Sam Possemiers

Sam is a founder and CEO of MRM Health and has 20 years’ expertise in gut microbiome, host-microbiome interactions and immunity at both academic and industrial level. He is an experienced entrepreneur with an extensive commercial network and previously co-founded ProDigest, which he built and led as CEO for 12 years. He also co-founded MRM Technologies, a center of expertise for microbiome R&D, and previously acted as R&D Director of BioActor, a Netherlands-based health ingredient company. He holds a PhD in intestinal microbial ecology from Ghent University, in partnership with the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Paris, France.

Audrey Guéniche

Audrey GUENICHE is a Doctor in Pharmacy and has a PhD in skin biology. She has a distinguished career of over three decades at L’Oréal in Research and Innovation. Her scientific contributions have been in the areas of topical and food supplements of skin, scalp, hair health and beauty.  Audrey’s experience is extensive: from vitro to clinical trials, to open innovation and development. She has published over 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented in 87 international congresses and, additionally, has been recognized and guest speaker in 52 plenary conferences.

By embracing an innovative mindset, Audrey is passionate in finding new areas to promote actives and formulas, prove new claims and scientific communications, and reinvent evaluations. As HELENA RUBINSTEIN’s Scientific Director, Audrey pursues the brand’s long-standing avant-garde research and science.

Jonathan Lane

Dr. Jonathan Lane is currently a Senior Manager and Head of the Global Research Program with the Health & Happiness Group, a global leader in premium nutrition and wellness for all life stages. Prior to joining H&H, Jonathan was the Infant Nutrition Program Manager for Food for Health Ireland which united world-class science and industry experience to improve health through innovation of food. Jonathan also served as a Research Officer at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, where he isolated and structurally and functionally characterised food source bioactives. He completed his PhD in Glycobiology at Teagasc through University College Dublin and has a BSc in Microbiology from University College Cork.

Marie Drago

Marie Drago is a French Pharmacist and the founder of Galline Microbiome Skincare. Created in 2016, the brand was a pionneer in Microbiome Beauty and has been developed to cater for sensitive skin. They also have a scalp range, an oral care range and a gut-skin axis range. Galline was acquired by the Shiseido group in October 2022.

Peter Lersch

Peter Lersch is a Vice President for Evonik’s Innovation Growth field Cosmetic Solutions, which is part of the business line Care Solutions. Holding a doctorate in Technical Chemistry/Chemical Engineering from the University of Essen, Germany, Peter has worked in Evonik and its predecessor companies in different R&D management and technical positions for over 33 years. His research activity is documented by over 30 German patents and numerous foreign patents and as author/co-author of more than 20 scientific articles.
His career highlights include: Setting up the business of cosmetic active ingredients, heading up R&D for the complete portfolio of Care Ingredients and responsibility for the Global Innovation management of the business line Personal Care. Since 4 years, Peter is in charge of Evonik’s Growth Field Cosmetic Solutions, where one of his tasks includes the identification of promising early stage technology/business opportunities for the company’s cosmetic product portfolio.

Ahmad Khodr

After my “Maîtrise” in Biochemistry in Lebanon, I have been selected by the International Scholarship program of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan to do my master’s in Microbiology and Biochemistry.

Following my Master’s degree, I pursued a Ph.D. research program in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at the ENS Cachan in France, concentrating on the control of virulence by H-NS family proteins in Enteropathogenic E. coli. I completed a Post-Doc research program at the Pasteur Institute Paris, where I used Transcriptomics and Next Generation Sequencing technologies to investigate Legionella pneumophila pathogenicity mechanisms.

At L’Oréal Research and Innovation, I now lead the Microbiology Innovation Lab and transversal projects focused to Microbiome Analysis and the discovery of natural antimicrobial compounds. We work also on translating novel Microbiome derived concepts to beauty products.

I published and presented my research work in well recognized international peer reviewed journals and congresses.

Rafik Fellague-Chebra

I am Dr. Rafik Fellague-Chebra, a dedicated MD, biostatistician, and methodologist of clinical research, with a journey of over two decades in oncology. My experience encompasses various roles in clinical practice, academic research, and pharmaceutical industry. My mission, humbly undertaken, is centered on fighting cancer to improve the lives of patients, aiming for a better and longer life. Outside my professional endeavors, i the heart of Paris, I navigate life as a father of two incredible kids. I find joy in the simplicity of a healthy lifestyle, cultivating my love for sports and cooking nutritious cuisine. It’s a privilege to contribute to the ongoing battle against cancer and work alongside brilliant minds towards meaningful progress in the field.

Yannik Schoenknecht

Yannik works as scientific advisor for Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in Novonesis. In his role he is involved in clinical and preclinical research and studies how health effects of current and next generation HMOs can be substantiated and how to translate the evidence into applications. Prior to this, he worked in a medical communication role in the field of infant nourishment with an emphasis of the role of HMOs for health in early life. He has a background in Nutritional Physiology and received his PhD from the University Bonn.

