology. In 2022, he obtained national habilitation as a full professor of medicinal chemistry. His research focuses primarily on the use of computational modeling tools to understand the conformational behavior of target macromolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and their complexes, and on the design and optimization of small molecules of pharmacological relevance. Biophysical tools are also used to monitor small molecules binding on their target. Major research topics include antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and cancer, with a current interest in non-canonical nucleic acids and a passion for exploiting natural products as source of lead compounds. He is the PI of a computational and biophysics research group, and the author of >170 scientific articles and 6 patents.
Prof. Uğur SEZERMAN
Acıbadem University, Türkiye
Talk Title: Personalized Therapy in Cancer Based on Multiomics Data Analysis; Drug Repurposing Applications
Prof. Uğur SEZERMAN, B.Sc. Electrical Engineering, M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering Dept. Bosphorous University and PhD at Boston University Biomedical Engineering Dept. Established the first Bioinformatics Graduate and undergraduate programs in Turkey at Sabanci University then moved to Acibadem University School of Medicine to establish the first Clinical Bioinformatics Program. He is specially focused in developing algorithms for Multi Omics data analysis, identification of individualized disease aetiology and therapy targets via network based analysis of omics dataanalysis, personalized medicine and wellness bioinformatics; more than 170 publications. More than 1500 citations. Involved in several EU projects; European Joint Project on Rare diseases project (EJPRD) responsible for developing pathway based analysis tools for Rare disease data. IT Future of Cancer ITFOC ERA-Net project on personalized Cancer, DigiTwins Flagship application, CHARME Cost Action on Harmonization of Standards, BEAT-Primary Ciliary D COST Action to name a few. He is also the founder of three SMEs Epigenetiks Inc where he is providing services to several hospitals on omics data analysis for diagnostics and personalized therapy. The other two companies Eternans Ltd. U.K, which is designing peptide based drugs for Cancer, COPD and CKD and Nurture Welness LLC USA which is providing omics data and AI based personalized wellness services.
Assoc. Prof. Erdinç SEZGİN
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
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