Prof. Michael Gütschow studied Biochemistry at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1987 under the supervision of Prof. Günther Wagner. Until 1993, he was working as Scientific Assistant at the Department of Biosciences at the University of Leipzig. In 1993, he became a Postdoc at the Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Atlanta, with Prof. James C. Powers. He received his Habilitation in 1998. Gütschow held several short visiting fellowships, for example at the Friedrich-Miescher-Institute Basel, and Novartis Basel, Switzerland. Since 2001, he is Professor for Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bonn. He was the head of the Department of Pharmacy and director of the Pharmaceutical Institute. His research interests include (i) peptidic and peptidomimetic drugs (ii) design of inhibitors and activity-based probes for cysteine and serine proteases (iii) development of proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) (iv) synthesis of bioactive heterocycles and (v) biochemistry of enzyme-drug interactions. He published more than 330 papers to the scientific topics mentioned.
Homepage:
https://www.pharmchem1.uni-bonn.de/ak-guetschow

Prof. Brice Korkmaz received his Ph.D. from the University of Tours in 2005. He was recruited by INSERM in 2009 after postdoctoral placements in France (Tours, INSERM UMR-618), U.S. (Seattle, University of Washington; Medical genetics) and Germany (Munich, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology). He has extensive expertise in biochemistry and in neutrophilic chronic inflammatory diseases. He is the head of the INSERMU-1100 Team 2 « Proteolytic enzymes and their pharmacological inhibition in lung diseases » from 2024. He develops since 2000 a project on analysis of the specific enzymatic features of neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) with a view to targeting through new approaches. His research team established proof-of-concepts in vitro and in vivo for the inactivation/elimination of NSPs by blocking cathepsin C. He has authored 71 research articles. His original work and review papers are published in reputable journals including European Respiratory Journal and Pharmacological Reviews. He contributes to national and international research projects on pharmacological targeting of neutrophilic proteases. He coordinated several projects from various foundations and local authorities with a view to new therapeutic approaches to chronic inflammatory lung diseases. He is the Chair of « International Consortium on Cathepsin C (ICat-CC) » since 2016.

Prof. Adam Lesner obtained his scientific degree at the University of Gdansk, and from 2001 to 2004 he was a member of the Virology Department at Columbia University in New York City (USA). From 2004 onwards, he returned to the Faculty of Chemistry at Gdansk University (Poland).   He has authored over 140 original research papers, in addition to more than 100 conference publications, and has been responsible for over 20 patents and patent applications. The h-index of the author's work stands at 32, and his papers have been cited over 3000 times. The author's research focuses on proteases, the development of analytical tools to detect proteolytic activity, peptide and peptidomimetics chemistry, and its application in biological systems.

Prof. Sylwia Rodziewicz-Motowidło, PhD, DSc (University of Gdańsk) – a professor of chemical sciences and head of the Department of Biomedical Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk. She specializes in protein-ligand interactions and the structural analysis of peptides and peptidomimetics with potential applications in cancer, antibacterial, and regenerative therapies.
She currently leads several research projects funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), a Polish-Swiss collaboration, Pathfinder HORIZON, and an ERA-NET program. She is the author and co-author of over 100 scientific publications and co-holder of 5 European patents and 15 patents granted by the Polish Patent Office.
Prof. Rodziewicz-Motowidło has received numerous scientific awards, including the Gdańsk Scientific Society and the Mayor of Gdańsk Award for outstanding achievements of young scientists, the L’Oréal-UNESCO "For Women in Science" Fellowship, the Polish Intelligent Development Award, and UG Rector’s Awards for scientific achievements.