Catherine O’Neil

Catherine O’Neill received both her bachelors degree and PhD from the University of Wales, Bangor where she studied bacterial biochemistry. Subsequently, she was a research fellow at the University of Leeds for 5 years before securing her first tenured appointment as a lecturer at the University of Manchester. Subsequently she was promoted to senior lecturer and then finally to Professor of Translational Dermatology, the post she currently holds at the University of Manchester.
Professor O’Neill’s interests are in using bacteria and their products for the treatment of skin in health and disease. The laboratory has a very translational focus and has a record in translating basic findings into human studies via the technology transfer into commercial vehicles. Professor O’Neill has been involved in this area since 2011 and has created two spin out companies: Curapel in 2014 and SkinBiotherapeutics PLC in 2017. Professor O’Neill was the CEO and is now CSO of SkinBiotherapeutics.

Caitlin Hall

Caitlin Hall (RD, PhD) is Head of Research at gut microbiome start-up, myota. She completed her PhD in neurosciences and gut microbiology (gut-brain axis) at the University of Queensland and spent two years as a visiting researcher at King’s College London. Her research focuses on how inter-individual variability in the gut microbiome can influence brain network dynamics in anxiety and depression. More recently, her work at myota studies how prebiotic fibres can influence gut microbiome health, metabolic health, inflammatory biomarkers, and brain function. Caitlin is also a Registered Dietitian, with a specialist interest in the gut-brain axis and female gut health.

Arjen Nauta

Dr. Arjen Nauta has a MSc degree in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and received a cum laude doctorate degree in 1997 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Since 1998, he occupied various research positions within FrieslandCampina. At present he holds the position of Senior Scientist Gut & Digestive Health within the Expert Team Nutrition at the FrieslandCampina Innovation Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Arjen is responsible for research and development activities and external collaborations in the field of dairy fermentations, gastrointestinal health, and microbiota and supports multiple FrieslandCampina business groups.

Oliver Worsley

Oliver is the co-founder and CEO of Sequential. A pioneer in the microbiome testing world, having initially launched the world’s first at-home skin microbiome test in 2019, and with over 4 years of R&D into the human microbiome have developed out their B2B testing platform. They are backed by the global leaders such as Innovate UK, Enterprise SG, A*STAR, Genome Institute of Singapore, SOSV, Metaplanet, Scrum Ventures, Corundum Systems Biology, and operate three independent labs in London, Singapore and NYC.

Oliver completed his PhD in molecular genetics as a scholar at the Genome Institute of Singapore from 2014-2018, and has won multiple awards including the P&G Young Entrepreneurship Scheme, presented at the Royal Society in London in 2017; and the top prize at the L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2018. Oliver has previously founded Anya Consulting, a healthcare communications company that has published >150 articles and has produced several technical whitepapers for clients like Fierce Health. Prior, Oliver completed his BSc at Edinburgh University, including six months at Leiden University Medical Centre through the Erasmus Programme.

Maher Fuad

Maher Fuad is a medical doctor specialising in public health and mental health. He drives innovation in mental health through nutritional solutions at FRDC. With expertise in study design, biostatistics, and mental health research, Maher focuses on prevention-oriented approaches and accessible treatments. His belief in the power of education and affordability drives his work, making him a thought leader in the field. Maher’s collaboration opportunities include research advancements, product formulation, and partnerships for promoting mental well-being through nutrition.

Craig Thompson

Craig has considerable experience in providing pragmatic, commercially focused advice to a wide-range of clients in the microbiome field, including SMEs and multinational corporations. This has involved preparing for and carrying out funding/acquisition IP due diligence, and advising on aggressive and defensive strategies in relation to third party IP (including with respect to opposition and appeal proceedings before the EPO).

Craig is on the Innovate UK KTN microbiome advisory panel, having drafted the IP chapter of the KTN’s “Microbiome Strategic Roadmap” document, and was invited to be the IP advisor to the Innovate UK Microbials Accelerator Programme. As the Head of the HGF microbiome focus group, Craig leads a team of patent attorneys with a variety of specialisms such as bioinformatics, synthetic biology, AgBio and formulation technologies.

After working as a Patent Examiner, Craig qualified as a European, Irish and UK patent attorney more than 20 years ago. He now lives and works in both the UK and Ireland.

Simona Befi

Simona started her trip in the world of the biotechnologies in Italy, at the University of Naples “Federico II” where she graduated in Industrial Biotechnology. Motivated in exploring the boundaries of microbial applications across various industries, she specialized in fermentation and bioprocess engineering, contributing to the development and scale-up of bio-based products. In September 2023, she joined S-Biomedic as Head of R&D and leading the challenge in understanding the interactions between bacterial communities, from a bioreactor to our skin.

Sahar El Aidy

Sahar El Aidy is experienced in the gut microbiota, its metabolic activity, and interactions with the host immune, metabolic, and neurological functions. Her group focuses on how gut microbiota sense and metabolize ingested compounds that are part of our diet and the impact of these bacterial metabolites on the microbial metabolic interaction as well as on the (neuro-immune) response within the gut with a particular focus on gut motility. Another research line investigates the effect of gut microbiota on the effectiveness of drug treatment. Sahar published over 50 papers and obtained over 2M Euros in funding. Her laboratory consists of 1 Postdoc, 5 PhD students, 4 master students, and 1 technician. She has over 5000 citations and an H-index of 30 (Google Scholar). In recognition of her achievements, she was appointed at the Young Academy Groningen (YAG), and a Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Group and has been a member of the Young Science and Engineering Network (YSEN). In 2021, Sahar was awarded the Athena Award for female researchers that stand out, from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

Amine Zorgani

Søren Kjaerulff

Søren holds a Ph.D from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Søren is CEO and CSO of Lactobio which performs the discovery and development of new lactic acid bacterial strains for microbiome care of skin issues like eczema, acne, dandruff, and anti-aging. Former R&D senior director of biopharma R&D at Novozymes responsible for anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory peptides and albumin half-life extension of peptide drugs. Former vice president of R&D at Pantheco and Santaris Pharma.

