University of Innsbruck, Austria
Pau is a botanist interested in studying the responses of mountain plant species to environmental change, with a focus on genomics and evolution, but also at the plant community level. His main expertise is in the field of comparative phylogeography, i.e. understanding how patterns of genetic diversity are formed within species, and searching for common evolutionary responses among species exposed to the same historical events. In recent years he has specialised in high-elevation systems, from the Alps to the Mediterranean mountains.
In the field of vegetation science, he is involved in several projects investigating changes and responses of high-elevation vegetation to environmental change. He coordinates two long-term monitoring sites in northern Italy that are part of the GLORIA network, an international network to study the response of alpine vegetation to climate change around the world. All of his research has the ultimate goal of contributing to better conservation plans to preserve biodiversity at different scales.
Pau obtained his Ph.D. in molecular plant systematics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2017. Later, he started his postdoctoral research in 2018 in the Department of Botany at the University of Innsbruck, where he currently holds a tenure-track position as assistant professor since 2020.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Understanding the origin and fate of alpine plant diversity — from genes to communities
EFSA Parma, Italy
Food scientist by training, Andrea has over 20 years of professional experience in both academic research and in the support to risk assessment activities and the coordination of scientific working groups. He holds a degree and a PhD in food science and technologies and specialised on the assessment of food biomolecules and their characterisation.
Andrea joined the European Food Safety Authority in 2008 where he has been working on the safety assessment of innovative food products and in the support and coordination of cross-cutting scientific activities. Andrea currently leads the Novel Foods team and coordinates the activities of the expert working group on Novel Foods. In his current role he coordinates the support to the safety assessment of Novel foods performed by the EFSA NDA Panel and interfaces in the regulatory context with the European Commission and its committees.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Regulatory and safety aspects of novel food and ingredients from plants and herbs
UiT, Norway
Laura is Professor in Plant Biology at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the Research leader of Climate laboratory in Tromsø, which is the northernmost phytotron facility in the world focusing on studying the effect of climate conditions on the growth, quality and the resilience of plants.
She is a plant physiologist and molecular biologist and her research activities have focused mainly on the Nordic wild plants, especially on wild Vaccinium berries which are one of the best sources of the health beneficial phenolic compounds. The special interest in her research has been understanding the regulation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway during the fruit development affected by the environmental and genetic factors.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) – prospects from the wild harvest to breeding and domestication
University of Pisa, Italy
He graduated in Agricultural Biotechnologies from the University of Pisa in 2010 and got a PhD in Plant Science at the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2014. He was a visitor at the Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), studying the photoprotective role of anthocyanins in wild and cultivated species subjected to abiotic stressors.
Marco Landi is currently professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment - University of Pisa. His scientific interest is mainly focused on the structural, biochemical, molecular and physiological mechanisms through which plants accommodate environmental stress. Recent projects include: (i) photoprotective role of anthocyanins and flavonoids sensu lato in plants subjected to high irradiances; (ii) photosynthetic performances and metabolomic adjustments of tree and herbaceous species to Global Change factors, including drought, salinity and high temperature; (iii) role of red pigments bryophytes with a focus on New Zealand liverwort species.
He is author of more than 250 research/congress papers, 160 of them published in international journals. Associate Editor of Photosynthetica, Frontiers in Plant Science, Heliyon, Marco Landi is a member of the Italian Society of Agricultural Chemistry since 2014.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Metabolic responses of mountain species to abiotic stress
Laimburg Research Centre, Italy
Michael Oberhuber is director of Laimburg Research Centre in Pfatten-Auer (Vadena-Ora), Italy, since 2009. He holds a Msc. and PhD in chemistry from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
During his PhD thesis, he investigated the molecular processes of autumnal leave senescence, unravelling the secrets of the fall colours. In 2003, he moved to Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, CA, to study molecular evolution and the origin of life. Back to Europe, he joined Sandoz Development Centre at Sandoz/Novartis (Kundl, Austria) as laboratory head for the development of pharmaceuticals.
His research interests include agricultural chemistry, nutrition, natural products, and chemical biology. Currently, his laboratory is employing targeted and untargeted metabolomics to study food properties, traceability, and natural product chemistry. His research is aimed at improving the competitivity and sustainability of the local agricultural production.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: From Mountains to Markets: Integrating Scientific Approaches for a Sustainable Development of Alpine and Mountain Plant Cultivation in Trentino-South Tyrol
Agroscope, Switzerland
After studying agronomy in Toulouse, France, he joined the French research institute for aromatic, medicinal and perfume plants (iteipmai) in 1994. From 1997 to 2019, he worked at the Mediplant Institute in Switzerland, first as project manager and then as director. At the end of 2019, he will take over responsibility for research into aromatic and medicinal plants at Agroscope (Switzerland). For some thirty years, his work has focused on the domestication of numerous botanical species, the selection of new varieties and the optimization of cultivation techniques. He has participated in and coordinated numerous national and international projects for the development of MAP crops. He currently chairs the MAPs Genetic Resources and Breeding Working Group within the ISHS.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Plant breeding challenges for cultivation in mountain areas. Examples of Artemisia umbelliformis Lam. and Rhodiola rosea L.
