Committee and session leaders

Anna Blakney is an Assistant Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering at UBC.  She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.  She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College London on the development of molecular and biomaterial engineering strategies for delivery of self-amplifying RNA.  Her lab uses bioengineering, molecular biology and immunology approaches to develop the next generation of RNA vaccines and therapies.

Stephen Hart is Professor in Molecular Genetics at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cape Town in Microbial Genetics and has since worked in the field of genetic therapies with more than 100 publications in the field. His research has focused particularly on the development of non-viral, nucleic acid delivery to the lung based on nanoformulations of epithelial targeting peptides and lipids. His current research activities include the use of these targeted nanocomplexes for the development and delivery of gene, mRNA and siRNA therapies as well as gene editing for rare diseases including cystic fibrosis (CF), primary ciliary dyskinesias (PCD), and neuroblastoma. 

Norbert Pardi holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics. He has been working at the University of Pennsylvania since 2011 and currently holds an Assistant Professor position at the Department of Microbiology of the Perelman School of Medicine. His research interest is the development of mRNA-based therapeutics with particular focus on new generation infectious disease vaccines. He explored the development of a novel vaccine platform using nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and used it to generate highly effective vaccines targeting various pathogens (influenza virus, coronaviruses, malaria and others). 

  Dan Peer is a full Professor and the Director of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Translational Medicine and the SPARK TLV program at TAU. His work was among the first to demonstrate systemic delivery of RNA molecules using targeted nanocarriers to the immune system and he pioneered the use of RNA interference (RNAi) for in vivo validation of new drug targets within the immune system. His work is focused on cancer and inflammation.  His lab was the first to show systemic, cell specific delivery of mRNA molecules. Dan has received more than 40 awards for his research.

  Yvonne Perrie is the Chair in Drug Delivery within Strathclyde Institute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. Prior to this appointment, she was Professor in Drug Delivery, within Aston University, Birmingham, England (2007-2016). Yvonne’s research is multi-disciplinary and is focused on the development of drug carrier systems to facilitate the delivery of drugs and vaccines, providing practical solutions for current healthcare problems.  She is a Fellow of the Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Yvonne was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in His Majesty the King’s New Year Honours List 2024 for services to pharmaceutical innovation and regulation.

 Colin Pouton is Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), Melbourne, Australia. Pouton is a pharmaceutical scientist with broad experience in drug discovery, delivery and product development. He began his postdoctoral career at the University of Bath, UK, where he remained before moving to Monash University in 2001.  Pouton is best-known for his program of research on delivery systems to enhance the oral bioavailability of poorly absorbed small molecule drugs. He has directed two other academic research programs in parallel, on nucleic acid therapeutics and pharmaceutical applications of stem cell technology. His current focus is a collaborative program to foster early proof-of-concept studies to study the potential of mRNA for vaccination, therapeutic use in chronic diseases, and treatment of genetic diseases by genome editing.  

  Robin Shattock is the Head of Mucosal Infection and Immunity within the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London. Professor Shattock's research focuses on the mechanisms of mucosal infection and the development of novel preventative strategies appropriate to a developing world setting. This has led to the establishment of international collaborations aimed at preclinical identification, development and selection of HIV microbicide and vaccine candidates prior to formal clinical efficacy trials. Professor Shattock oversees a portfolio of research that is supported by 26 members of staff including researchers, PhD students, clinical trial managers and project managers.  

  Natalie Trevaskis is a Professor at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her research group is focussed on the role of lymphatics in immune-metabolic disease and drug delivery to the lymphatics to treat these diseases. The lymphatic system has physiological functions in dietary fat absorption, immune response and fluid balance, and has recently been found to play important roles in a range of diseases including immune and inflammatory diseases, cancers and metabolic disease. Nalatie’s research group is particularly focussed on understanding the mechanisms by which lymphatic dysfunction contributes to diseases such as arthritis, pancreatitis, neuroinflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her group is also advancing the design of drug delivery systems to target the lymphatics and treat these diseases.

 Roy van der Meel is a biomedical engineer specialized in nanomedicine and RNA therapeutics. After obtaining a PhD from Utrecht University, he moved to Pieter Cullis’ lab at the University of British Columbia where he gained extensive experience with lipid nanoparticle technology. In 2019, Roy was recruited to Eindhoven University of Technology by Willem Mulder, where he is currently appointed Associate Professor in the Precision Medicine group.
Roy’s research is supported by a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Vidi Grant and an European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, and focuses on engineering RNA-based nanomedicines to precisely regulate immune cell function, aiming to treat diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders. He has co-authored over 60 publications in journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and Advanced Materials, and he was awarded the Controlled Release Society Young Investigator Award in 2024.  

 Miffy Hok Yan Cheng is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She completed her PhD at the University of Hull, in 2018, focusing on molecular agents for fluorescence-guided surgery. She then pursued postdoctoral research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Centre, developing theranostic agents for cancer imaging and therapy, and later at UBC, working on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivering siRNA and mRNA. Her new lab focuses on advancing next-generation nanomedicines, particularly designing new LNPs for gene therapy to combat chronic diseases. 