Malcolm Kendall

Malcolm Kendall is a co-founder and CEO of Microbiome Insights, Inc., a leading global provider of end-to-end services for microbiome DNA sequencing, including state-of-the-art bioinformatic analysis. With over 30 years of operational management, entrepreneurial, venture capital investment and leadership experience, he has focused his professional career on company creation and building value in technology and biotechnology companies. Before founding Microbiome Insights, he was the co-founder and CEO of Indel Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new drugs to address the global health crisis caused by antibiotic resistance. Prior to this, Malcolm was an investment professional with life science venture capital firms MDS Capital (now Lumira Capital), BioVista Capital (now Hatteras Venture Partners) and Intersouth Partners. Before entering business, he served in the U.S. Army as an Infantry and Special Forces officer. Malcolm has been an advisor and board member to numerous companies and organizations and is currently a member of the board of directors of SemiosBio Technologies, a mentor for the entrepreneurship@UBC program and an adjunct professor at the MBA program at Simon Fraser University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University and an M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Denise Kelly

Professor Denise Kelly joined Seventure Partners, a European Leader in Venture Capital, in 2015 as an Investment Advisor to the Life Sciences Team and is focused specifically, on Human Microbiome investment opportunities, globally. Prior to joining Seventure, Denise was Head of her Research Lab at the World-renowned Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, where she acquired over 20 years experience in gut microbiology and immunology. She was the (former) Founder Director, CEO and CSO of GT Biologics Ltd, one of the first translational spinouts, developing Innovative Microbiome-based Therapies. She is the main inventor on numerous EU and USA patent applications and during her career has collaborated with pharmaceutical and healthcare companies on several translational projects.Denise holds a BSc and PhD from Queens University, Belfast and an Emeritus Professorship from the University of Aberdeen.

Colette Shortt

Colette (PhD, MBA) is an independent regulatory specialist and a registered public health nutritionist with over 30 years industry experience gained in European and Global scientific and regulatory leadership roles (SmithKline Beecham, Yakult, McNeil Nutritional and Johnson & Johnson). At J&J, she successfully coordinated one of the first disease risk reduction health claims in EU. She is active in scientific advisory boards focussed on innovation and health (NICHE, NNedPro Strategic Advisory Committee, and the KTN Microbiome Network). As Global Regulatory Affairs Director for Emerging Science & Open Innovation, working with both J&J Consumer Health, and World Without Disease Accelerator Janssen, Colette conducted due diligence on microbiome start-up propositions and early OTC pipeline projects, including medicines, cosmetics, nutritionals, and medical devices. Colette is a member of the European Council of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) and leads the Ireland RAPS Local Network Group. She is also a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Medicine and the Association for Nutrition. She is Joint Editor-in-Chief of the new CABI Food Science and Nutrition Cases Journal launched in 2024.

Patrick Veiga

Patrick is a Research Director at INRAE, Deputy Scientific Director of MetaGenoPolis, and directs the nutrition program of Le French Gut (lefrenchgut.fr). Before, he held the position of Scientific Director at Danone Nutricia Research, where he led research programs exploring the interplay between diet, probiotics, gut microbiome, and gut health. During this time, he collaborated closely with the teams of the American Gut Project (thdmi.org) and Harvard School of Public Health, where he worked for 3 years as a visiting scientist. Dr. Veiga is the co-author of 27 scientific publications, including articles in PNAS, Nature Communications, Nature, and Science.

Björn Andersson

Johanna Maukonen

Johanna focuses on developing scientifically sound translation of customer and market needs to R&D strategy and projects, being a key link for Health R&D to customers and external scientific communities. At 2017-2022 she led Global Health and Nutrition Science group, which has over 40 scientists and technicians, and conducts and coordinates in vitro, pre-clinical and clinical studies on IFFs ingredients, mainly in relation to probiotic research. Before joining IFF, Johanna spent over 20y at VTT Technical Research Centre, the Nordics leading research and technology company. She has extensive R&D experience in understanding the gut microbiota and its impact on health, especially on the influence of probiotics, nutrition and fibers. She has DSc(Tech) on characterization of predominant human fecal microbiota.

Celine Druart

Céline Druart obtained her PhD degree in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences from UCLouvain (Belgium) in 2014. She then joined the research group of Patrice Cani to lead a 3-year project devoted to the development and exploitation of the promising results regarding the beneficial effects of Akkermansia muciniphila, a commensal gut bacterium. Taking advantage of her Master’s in Management, she worked for 3 years as Scientific and Business Project Manager at A-Mansia Biotech, an innovative microbiome company developing health products based on the unique properties of A. muciniphila. In July 2021, she joined the Pharmabiotic Research Institute (PRI) as Microbiome Project Manager. She is in charge of the Regulatory Science activities of the organization; coordinating Task Group work, focusing on the emergence of new scientific and technological standards, and supporting PRI Regulatory Members in their development efforts.

