The Speakers

Alessia Bacchi is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Parma. Her present main research interests are focused on crystal engineering of polymorphs, solvates, co-crystals, and of responsive hybrid organic/inorganic materials. Within this broad theme she developed crystalline molecular materials capable to reversibly capture and release volatile solvents in a solid/gas exchange, and proposed structural models to map the process of molecular recognition between the crystalline receptor and the volatile substrate. Recently she has focused on the design and control of crystal forms of molecular compounds, and on the stabilization inside crystalline structures (MOF and co-crystals) of liquid and volatile compounds related to human health, environment and nutrition. 

Alessia Bacchi served as the President of the European Crystallographic Association (2015-2018). In 2015 she established the Museum of Crystallography at the University of Parma, of which she is currently the Director. She has been appointed Trustee of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Center in 2018. 

Professor Evripidis Gavathiotis - Invited Speaker

Evripidis Gavathiotis is professor of biochemistry and of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. He is Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Program at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center. His research focuses on mechanisms of protein interactions of the BCL-2 family proteins and other key proteins in cell death and cell survival pathways such as apoptosis, mitochondrial dynamics, selective autophagy and oncogenic signaling. His work in these pathways has pioneered mechanisms and signaling interactions, pharmacological strategies and first-in-class small molecules targeting challenging and “undruggable” targets. He has developed innovative approaches based on computational and biophysical methods as well as chemical strategies to enable the discovery and design of small molecules. His studies have led to several prototype therapeutics that are undergoing development towards IND application for oncology and aging-associated diseases. He leads an interdisciplinary group that has expertise in structural and chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, drug design, computational and experimental screening, biochemical and cell biology approaches and in vivo pharmacology.  

Evripidis Gavathiotis has been honored with several prestigious awards and is co-founder of three biotechnology companies (BAKX Therapeutics, Selphagy Therapeutics, Stelexis Therapeutics). 

Catherine Venien-Bryan is a professor at the Institue of Minerology, Material Physics and Cosmochemistry of the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Her research is focused on understanding the intimate relationship between ion channel structure and function. The objective is to understand the molecular mechanism at an atomic level. She is focusing on the inwardly-rectifying family of potassium channels or ‘Kir’ channels, more precisely Kirbac3.1 channel but also the eucaryotic Kir2.1 channel. She uses cryo-electron microscopy to determine the structure of human Kir2.1 channel at high-resolution. By combining structural, in silico, functional and biophysical data, she has have determined the impact of a mutation related to the genetic disease Andersen-Tawil syndrome on the structure and function of the human Kir2.1 channel.

Catherine Venien-Bryan also studies the DNA repair pathways which maintain genome integrity, and especially the FANCD2/FANCI complex which is involved at the DNA damage Fanconi Anemia repair pathway. She has identified the fork-like tower domain in the C-terminus of FANCD2 which is required for its complete functions in the DNA interstrand cross-link repair. Interestingly, several disease-causing mutations lie within this region, underscoring the importance of this domain.

Cyril Bařinka is the head of Laboratory of Structural Biology at the Institute of Biotechnology in Vestec, Czech republic. His research interests focus on elucidating the structure-function relationship of several zinc-dependent hydrolases, including histone deacetylases (HDACs) and glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII). The objective of his work is to understand the role of these enzyme in (patho)physiology with the focus on basic biochemical and structural studies.

Petra Lucacik is a Research Scientist in Dr. Martin Walsh's Group at Diamond Light Source. She is primarily involved in researching the disease-causing mechanisms of Gram negative bacteria such as Haemophillus influenzae, Yersinia pestis and pathogenic E. coli. In particular, she uses structural methods (crystallography and EM) to understand proteins involved in the transport of nutrients and other substances across the bacterial membrane. These processes are often essential for the bacteria to survive within the infected host, so she hopes to use this understanding to discover new antibiotic leads and/or vaccines. 

Pietro Roversi is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology of the National Research Council of Milano, Italy. His research is focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms by which the eukaryotic cell either retains misfolded glycoproteins in the Endoplasmic Reticulum and/or degrades them. He develops and tests modulators of Endoplasmic Reticulum glycoprotein Quality Control (ERQC) and/or Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated Degradation (ERAD) as i) broad-spectrum rescuers of secretion of rare-disease associated responsive mutant glycoproteins; ii) broad spectrum anti-virals; iii) cancer chemotherapics. Using a combination of structural (Cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography) and functional analysis of recombinantly expressed purified ERQC / ERAD glycoproteins and their complexes with misfolded substrates, a range of biochemical and biological hypotheses are generated, which are then tested by in vitro and in cellula assays, and in vivo experiments using the plant as a model organism.

Andrew Turnbull is Principal Scientist at Cancer Research Horizons in London, UK. He is an accomplished structural biologist with in-depth knowledge and expertise in biological sciences and extensive skills in all aspects of structural biology including structure-based drug design. He set up and leads the crystallography facility at Cancer Research UK Therapeutic Discovery Laboratories to aid drug discovery programmes. He also manages the FBDD initiative. Prior to that, he was a team leader in the crystallography group at the Oxford Structural Genomics Consortium where he determined more than 30 novel medically important human protein structures.