University of Innsbruck, Austria
He studied Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Innsbruck. After receiving his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Biology from the University of Munich he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology of the University of California, Irvine. Since 2001 he is Full Professor of Pharmacognosy at the Institute of Pharmacy of the University of Innsbruck. From 2004 until 2022 he was the Dean of Study Affairs of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy. He retired in September 2022.
His main research interests are: isolation and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites from higher plants with anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity, analysis and quality assessment of (medicinal) plants and phytopharmaceuticals, discovery of pharmacologically active natural products by means of computer aided models.
He is author of more than 400 publications in international scientific journals. Since 2006 he is president of the Herbal Medicinal Products Platform Austria (HMPPA).
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Bioactive natural compounds: Alpine plants as promising sources
Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Germany
Professor Wessjohann studied chemistry in Hamburg (D), Southampton (UK) and Oslo (N). He earned his doctorate 1990 in Hamburg. After a short period as lecturer in Brazil, he became a Feodor-Lynen fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-foundation with Prof. Wender at Stanford University (USA) working on anticancer drugs. After an assistant professorship in Munich (LMU, 92-98), he was appointed Chair of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL). Since 2001, he is director of the Dept. Bioorganic Chemistry at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB) in Halle (Germany), and in parallel holds the chair of natural product chemistry of the Martin Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. From 2010-2017 he served as the Managing Director of IPB (ipb-halle.de).
Prof. Wessjohann focuses on the discovery, synthesis and application of medicinally active compounds and plant protectants based on natural products. He has over 500 publications, > 30 patent families, and is co-founder of seven companies. He is/was speaker of the DAAD world health centre “GLACIER” (glacieronehealth.de), of the research consortium “DiP – digitalization in plant value chains” (dip-sachsen-anhalt.de), the science campus “plant based bioeconomy”, member of many boards and commissions of companies, academia and science organizations, including the national scientific advisory board “mision de sabios” of the Colombian government for the fields bioeconomy, biotechnology and environment. He received numerous scholarships, prizes and honors, e.g. the Microsoft IT Founders Award, and is a foreign member of the Brazilian Academy of Science.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Rhodiola rosea: identification of its memory and learning enhancement principles
Kiel University, Germany
He studied Pharmacy at the University of Düsseldorf/Germany; he was registered as a pharmacist in 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Christian pursued doctoral studies in Pharmacognosy at the University of Innsbruck/Austria. From 2000 to 2001 Christian was a DFG-funded postdoctoral fellow in the group of Dr. Nigel B. Perry in the Plant Extracts Research Unit of Crop & Food in Dunedin/New Zealand. Back in Innsbruck, Christian completed habilitations (state doctorates) in Pharmacognosy (2003) and Botany (2007). From 2010 to 2013, Dr. Zidorn worked in the group of Dr. Anna Lönnroth in Brussels/Belgium as a scientific officer in the field of infectious diseases with the European Commission; here he was responsible for FP7 collaborative projects in the fields of antimicrobial resistance and emerging epidemics. In 2015 and 206 Christian studied marine natural compounds as a Marie Curie IEF grant holder at the CNR − Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare in Pozzuoli/Italy in the group of Dr. Margherita Gavagnin. Since April 2016, Chrisitan Zidorn is full professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology of the Institute of Pharmacy at the Kiel University in the far North of Germany. His research interests include phytochemistry, chemo¬phenetics, botanical systematics, and chemical ecology. Professor Zidorn has published more than 125 original papers in international journals, more than 20 international reviews, and 25 papers in journals of national interest. His research resulted in the discovery of dozens of new natural compounds from various compound classes, such as sesquiterpenoids, diterpenes, phenolic acids, iridoids, lignans, diarylheptanoids, and polyacetylenes. Christian Zidorn is one of the editors in chief of Biochemical Systematics and Ecology and associate editor of Fitoterapia and serves on the editorial board of e.g., Phytochemistry. His current research focuses on chemophenetics of the Cichorieae (Asteraceae), bio-actives from vegetables, and on marine natural products from seagrasses, their bioactivities, and ecological functions.
TITLE OF THE LECTURE: Seasonal, geographical, and ecological variation of bioactive natural products