Benjamin A. H. Jensen

Benjamin A. H. Jensen (BAHJ) is a tenured Associate Professor in Nutritional Immunology, consultant, and biotech entrepreneur. He leads the Jensen Group at Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMI), where they, with a focus on barrier (dys)function, dissect how dietary components, gut microbial community structures and compartmentalized immunology synergizes to orchestrate chronic inflammation of temporal intensity. The Jensen Group develop and use experimental systems tailored to model human disease with unmet medical needs. The group has a particular interest in host defense peptides (HDPs) and their influence on host-microbe mutualism at the onset, progression, and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. BAHJ received the prestigious Novo Nordisk Foundation Excellence Emerging Investigator Grant (2021) to establish his research group at BMI. He has established spinout companies with successful license agreements and is scientific advisor for several nonprofit organizations.

Holger Brüggemann

PhD in microbiology at the University of Göttingen, Germany; Postdoc in microbial pathogenomics at the Institute Pasteur, Paris, France (3 years); Team leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany (4 years). Since 2011 Associate Professor and PI at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark. The Brüggemann lab investigates the human skin microbiota and its role in health and disease.

Luis Gosálbez

Luis is the Managing Director and Co-Founder at Sandwalk BioVentures, a strategy consulting firm specialized in microbiome technologies. Previously, he held different senior management positions in private and public companies in the biotechnology industry in the UK, Germany and Spain. He received his BSc and MSc in Biotechnology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, his PhD in Biology from the Catholic University of San Antonio and a Master’s in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.

Jos Seegers

After a PhD in molecular genetics of lactic acid bacteria Jos did his post-doctoral research in Paris and Cork before moving back to The Netherlands where he worked at TNO on the development of lactobacilli as therapeutics and vaccines. Jos took this technology out of TNO into a private company that he managed for several years. He then changed his focus on gut and later also skin microbiota, both in R&D and production, working for Caelus Health and S-Biomedic. His skills are now focused on large scale production and regulatory aspects of next generation probiotics. Jos also manages a company (MyMicroZoo) that allows customers to get an insight into their own microbiota.

Kim Hardie

Professor Kim Hardie FRSB co-leads the Division of Infection, Immunity and Microbes within the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Kim studied at the Universities of Leicester and Cambridge (UK) before undertaking research at the University of Victoria (Canada) and Institut Pasteur (Paris, France). Her research identified key mechanistic steps in bacterial protein secretion pathways and progressed our understanding of the fitness burden that results from the production of signalling molecules used by bacteria to communicate with each other, and how this impacts pathogenicity. Currently, Kim’s research group investigate how bacteria form coordinated communities (biofilms) in chronic skin wound infections since these are notoriously hard to treat and have life-changing consequences. State-of-the-art multidisciplinary approaches are combined with realistic polymicrobial infection models to discover novel antimicrobials, more effective combination therapies, or diagnostic biomarkers. Kim is senior editor for the Microbiology Society Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Jens Walter

Prof. Walter serves as the Professor of Ecology, Food, and the Microbiome at Unviersity College Cork and the APC Microbiome Ireland. His expertise lies at the interface of evolutionary ecology of the gut microbiome and human nutrition. More specifically, his research focuses on the evolutionary and ecological processes that have shaped the host-microbiome interrelationship and the translation of basic microbiome science into therapeutic and nutritional strategies. Prof. Walter has published >135 peer-reviewed publications (google scholar H-index 69, >22,500 citations) and is a ‘highly cited researcher’ according to the Web of Science group.

Niall Hyland

Niall Hyland is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology at University College Cork and a Funded Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland. Dr Hyland has over 20 years’ experience in gastrointestinal physiology and enteric neuroscience and his fields of interest include enteric physiology and pharmacology, the brain-gut axis, and microbiota-host interactions. His laboratory has developed significant expertise in assessing gastrointestinal physiology in different animal models and species using the Ussing chamber technique. Niall has represented Ireland on the Steering Committee of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motilty and is an Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society.

Sabrina Behnke

Dr. Sabrina Behnke holds a BSc in Water Sciences from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and a PhD in Microbiology from Montana State University. During her graduate studies she investigated microbial biofilms in water distribution systems at the Center for Biofilm Engineering in Bozeman, MT, where she collaborated with multinational consumer goods companies. Dr. Behnke then joined Reckitt Benckiser as a R&D microbiologist, supporting EPA claim substation for disinfectant household products. Additionally, she held roles in Personal Care Formulation Innovation and Technology Scouting. In 2018, she switched from the manufacturer’s to the supplier’s side of the industry as a Global Product Manager for Symrise where she managed a portfolio of Multifunctionals and Preservatives and launched the SymProBiome® platform. Today, Dr. Behnke is an Associate Business Director for biopolymers and preservatives with TRI-K Industries. Within the PCPC microbiology committee, she co-leads the Microbiome Task Force.

Dan Brownell

Dan Brownell is the Senior Director of Research and Development at AOBiome Therapeutics, responsible for leading their preclinical and R&D programs since joining in 2018. Dan brings 20 years of scientific experience, with a focus on the use of microorganisms to achieve positive outcomes. At AOBiome, Dan leads a high-performing team of scientists responsible for better understanding the mechanisms of action of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria and their use as a treatment for inflammatory disease. Prior to AOBiome, Dan held diverse roles within the biotech community, including in the fields of rapid diagnostics, synthetic biology, and biofuels.

