Łukasz Berlicki graduated in 2000, receiving simultaneously an MSc in Chemistry (the University of Wrocław) and an MSc in Computer Science (Wrocław University of Technology). He completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Paweł Kafarski at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Wrocław University of Technology (2004). In 2009-2010, he did a postdoctoral stay at the University of Regensburg with Prof. Oliver Reiser (Maria Skłodowska-Curie scholarship). In 2012, he received his habilitation in chemistry. Since 2020, Łukasz Berlicki has worked as a full professor and the head of the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The research group (facebook.com/berlickilab) that he leads deals with problems in the field of bioorganic chemistry, in particular the design, synthesis, structural studies, and biological and catalytic activity of extended peptide structures (so-called miniproteins).

Prof. Justyna Brasun earned PhD in 2001, DSc in 2010 at the University of Wroclaw and since 2019 she is professor of pharmaceutical sciences. In 2000, she began working at the Medical University of Wrocław and she was a head of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Faculty of Pharmacy. Her main research interest includes the neuropeptides, neurohormones and theirs analogues showing high effectively in binding of metal ions in relation to pharmacy, designing of new molecules as models of active centers of metalloproteins, with particular focus on ability to form homo- and heteronuclear complexes. She is also interesting in the psychology and psychological disorders.

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. Artur Krężel received his diploma in chemistry (master of science, 2000) and a PhD degree in bioinorganic chemistry (2004) on the topic of glutathione coordination chemistry from the University of Wrocław, Poland. During his postdoctoral training (2004–2007) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, he worked with Prof. Wolfgang Maret on mechanisms of cellular zinc homeostasis, which bore fruit in the discovery of metallothioneins as physiological zinc ion buffers. He then accepted a position as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Biotechnology of his alma mater. In 2011, he received a D.Sc. degree from his university. Currently, he is a full professor and head of the Department of Chemical Biology. His research work concentrates on several areas at the interfaces of inorganic biochemistry, biophysics, and chemical biology, in particular, an understanding of the molecular basis of zinc and copper metabolism. Examples of this endeavor are structure-function relationships, the stability of metalloproteins, protein folding and thermodynamics, and the development of new analytical methods, such as fluorescent probes for selective protein modifications and metal sensing.

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.

Dr. Marcin Poreba works at the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Medicine at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He is a specialist in biological chemistry and bioimaging. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel peptide-based chemical tools for detecting the activity of medically relevant enzymes using fluorescence and mass cytometry. He also studies the mechanisms of cell death pathways using these tools to better understand proteolytic signaling in health and disease. Additionally, his research group is involved in the development of a new generation of cytotoxic antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer therapy. He collaborates with numerous scientific and industrial institutions worldwide, including Stanford University, UC San Diego, Texas Children's Hospital, Uppsala University (Sweden), Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), and Genentech Inc.

In 2018, Dr. Poreba established the first mass cytometry (CyTOF) laboratory in Poland at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He serves as the principal investigator on multiple research grants funded by the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development. Dr. Poreba was awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Global Fellowship (2016–2018) and conducted his research at the SBP Medical Discovery Institute in San Diego, USA, in the group of Prof. Guy Salvesen. He is the co-founder and served as the first chair (2022–2025) of the Section of Biological Chemistry of the Polish Chemical Society. He was the laureate of the first edition of the Young Promoter of Poland competition in the Science category (2021). For his habilitation thesis, he received two awards: one from the Polish Academy of Sciences and one from the Polish Chemical Society. In recognition of his scientific achievements, he was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit in 2021

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.

Steven performed a PhD at Leiden University, followed by a post-doc at Stanford University. In 2008, with an Emmy Noether Career development award from the DFG, he started his own laboratory at the Technical University Munich in Germany. He moved to the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences ISAS in 2014 and to KU Leuven in 2016. His laboratory works on the development and application of activity- and affinity-based probes with the primary aim to elucidate the roles of disease-associated proteases.