Gavin McStay (He/Him)

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Clinical Analysis at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sarajevo. My research interest in general is the area of genetics of type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome, pharmacogenetics of diabetes, association of inflammatory biomarkers and free fatty acids with diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Currently Honorary Professor of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) Medical Faculty, Belgium. Besides 35 years of basic and translational medical research, I also spent 4 years in industry as head of the Molecular Biology lab at Baxter Healthcare research facility in Belgium. I spent 10 years supervising and managing Biochemistry wet labs and thereafter 15 years teaching Molecular Biology to medical, biomedical and veterinary students (BA2) but also to Biomedical Civil Engineers (MA1).I also supervised or co-supervised PhDs, MD clinician-researchers and 40 Biomedical and Medical Master's theses.  I am currently President of the Belgian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I have been with FEBS since 2003 as a member of the FEBS Education Working Group and then Committee, and after 2012 actively contributing to FEBS education activities such as presenting talks and workshops on various topics and YSF. LBPN Lab Web Pages Publications-Scholar

Issam M. Smaali  currently works as full Professor of Biological Engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology- INSAT, University of Carthage - Tunisia. He's the Head of the Laboratory "Protein Engineering and bioactive molecules" LR11ES24. Smaali does research on algal Biotechnology, enzyme engineering and bioressource valorization. 

Protein biochemistry and biophysics Amyloids Enzymology

Sigrid Jusélius Senior researcher, Associate Professor (Docent) of biochemistry PI at Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland  Author of 139 peer reviewed articles (cited 4095 times), h-index 39 (web of Science) Chair of the Biobio Society and Finnish National Committee for Biosciences Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0926-3109 I have a title of docent (associate professor) of biochemistry and since 2009 have been a PI in the Faculty of Medicine, Univ. of Helsinki. After receiving my D.Sc. degree in 2000, I worked for two years as a Marie Curie Industrial Host fellow at GlaxoSmithKline, UK. From 2004 I have worked at the Dept of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Univ. of Helsinki, which includes a five-year period as an Academy Research Fellow. Currently I work as a Sigrid Jusélius senior researcher, allowing me to concentrate on research projects. In my doctoral thesis I identified diverse tissue specific glycoforms of glycodelin. Our findings demonstrated that the glycodelin represents one of the foremost examples of how glycosylation dictates the function of a glycoprotein. More recently my group went on to show that glycodelin is differentially glycosylated in endometrial cancer cells and it differentiates these cells towards a less aggressive phenotype, resulting in reduced tumor growth in a preclinical animal model. For the last 20 years my main focus has been on the functions and diagnostic potential of proteases in cancer, especially prostate cancer. These studies involve development of novel patient-derived cell/tissue models to better recapitulate prostate cancer. In an international collaborative effort, which I coordinated, we developed PSA stimulators and KLK2 inhibitors, aiming to slow down prostate cancer growth. Currently my group and collaborators are developing trypsin-3 inhibitors for targeting cancer metastasis. My work has been published in journals like Nature Chemical Biology, Endocrine Reviews, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Blood, Cancer Research and Environmental Health Perspectives. In addition to basic research experience, I have research experience in pharmaceutical industry from my postdoctoral period at GlaxoSmithKline, UK. This exposure to the drug discovery process will be helpful when research innovations are translated to the benefit of patients. Education of postgraduate students including supervision of PhD projects and organization of student seminars and international symposia have been an integral part of my academic life.  I feel that scientists have the responsibility to communicate science to a wider audience. For that purpose, I have taken on the role of Chairman of the Biobio-society. I am also the Chairman of the Finnish National Committee for Biosciences, which presents Finnish biosciences internationally.

Dr. Isabel Varela-Nieto graduated and earned her doctorate in Chemistry, Biochemistry Section, at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). She has been a visiting guest scientist at the Medical Schools of Uppsala (FEBS Fellow, Sweden) and San Diego (MEC Sabbatical, USA). She is Professor of Research at the CSIC and group leader at the CIBER of rare diseases (CIBERER, ISCIII) in Madrid. From the early 1990s she has been studying hearing neurobiology and IGF-1 actions. She was the first Chair of the SEBBM Science for Society working group with which she actively collaborates, and member of the FEBS Network working group. She is currently the president of the SEBBM, a member of the FEBS Science and Society Committee and of the ISC Finances Committee.