Aurlien Baudot

Aurlien Baudot is the CEO and co-founder of Cryptobiotix, a preclinical CRO specialising in gut microbiome research. He holds dual masters in bioscience engineering and artificial intelligence from KU Leuven, and began his career in technical sales, where he helped introduce innovative automation solutions to laboratories. Driven by his passion for complex biological systems, he later shifted his focus to gut microbiome research and co-founded Cryptobiotix in 2021. As CEO, Aurlien aims to foster a thriving, inclusive work environment, and he also manages the business development. He enjoys thinking about processes and structures in business and complex data, and collaborates with his team to develop experimental approaches that best address customers’ research questions. Aurlien and his co-founder have developed the SIFR technology, a validated lab model that predicts how products interact with individuals’ gut microbiomes, helping to reduce clinical trial risks and bring gut health products to market more efficiently.

Gwenny Fuhler

After studying Medical Biology, Gwenny Fuhler obtained her PhD from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, for studies on neutrophil functions in haematological malignancies. She continued her interest in cancer signalling during her post-doctoral studies. International activities during these years include her master research at Harvard, Boston (MA), EMBO sponsored studies at Addenbrooke’s and Papworth hospital, Cambridge UK, and postdoctoral studies at the Lee Moffitt Cancer institute, Tampa (FL), and SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse (NY). Dr Fuhler is currently associate Professor at the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her current interests center around the host-microbial actions contributing to human gastrointestinal diseases and include: 1) The role of Helicobacter pylori infection during gastric metaplasia, 2) The potential use of microbial signatures in the detection of colorectal cancer, and 3) Modulation of the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease, as influenced by diet and pregnancy.

Bruno Pot

Bruno Pot made a PhD in microbiology at the University of Gent, Belgium. In subsequent postdocs he performed research on lactic acid bacteria. In 1997 he joined the science department of the company Yakult as science manager Benelux. He worked as Research Director at the Institut Pasteur in Lille, France, from 2001 till 2016. During that time he was also Director of Business Development at the bioinformatics company Applied Maths NV and Food Microbiology Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His major research topics have always been bioinformatics, lactic acid bacteria, probiotics, bacteria-host interaction and health claim substantiation. Since November 2016 Bruno is back with Yakult as Science Director for Europe. Bruno Pot is member of the Taxonomic Subcommittee for Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and related taxa, former ISAPP Board member, former president of the Pharmabiotic Research Institute (PRI; currently VP), Narbonne, France, Board member of LABIP and Chair of the Board of ILSI-EU. He authored or co-authored >250 articles and >20 book chapters.

Marianne Koliana

Marianne is VP of Business Development at Clinical Microbiomics and holds a PhD from Imperial College London where she focused on the interaction between gut microbial metabolites and allergic asthma. Marianne has been part of the team since 2019, bringing both scientific and commercial knowledge to the group. Marianne currently leads the business development team focusing on client interactions worldwide both within microbiome and metabolomics.

Andrew Bartko

Dr. Bartko is currently professor of practice in the Bioengineering department within the in the Jacobs School of Engineering and Pediatrics department within the School of Medicine. Dr. Bartko’s research is centered on microbial identification as applied to rapid microbial methods for defense, diagnostics and quality assurance. Dr. Bartko has successfully created, commercialized, and licensed multiple inventions in the life sciences field. Since 2020, Dr. Bartko has been the Executive Director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI). In his role at CMI, he leads a matrixed research organization that develops technological solutions to applied industrial problems in the nutrition, human health and environment fields. Dr. Bartko’s work continues to focus on leveraging his background in microbial sensing, process integration, and sensor engineering to advance the global understanding of microbiome and metabolomic impacts on human health and wellness. https://cmi.ucsd.edu/

Valeria Felice

Dr. Valeria Felice is currently working as Research Project Manager within the Health & Happiness Group focusing on preclinical research in premium nutrition and wellness for all life stages. Prior to this experience she was a member of the Marigot Ltd. R&D team having completed a competitively obtained Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme (IRC-EPS) postdoctoral fellowship at University College Cork (UCC) in 2018. She completed her doctoral studies with Dr. Siobhain O’Mahony and Prof. John Cryan in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience (UCC) in 2014 as an Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) scholar and earned a BSc in Experimental Biology and MSc in Neuropsychobiology at the University of Cagliari (Italy).

Marion Leclerc

Rosanna Pecere

Rosanna Pecere brings over 25 years of experience in European Public Affairs, advocacy, and networking activities. Since assuming the role of Executive Director at the International Probiotics Association – Europe (IPA Europe) in 2017, she has offered strategic guidance, developed advocacy plans, and applied her expertise to navigate Brussels’ complexities. Within IPA Europe, Rosanna’s primary focus is dedicated to addressing Europe’s probiotic issues and establishing a better environment for the European probiotic industry, while providing legal support and guidance to the stakeholders. Rosanna actively contributes to various influential bodies, serving as a member of the advisory Group of the European Commission, DG SANTE; she actively engages in the EFSA consultation process, and she is involved in IPA Biotics activities of monitoring the regulatory landscape and for the Codex Alimentarius.

Before joining IPA Europe, Rosanna worked from 1999 to 2016 in the Dairy sector as the Head of the Brussels Office for Assolatte, representing the Italian dairy industry. During her tenure, she successfully led several expert groups, implementing EU food policies and addressing regulatory and trade issues. She held roles as a delegate member to the European Commission’s expert groups and platforms, including the ‘Civil Dialogue Group’ on quality policies and promotion (DG AGRI), the Advisory Group on Claim and Labelling (DG SANTE), and the ‘High Level Forum’ for a better functioning supply chain (DG GROW).

