Prof. Aziz AMINE
Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco
Talk Title: Recent Advances in Biomimetic Biosensors
Professor Amine’s research over the past 35 years has focused on sensors and biosensors and their applications in analytical chemistry. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and has coordinated several national and international research projects. He currently serves as Editor of the Biosensors and Bioelectronics section of the International Journal, which has an impact factor of 10.5.
He also chairs the International Workshop on Biosensors and the Congress on Analytical Sciences. According to Google Scholar (as of March 2026), his research indicators include an h-index of 67 and 15,100 citations. For the fifth consecutive year, he has been listed by Stanford University among the top 2% most cited researchers in the world.
Prof. Levent ÇAVAŞ
Dokuz Eylül University, Türkiye
Talk Title: New Trends in Antifouling Paint Technology: Biobased solutions
Prof. Levent Çavaş completed his Master’s and PhD studies at the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Dokuz Eylül University, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. His main research areas include the biochemistry and biotechnology of invasive marine algae in the Mediterranean, eco-friendly antifouling paints, and biocides.
He has served as the principal investigator for 9 TÜBİTAK projects and 2 European Union projects, and he is currently a Core Group member and Grant Awarding Coordinator of the COST Action E-NICHE.
Levent Çavaş is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the World Underwater Federation (CMAS). He has published 105 international articles, which have received 3,158 citations. He is currently a faculty member at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Dokuz Eylül University.
Prof. Özlem YEŞİL ÇELİKTAŞ
Ege University, Türkiye
Talk Title: Humanizing the Preclinical Pipeline with Organoid-on-Chips
Prof. 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
Serdar Durdağı is a scientist specializing in computational biophysics, pharmaceutical chemistry, and computer-aided drug design. His research focuses on protein–protein and protein–ligand interactions, rational drug design, molecular modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, virtual screening, drug repurposing, and machine learning-based therapeutic discovery. He currently serves as Founding Dean and Professor at the Bahçeşehir University School of Pharmacy.
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 Free University of Berlin, where he graduated summa cum laude. He has held research positions at internationally recognized institutions including the University of Calgary, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, and University of Innsbruck.
Since 2011, he has led an interdisciplinary research group while contributing to graduate training and translational research. He is also the founder of biotechnology startups including Istanbul MedChem and ATPharma, focusing on computational drug discovery. His achievements have been recognized with major awards, including the Turkish Academy of Sciences Academy Award and Medal, the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award, and the Aziz Sancar Incentive Award.
Prof. Gianluca Maria FARINOLA
University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy
Talk Title: Living Materials with Photosynthetic Microorganisms
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. Yashar Mirza FEYZIYEV
Institute of Molecular Biology, Azerbaijan
Talk Title: Electron Transfer in Photosystem II and the Influence of Exogenous Factors on its Photochemical Activity.
Yashar Feyziyev is a scientist specializing in photobioenergetics, photosynthesis research, and green energy technologies. He currently serves as Head of the Laboratory of “Photobioenergetics and Green Energy” at the Institute of Molecular Biology under the Ministry of Science and Education of the Azerbaijan Republic.
Dr. Feyziyev received his education at Baku State University and completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of Soil Sciences and Photosynthesis of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from Moscow State University with research on charge separation and recombination in Photosystem II, and later obtained his Doctor of Sciences degree with a dissertation focused on electron transfer in water oxidation reactions of Photosystem II.
Throughout his career, he has held research positions at internationally recognized institutions, including Kwansei Gakuin University, Lund University, and RIKEN Photodynamic Research Center. He was also a member of the Swedish Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis.
His research focuses on Photosystem II reaction centers, water oxidation mechanisms, light energy conversion, molecular oxygen formation, stress effects on photosynthesis, and biohydrogen production. He has conducted extensive studies on plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, including Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Synechocystis species, while leading projects on green energy, artificial photosynthesis, and biotechnological hydrogen production.
Prof. Irada HUSEYNOVA
Institute of Molecular Biology, Azerbaijan
Talk Title: From Genome to Field: GWAS-Guided Dissection of the Genetic Architecture and Biochemical Mechanisms Underlying Stress Tolerance in Wheat for Climate-Resilient Breeding
Irada Huseynova is a prominent scientist specializing in molecular biology, plant physiology, and photosynthesis research. Her work focuses on the molecular-genetic mechanisms of pigment–protein complex formation in photosynthetic membranes and the physiological and biochemical basis of plant tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress factors. She currently leads the Institute of Molecular Biology under the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan and serves as Vice-President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Huseynova graduated with honors from Baku State University in Chemistry in 1987. She earned her Ph.D. in 1994 and Doctor of Sciences degree in 2004, becoming Professor in 2009. She was elected Corresponding Member of ANAS in 2007 and Full Member (Academician) in 2014.
Since 1991, she has held various academic and leadership positions at the Institute of Botany and later the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies. In addition to her research leadership, she has played an active role in scientific organization and education, chairing numerous international conferences and supervising graduate research.
Academician Huseynova is the author of nearly 500 scientific publications, including high-impact journal articles, monographs, books, and patents. She serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Editor-in-Chief of leading scientific journals in Azerbaijan. Her contributions have been recognized with several prestigious honors, including the Hasan bey Zardabi Prize, the Economic Cooperation Organization Special Award in Science and Technology, the “EcoWorld-2024” International Ecology Award, and the Order of Glory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
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
Talk Title: Physics of Cells as New Biomarker of Health and Disease
Dr. Erdinç is an EMBO Young Investigator (since 2025) and a Visiting Associate Professor at University of Oxford. Since 2024, he has served as an Associate Professor at SciLifeLab and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, following an appointment as Assistant Professor at the same institutions from 2020 to 2023.
Prior to establishing an independent research group, he held several prestigious fellowships at the University of Oxford, including a Newton Fellowship (2018–2019), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015–2017), and an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014–2015). Earlier, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Kai Simons at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany (2013–2014).
He obtained a PhD from the International Max Planck Research School in Dresden, Germany, where they conducted doctoral research in the laboratory of Petra Schwille between 2010 and 2012. They earned a BSc from Yeditepe University in 2009.