The Intelligent Infusions Speakers

Andrew Lees is the founder and CEO of Fina Biosolutions, LLC (Rockville, MD), a company focused on promoting affordable conjugate vaccines, a class which includes vaccines for S. pneumoniae and meningococcal disease. Among his contributions to the field, Dr. Lees developed CDAP chemistry for activating carbohydrate hydroxyls, allowing for the efficient linking of proteins to polysaccharides. The chemistry has helped to reduce the cost of these vaccines as proteins can be directly coupled to CDAP-activated polysaccharides, eliminating many manufacturing steps. CDAP has largely replaced the older cyanogen bromide method and is now widely used in conjugate vaccines. CDAP chemistry also scales more easily than other conjugation chemistries and has enabled the manufacture of the Serum Institute of India’s low-cost pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines, Pneumosil® and MenFive®, respectively.

At Fina Biosolutions, Dr. Lees also introduced a low-cost version of CRM197, a genetically detoxified diphtheria toxin commonly used as the protein component of protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccines, increasing access to the protein for both basic research and vaccine manufacturers.

Dr. Nikhil Bharambe is a Senior Research Fellow in the Basak Laboratory at the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He began his career as an assistant professor at Modern College in Pune, India, where his interest in structural biology was sparked while teaching biophysics. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Kaza Suguna at the Indian Institute of Science, where he solved structures of adenylyl cyclase using X-ray crystallography. During his postdoctoral training with Prof. Rajesh Ramachandran at Case Western Reserve University in the USA, Dr. Bharambe studied proteins involved in mitochondrial membrane remodeling. Currently, at the Basak Laboratory at NTU, Dr. Bharambe specializes in the structural and functional characterization of ligand-gated ion channels using cryo-EM.

Dr. Alexander JD Snow is a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Alexander Breeze and Dr. Stephen Muench at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, University of Leeds. For the last two years he has focussed on characterising the receptor tyrosine kinase, FGFR3, through cryoEM. Over this time, he has spearheaded method development for the production and characterisation of elusive, difficult-to-express proteins. In his current research, Alex showcases the utility of cell-free expression and copolymer membrane reconstitution to biophysically and structurally characterize a full-length oncogenic variant of FGFR3, which has proven intractable through traditional expression systems. Alex plans to leverage his work on this oncoprotein as the basis of a fellowship, through which he intends to comprehensively explore and expand the application of cell-free expression for the structural and biophysical characterization of complex and challenging proteins and protein complexes.

Renee Chow completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she studied retinal development under the supervision of Prof. Bill Harris. She then joined the lab of Dr. Julien Vermot in Strasbourg, where she received a fellowship from the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation and researched the role of mechanical forces in heart development. In 2023, she started her own lab at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, in Melbourne. Her lab uses the zebrafish model to understand heart valve biology and to develop treatments for heart valve disease.

Philipp Hanisch is an accomplished scientist with extensive expertise in membrane protein expression, purification, cell biology, microscopy, and product development. Currently serving as the Head of Laboratory at Cube Biotech GmbH in Monheim am Rhein, Germany, Philipp leads a dynamic team in driving innovative solutions in protein science. Prior to his current role, he held positions as a Senior Scientist and Postdoctoral Researcher, contributing significantly to the advancement of Cubes copolymer service platform.
Philipp holds a Doctor rer nat. (Ph.D.) in Biology from Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, where he graduated magna cum laude from the CRC1208 - Identity and Dynamics of Membrane Systems. Since his master thesis he worked on chlamydial polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmps), CPn0677 and the Lipid Internalization Promoting Protein (LipP), biochemically analysing the targets and identifying human interaction partners.
In addition to his scientific pursuits, Philipp has also served as a Freelance Consultant for Orientation and Personal Development, showcasing his versatility and dedication to personal growth and mentorship.

Dr. Michael Erkelenz, currently employed as a chemist at Cube Biotech, has an academic and professional background in physical chemistry, with a specialization in nano-biophotonics.
Commencing in October 2017, he initiated his doctoral research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, focusing on pioneering developments in advanced plasmonic DNA nanostructures within the NanoBioPhotonics field. Throughout this period, he conducted extensive work in the synthesis, functionalization, and characterization of gold nanoparticles for applications in immune-based theranostics, culminating in December 2021.
His academic journey commenced with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, General, from Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, graduating in 2015. This followed the successful completion of a Master of Science in Medical Biology at the the University of Duisburg-Essen from 2015 to 2017. Finally, he obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the same institution between 2017 and 2021.
Throughout his academic pursuits, he actively participated in various academic societies and research initiatives, notably contributing as a member of Collaborative Research Center.
Armed with a robust understanding of physical chemistry and extensive expertise in nanoparticle synthesis and characterization, Michael Erkelenz remains dedicated to advancing biofunctionalized particle technologies at Cube Biotech.

Luis Real Hernandez obtained his master’s degree at The Ohio State University where he focused on analyzing the interfacial behavior of dairy polar lipids. He is currently a biophysics PhD candidate at the University of Virginia studying the lipid environment selectivity of membrane proteins. Currently, he is developing methods to determine the preferred surrounding lipids of membrane proteins using copolymeric nanodiscs.

Dr. Merino obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine Münster working on macromolecular modelling and simulation. He later became an expert in electron cryomicroscopy through his postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and as a project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen. His combined expertise in atomic modeling and cryo-EM has provided him with a unique skill set allowing him to tackle challenging structural biology problems, such as those typically presented by membrane proteins.

Dr Swainsbury’s research centres on structural and functional studies of photosynthetic protein complexes to understand the molecular mechanisms that convert light energy into useful chemical forms. The model membrane proteins that are central to his research have been invaluable to understand the mechanisms by which styrene maleic acid (SMA) copolymers produce lipid nanodiscs containing membrane protein complexes directly from cell membranes. His publications show how SMA retains the biochemical properties that are often lost when removing the protein from its membrane with detergents, how SMA can act as a probe for protein in lipid-rich or protein-rich domains, and most recently how SMA allows the structural characterisation of protein complexes that are labile in detergents to be determined by cryogenic electron microscopy.

Damiatis research is focused on bottom-up synthetic biology to construct artificial cell membranes that mimic the features and behavior of biological ones. Currently, she uses microfluidic technology to construct artificial cell models and drug delivery systems.

Schönbergers research is focused on the development of peptide-based biomolecules that can selectively recognize and separate hypocritical materials. Currently, she is interested in the selective recognition of plastic surfaces by different peptides for the recognition of nano/microplastics as well as the bio-functionalization of plastics.