Delphine Lauté-Caly

Delphine has joined HGF recently as a trainee patent attorney within the Life sciences team, strong of more than 15 years of scientific research experience. She holds a PhD in Microbiology from University College Cork and Engineering and Master’s degrees in Food Sciences and Bioprocesses from the University of Lille. Delphine held several post-doctoral positions in Ireland and France, where she specialised in molecular microbiology, studying gene regulation and protein expression in bacterial pathogens and probiotics. Before joining HGF, Delphine worked as a Molecular Microbiology team lead at 4D pharma, a UK microbiome therapeutics company. Her work focused on understanding the mechanism of action of live biotherapeutic products and the genetic manipulation of non-model microorganisms. Over the years she has developed an extensive knowledge of the human microbiome and a keen interest in its potential as a source of therapeutics.

Mary Farrell

Mary works as a Scientific Affairs Manager in the Swedish probiotic company, Probi AB. Mary has a background in Nutraceuticals and Human Nutrition from both Dublin and Copenhagen University. After a short time in academia, she joined the plant-based company, Oatly, as a project manager within Food Science. Whilst working here Mary became interested in the role of fibres as prebiotics, which then led to an increasing interest in probiotics and the role of microbiota in human health and disease. Mary joined Probi in August 2023 where she now works in the Scientific Affairs department in Probi Global R&D.
The Scientific Affairs team is a global team responsible for bridging the science, brought by a strong R&D portfolio and innovative research, with the business and marketing units. Mary is passionate about human health, wellbeing and research.

Geoff Briggs

Geoff spent almost 30 years conducting scientific research in an academic environment developing his skills as a molecular biologist and biotechnologist, with 13 years dedicated to the study of the bacterial DNA replication and repair. In 2014, he left the academic world to join Walgreens Boots Alliance, and has spent the last 8 years immersed in the area of consumer skincare, where he has developed a passion for the skin microbiome. As the Technology Scout within the No7 Beauty Incubator team, his role is to find non-topical solutions to the needs of the No7 consumer with a focus on devices, diagnostics and digital solutions: discovering, evaluating and developing new technologies which can improve both the customer and the consumer experience.

Sylvie Rabot

Sylvie Rabot graduated from the National Veterinary School of Alfort (France) with a DVM Degree, and from Université Paris-Cité with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Following postdoctoral research in UK at the Norwich Institute of Food Research (today Quadram Institute), she moved to INRAE (French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment), where she was recruited as a junior research scientist in the Unit on Ecology and Physiology of the Digestive Tract. She is now a senior research scientist and the head of the Anaxem germ-free animal facilities in the Micalis Institute (Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech). Her current research interest is the microbiota-gut-brain axis, with a focus on the role of gut microbiota metabolism in the pathophysiology of anxiety and mood disorders. Author of a hundred peer-reviewed publications and one patent.

Sebastian Schmidt

Sebastian Schmidt is a Lecturer at the School of Medicine and APC Microbiome Ireland at University College Cork. His research focuses on ecological and evolutionary processes shaping (human) microbiomes – e.g. by studying e.g. the transmission of strains within and between individuals – and their translation into targeted approaches towards modulating microbiomes. Sebastian further works on microbiome-informed diagnostics, microbial turnover between hosts and the environment, and has developed widely used bioinformatic tools and resources.

Eline Klaassens

Eline Klaassens is a human gut microbiome specialist and Product Manager Human Health at BaseClear. Eline completed an MSc in Food Science and Biotechnology, followed by a PhD in Microbial Ecology in the Human Gastrointestinal tract, both from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. At WUR she investigated the functionality of bifidobacteria in the infant and adult gut using metaproteomics and transcriptomics. She held several post-doctoral positions in industry-academic consortia, government research organisations and academia in the Netherlands and Australia, including CSIRO (Australia), where her study focused on functional analysis of novel isolated species and biopsies related to IBD and colon cancer using (meta)-transcriptomics, and the University of Sydney, where her work covered the effect of diet in metabolic disease on the microbiome. At BaseClear Eline is advising clients about genomics analyses for expert projects for clinical trials and the food industry.

Elizabeth Crone

Liz works in Owlstone Medical as Head of Business Development in Europe. She has deep scientific roots, with a biochemistry background and a PhD from the University of Cambridge in bioanalytics, as well as several years consulting experience on challenging technical innovation projects for companies like Mondalez, J&J, P&G and Shell. For the last decade, she has focussed on her passion: helping companies with potentially life-changing innovative technologies bring them to where they can be most useful. In her role in Owlstone, she works with European-based companies and leading academics to help them utilize breath as a biomarker matrix to advance their research.

Michelle Dargatz

Michelle Dargatz’s journey in the field of microbiology began with her Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Bonn, where she developed a strong interest in the microbial world and its potential applications in various industries. Since 2017, she has been specializing in microbiome research at Evonik´s Research, Development & Innovation in Germany, where she is involved the development of innovative testing methods for cosmetic products to evaluate their impact on the skin’s microbiome.

Shakiba Kaveh

Shakiba is Co-founder & CEO of Mitra Bio, a skin diagnostics start-up based in London that uses epigenetics to diagnose various skin diseases including skin aging and skin cancer. Shakiba worked for L’OREAL as a scientist in a past life.