Dr. Brandon Dixon is a Woodruff Professor and the Associate Chair of

Undergraduate Studies in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia

Tech. He joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2009 and has established a research

program focused on developing engineered technologies for diagnosing and treating

diseases of the lymphatic system. Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, he was a post-doc

at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne in Switzerland. He received his Ph.D.

and B.S from Texas A&M University. His research has been funded by the NIH,

ARPAH, NSF, DOD, Gates Foundation, the American Heart Association, and other

private foundations. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, the NIH Pathway to

Independence Award and is a Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and

Biological Engineering. He is also a co-founder of LymphaTech, a start-up company

focused on developing enabling technologies for assessing and managing clinical

lymphedema.

Rongjun Chen obtained his PhD degree and completed his postdoctoral training in the

Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge.

He is Currently Professor of Biomaterials Engineering and Head of the Biomaterials and

Nanomedicine Laboratory in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College

London. His research focuses on the design, synthesis, and manufacturing of polymers,

lipids and bio-inspired nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of active pharmaceutical

agents, including RNA. He has established a translational research programme in targeted

nanomedicine, room-temperature-stable RNA vaccine formulations, cell and gene

therapies. His work has been published in leading journals, including Nature, Nature

Chemistry, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Biomaterials, and Journal of

Controlled Release. His research has been recognised by various awards, including the

IChemE Global Team Award (2021), the Imperial College President’s Award for

Outstanding Research Team (2021), and a Highly Commended distinction for the IChemE

Global Biotechnology Award (2018). He serves as an Editor for Chemical Engineering

Journal and an Editorial Board Member of Discover Molecules and Nano Trends.

 Chantal Pichon, a Full Professor at the University of Orléans (France), holds the Innovation Chair of Excellence at the Institut Universitaire de France (Paris) and is elected as member of the French Academia of Technologies. Chantal Pichon is leading a Inserm R&D laboratory (ART-ARNm), focused on the development and translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) technologies, and the Innovative Therapies and Nanomedicine Inserm Research unit (U 1364).  She has over 20 years of expertise in developing delivery systems for nucleic acid-based therapies based on chemical vectors and ultrasound/microbubble-assisted delivery. Over the past decade, her research has centered on mRNA delivery and production. She has produced and patented innovative mRNA formulations and a groundbreaking mRNA bioproduction technology. 

  Prof. Dr. Enrico Mastrobattista is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology & Delivery at the Utrecht University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Advanced Drug Delivery from Utrecht University in 2001 and worked from 2001-2004 as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK). In 2013 he was awarded the Prestigious Galien Research Price, The Netherlands, for his research on drug delivery. In addition, he is a board member of the Netherlands Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. His main areas of expertise are drug delivery, pharmaceutical biotechnology and nanobiotechnology with a focus on the intracellular delivery of nucleic acids, CRISPR-Cas gene editing components and genetic vaccines. He has published over 140 articles in scientific journals, contributed to several book chapters in pharmaceutical biotechnology and holds several patents to his name. 

 Dr. Maximiliano Cacicedo is a Group Leader in RNA Vaccines and Nucleic Acid Delivery at the University Medical Center Mainz. He holds a PhD in Nanomedicine and brings over a decade of specialized experience in mRNA-LNP platform development and immunotherapy design. Previously, Dr. Cacicedo strengthened his expertise in translational mRNA science during his tenure at BioNTech. His research integrates precision immunology with advanced delivery systems to engineer next-generation RNA vaccines targeting unmet medical needs. Current projects include therapeutic vaccines against chronic hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma, with particular focus on optimizing adjuvanted LNP formulations and hepatic immunomodulation. Dr. Cacicedo's work bridges fundamental immunological mechanisms with clinical translatability, advancing RNA therapeutics from bench to bedside. 

 Rein Verbeke is a senior postdoc in the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines (Ghent University, https://www.drugdelivery.be ). His PhD focused on the design of mRNA-LNPs and the adjuvancy of mRNA vaccines. Rein continued his research on the clinical development of a glycolipid-adjuvanted mRNA vaccine (Galsomes) for cancer and intracellular bacterial infections. In 2022, he visited the group of Prof. Pieter Cullis, University of British Columbia, where he investigated the contribution of LNPs to the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of mRNA vaccines. Rein is also director of the Ghent Nanomedicine Centre providing solutions for the formulation and in-depth characterization of bio-therapeutics in nanoparticles (https://www.nanomedicinecentre.com).

 Francesca Baldelli Bombelli is associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano and is a member of the scientific panel of the Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” (CMIC). She has supervised 11 PhD students, 9 postdocs, and 28 master's students and is co-author of 90 articles, 5 book chapters and co-inventor of four patents. As a chemist dedicated to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology, her research aims to elucidate the intricate interactions between nanoparticles and biological systems to design more effective diagnostic and therapeutic nanosystems. By developing innovative model systems that replicate the complex biological environment, she strives to understand the mechanisms of action of nanoparticles at various scales of complexity, from human fluids to in vitro and in vivo models.