Benjamin Al

2023 – today: Global Innovation Manager Life Sciences at Beiersdorf AG
2022 – 2023: Research Scientist at Beiersdorf AG
2018 – 2022: PhD Student at Beiersdorf AG and Hannover Medical School
2011 – 2017: Studies in Bioengineering (B.Eng.) and Molecular Biotechnology (M.Sc.) in Munich

Scholarships: Max Weber Program (Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts), German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) and Deutschlandstiftung Integration.
Prices: Oskar von Miller Price for best thesis; Early Career Scientist Award from Germany Society for Plant Sciences

Katia Merten-Lenz

Katia Merten-Lentz, partner resident and founder/manager of the law firm “Food Law Science & Partners”, has been for more than 25 years, a leading practitioner in European food and feed law (one of only four Chambers and Partners first-tier ranked attorneys in the category of Regulatory:
Agro/Food—Europe-Wide, and she is also recognized by The Legal 500 in both Belgium and France as a Leading Individual in the category of EU Regulatory Food). Her practice also extends to Biotechnologies, Environmental Law and Cosmetics Law.She is one of the few lawyers assisting clients from A to Z in the food and feed area obtaining European authorization for new additives, enzymes, novel foods and accompanying them with issues ranging from marketing (labeling and claims) to innovation (nanomaterials, genetically modified organisms, new breeding techniques), thanks to her scientific internal support.
Ms. Merten-Lentz is a former member to the Council of the Order of the Paris Bar. She has degrees in EU competition law and corporate/business law and speaks fluent French and English.

Spyridon Markos

Spyridon Markos is a biologist with 23 years of experience applying various technologies to the study of microbes. He has received extensive training ranging from basic microbiology to advanced techniques such as flow cytometry, molecular microbiology, and NGS. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Ulster, School of Biomedical Sciences, focusing on bacterial gene expression. Currently, he is actively engaged in designing, implementing, and advocating for methodologies that enable the extraction of valuable and practical insights from microbiome studies across diverse settings and conditions.

Stephan Schuell

Stephan Schuell holds a PhD in cell biology of the University of Cologne, Germany and has been in different sales and scientific support positions across different companies since 2015. In summer 2021 Stephan joined Emulate Inc as business development executive for central Europe. Though not a bench scientist anymore, Stephan still enjoys the scientific exchange with researchers across different fields and acts as main contact for scientists interested in the fascinating world of organ chip applications.

Erwin Gerard Zoetendal

Dr. Erwin Zoetendal is associate professor at the Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University & Research. His group; Microbiome, Lumen & Diet; focuses on the role of microbiota in the intestine and how this is related to diet and health with the ambition to understand the ecology of the intestinal ecosystem. Erwin is a well-recognized expert in intestinal microbiology and was one of the pioneers in using 16S ribosomal RNA technologies to study the intestinal microbiota in humans. He has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals (Google Scholar: >65,000 citations; h-index 75) and textbooks. He has given numerous lectures at international and local meetings, including the Rome Foundation AGA Institute Lectureship at the Digestive Disease Week 2010, and is an elected member of the Rome Foundation as well as honorary guest professor of Nanjing Agricultural University.

Andrew Franklyn-Miller

Dr. Franklyn-Miller, a highly accomplished physician and with expertise in physiology, clinical design, and science communication. He has a Ph.D. in Biomechanics and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines for 16 years. Dr. Franklyn-Miller has extensive experience in working with high-profile sports teams and elite performers and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers. He is an editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and has authored a textbook and an IOC Handbook. With his expertise in machine learning, clinical trials, and end user analysis, he will oversee several departments at Nuritas, including software engineering, data curation, data science, proteomics, lab, and regulatory departments.

Ola Kassem

Ola Kassem, a graduate of the University of Sharjah (UAE) with an MBBS degree in 2019, continued her academic journey at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. There, she earned a Master’s in Experimental Medicine. Her master’s research focused on identifying diagnostic and therapeutic markers for prostate cancer. After completing her studies in 2022, Ola joined Lallemand Health Solutions (LHS) as a Clinical Research Specialist. In her current role, she oversees multiple clinical trials, ensuring compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines. Ola’s passion lies in exploring the application of psychobiotics through the Gut-Brain Axis (GBA) modulation. With LHS team, she works to integrate clinical trials data with multiple pre-clinical, metagenomics and metabolomics data to decipher the complex GBA interactions. Looking ahead, Ola aims to expand the scope of psychobiotics across various indications, regions, and populations, making significant contributions to the field of mental health

Ingmar van Hengel

Ingmar is a biomedical engineer and scientist, and has co-authored over 15 scientific publications. During his studies he co-founded a skin printing startup for burn victims and obtained his PhD at Delft University of Technology on 3D printed antimicrobial implants. Subsequently, he became the Director of Business Intelligence at Alira Health, a leading pharmaceutical consulting firm, where he headed a team of BI consultantsreporting directly to the CEO. At Cryptobiotix, he shapes preclinical study designs for the SIFR® technology, exploring product effects on the gastrointestinal tract and gut microbiome. As such, he engages with food and ingredient producers to translate their research questions into an experimental design that provides an answer to those questions. At events he frequently presents preclinical microbiome studies conducted at Cryptobiotix.

Warren Flood

Dr. Flood holds a PhD in microbiology and a MSc in immunology and immunogenetics from the University of Manchester. After gathering experience in Business Development Dr. Flood moved to Norway and co-founded Bio-Me in 2016. Dr. Flood is an expert in the design and advancement of molecular techniques for microbiome analysis and has played an instrumental role in the development of the PMP™ technology. Dr. Flood also established and chaired the Pharmabiotics Research Institute’s OMICs Task Group, working on establishing standards across different analytical OMICs methods. Dr. Flood served as COO of Bio-Me since 2018 and was appointed CEO in 2022.

Ana Finzel

Dr. Finzel earned her doctorate from the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine/Free University in Berlin. Afterward, she spent over three years working in the precision oncology field and acquired broad experience in cancer treatment management and tumor biomarkers. She joined Bio-Me in December 2020 as Senior Scientist and is currently involved in projects studying the influence of gut, vaginal, and skin microbiomes in health and disease.

Arno Bouwens

Arno Bouwens is head of R&D at Perseus Biomics, where he leads the development of DynaMAP technology and platforms. With a background in engineering, Arno’s expertise lies in optical and electronic systems development. He earned his PhD from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, where he specialized in cutting-edge biomedical imaging technology. As a researcher, Arno worked on DNA mapping technology, and optical implementations of machine learning techniques. As an engineer, he worked on optical metrology instruments and satellite-based imaging hardware. He draws upon his experience to spearhead the development of groundbreaking technologies. His focus is on crafting precise and high-capacity data generation tools tailored specifically for applications in the life sciences.

Malwina Naghibi

Muhammad Tanweer Khan

I am a microbiologist with a passion for exploring the gut microbiota. I obtained master’s from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, and a PhD degree with ‘Cum laude’ distinction from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, I did my postdoctoral research at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. I have developed one of the largest and unique strain libraries of Extremely Oxygen Sensitive (EOS). My research also entails creating tools for understanding microbial physiology research.  My innovations include patents and inventions like the ‘Gas Tube,’ resolving strict anaerobic microbe’s growth paradoxes in oxygenated gut mucosa, and the simulated human intestinal redox model (SHRIM), a dynamic in vitro gut simulator. I am particularly interested in developing and clinically testing EOS probiotic-based formulations for the next generation probiotics (NGP). For instance, my recent breakthrough in the development and the safety trial of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii based NGP has recently been published in ‘Nature’.

Nika Pinta

Lars Bredmose, M.Sc., MBA

Lars received his Master of Science in 1997 from the Institute of Molecular Biology, Copenhagen and his MBA in 2005 from the University of Adelaide Business School in Australia.
His research career has been at Bioneer Ltd. Denmark and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Adelaide. Lars then joined McKinsey & Co. as a Senior Associate and has been with Chr. Hansen A/S, Denmark as Director, Commercial Development, Probiotics for fifteen years.
Lars is the recipient of several awards including outstanding Graduate in MBA class and holds patents relating to fermentation methods of lactic acid bacteria.
Lars has contributed several publications in peer-reviewed journals, including a book chapter on a novel gram-positive expression system. In addition, Lars has published in a number of scientific conference proceedings.
In his present role Lars is focused on understanding functional food consumer needs and bridging food science with market needs.

Gerrit Smit

Gerrit Smit (PhD) is the managing director of Yili Innovation Center Europe, which is based in Wageningen, The Netherlands. This centre is aiming to bridge Yili’s Innovation Centers in China with strategic collaboration parties in Europe and beyond. Partnerships are closed with academia, CRO’s, strategic suppliers as well as other dairy and food companies.

Before joining Yili, he worked as SVP R&D at another dairy company in Finland; at Unilever (2004-2011) as R&D Director Flavour and Consumer Research; at NIZO food research (1993-2004) in The Netherlands, where he was as board member responsible for the departments Flavour, Nutrition and Ingredients. Moreover, he held for 12 years an endowed professorship at Wageningen University (NL) in Molecular Flavour Science. He obtained a master’s degree (Utrecht University) and PhD degree (Leiden University) in molecular biology.

Prashanthi Ramesh

Prashanthi Ramesh is an Associate in the EQT Life Sciences team and joined the investment team in January 2024. Prior to joining EQT Life Sciences, Prashanthi worked as an Analyst at M Ventures in Amsterdam. Prior to M Ventures, Prashanthi was a consultant for early-stage biotech and medtech companies at Catalyze in Amsterdam. Prashanthi holds a PhD in Oncology from the University of Amsterdam and an MSc in Oncology from VU Amsterdam.

Ioana Iorga

Ioana Iorga obtained her MSc at Wageningen University where she studied strategies to advance innovation in the food industry. At present she works at NIZO as Business Development Manager for the health and personal care markets, where together with experts from the different disciplines she delivers agreed research contracts and projects with value for customers, with full utilization of NIZO’s innovation expertise and services.

Wensley Louis

Wensley is the program manager for the Singapore National Biofilm Consortium, a technology consortium hosted within the Consortium Management Office in A*STAR, Singapore. He is responsible for facilitating partnerships and collaborations across multiple stakeholders in academia and industry; and had managed the intellectual property (IP) portfolios across several research institutes within A*STAR. He also has nine years of prior experience as an industry researcher, previously establishing a biology lab and subsequently fostered collaborations amongst academic research performers. He has completed a multi-disciplinary PhD, with a focus on industrial applications.