Dr. Ece is an assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Biruni University. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry at Hacettepe University, Ankara. He completed his master degree in organic chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. in the field of organic, computational medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry in the same institution. He worked as Research Assistant between the dates 2002-2011 at Hacettepe University.

Dr. Ece gave several talks as invited speaker in international/national scientific organizations including NATO-ASI Summer School, Training Courses etc. He organizes Hands-On Training Courses on Computer Aided Drug Design.

His research group (ECE Research) is mainly focused on the computer aided drug design & discovery. In that aspect, he uses both quantum chemical and molecular mechanics calculations. Supported by the leading software companies in the field, Ece Research uses effective and specialized computational tools to address a particular problem or to enlight an experimental finding in medicinal, organic or pharmaceutical chemistry.

He believes that there is no boundaries in different fields of sciences. Scientists should set aside the differences and collaborate with each other. It is the reason that the motto of ECE Research is "Combining Multidisciplinary Research".

E-mail: aece@biruni.edu.tr
Web Page: http://www.ece.biruni.edu.tr/

Director of Research and Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS) TCD. Research interests lie in the broad area of Natural Product Chemistry: finding new therapies for diseases with unmet clinical need. During my career I have successfully identified a lead molecule from nature which I have translated through a medicinal chemistry programme, to a novel therapeutic chemical scaffold which progressed through preclinical stages of development through to Phase 1 Clinical trials. During this period I co-founded a TCD Campus company Trino Therapeutics Ltd and was co-PI on funding of approximately €14 million including from Venture Capital (€9 million) and the Wellcome Trust (€4.5 million) with €3.5 million as co-PI coming from a Wellcome Strategic Translation Award I am co-applicant on six published patents in the US, EU and Asia. I have learned a lot about the journey from discovery to humans and the challenges and obstacles that line the road. Experience led decision making about research is invaluable and through this lens of experience, the molecules my group is working on have real therapeutic potential and have been designed to eliminate some of the insurmountable obstacles to drug development.

E-mail: hsheridn@tcd.ie
Web Page: http://www.pharmacy.tcd.ie/staff/sheridan-cv.php

I first became captivated by the complexities of cellular signal transduction pathways during my undergraduate biochemistry degree at Trinity College Dublin, which led me to a PhD at the University of Dundee investigating roles for protein kinases such as mTORC1 in the control of metabolic pathways in hepatocytes. I retained a focus on protein kinase signalling during my postdoctoral research in Prof. Doreen Cantrell’s lab at the University of Dundee. It was during this time in I came to realise that mTORC1 is a key regulator of CD8 T cell biology largely because it controls cellular metabolic pathways. This research sparked a keen interest in understanding the relationship between immune cell metabolism and function. In 2011 I moved to Trinity College Dublin as a principle investigator jointly between the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. I have since established an Immunometabolism research group studying metabolic regulation of Natural Killer cells and Dendritic cells. I received a SFI Career Development Award in 2014 to investigate the importance metabolic pathways in Natural Killer cells for their anti-tumour responses. More recently, in 2017, I was awarded an ERC Consollidator Grant to investigate nutrients as key determinants of DC-induced CD8 T cell responses.

Dr Darren Fayne holds a PhD from Dublin City University in computational and organic chemistry. He worked for two years at Solvay Pharmaceuticals in Hannover, Germany as a molecular designer from March 2003. While with the Computer-Aided Drug Design Group he focused on two main therapeutic areas of research: Cardiovascular disease and Gastroenterology (IBS/IBD). In July 2005 Dr Fayne joined the Molecular Design Group in Trinity College Dublin as a Senior Research Fellow. His research focus is the rational computational design of novel small molecular modulators of key disease related proteins.

In the late 2000’s, he co-founded and served as a director of a rational drug design campus spin-out company to commercialise intellectual property and develop compounds for the treatment of an orphan cancer – malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Nuclear receptors are a major research interest of his, as is the development of computational tools to assist the drug discovery process. A key aspect of his work forming a bridge between chemistry & biology and utilising computational design methodologies to collaboratively discovery novel small molecules with the potential to treat human disease. More recently he has collaborated with colleagues to identify novel small molecule inhibitors of IL-17A (inflammation/autoimmune), LspA (Anti-bacterial) and Vif (Anti-viral). To date he has successfully filed two patents, published 33 articles in peer-reviewed journals and one book chapter.

E-mail: fayned@tcd.ie
Web Page: https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=fayned

Tatjana Braun has studied Bioinformatics at the Technical University and the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. She then obtained her doctorate from the University of Düsseldorf for research mainly focusing on structure modelling using cryo-EM data. In 2017, she joined Schrödinger to work as an Applications Scientist.

Dr Jorge Valencia is the founder and CEO of Galactica Biotech, a novel A.I. based company. The Company employs machine learning to identify new applications for drugs. He is an accomplished drug discovery expert with a PhD in Drug Design gained at the University of Sheffield.

Additionally, he has more than 10 years of experience in drug discovery research specializing in the development of several complex modules for drug repositioning for a variety of different compounds classes. Jorge holds an MSc in Molecular Biology – Immunology in the area of Phage display and Tuberculosis, which he gained from the UNAM. Previously Jorge was engaged in numerous competitions where he gained experience and first class Biotech business training. He was semi-finalist of the OneStart competition hosted by numerous leading pharmaceutical companies in London. Impressively he was selected as a finalist of the Creative Challenge in Switzerland. He gained the most innovative Idea Award during the Global Entrepreneurs Festival. Also he became a winner for the product StartUp and Tony Atkinson Award in Ideas to Enterprise Program. Previously he was selected as a national delegate for the Novartis BioCamp at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston. Recently Jorge has participated in the RebelBio program where he has led key projects following leads in identifying novel commercial repurposing uses for several compounds. These were specifically focusing on compounds targeting key oncology and viral targets.

Dr. Simon Lawless is a molecular biologist at Nuritas. He studied Biotechnology at NUI Galway before being accepted onto the PRTLI PhD programme to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory processes in the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin. During his PhD he also received a Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship that sparked an interest in the drug discovery process. Following his PhD, he undertook a Post Doc in the Max Planck Institute for Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg Germany investigating the metabolism of innate immune cells. Currently he is a member of the Nuritas team that is striving to unlock the health benefits of bioactive peptides from food sources.

Isabel Rozas was born in Madrid, Spain. After a B.Sc. in Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1981, Spain) she carried out postgraduate research at the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (CSIC, Madrid) obtaining her PhD degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1987. Then, she performed post-doctoral research in the University of Saskatchewan (1989-91, Canada), and at Queen’s University in Kingston (1993-94, Canada).

After working for 14 years as a researcher at the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (CSIC, Spain), she moved in 2000 to the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin as a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry. After holding several positions (director of the Medicinal Chemistry course, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, Senior Lecturer, Head of Organic, Medicinal and Biological Chemistry) in 2010, she became Professor. Additionally, she has served as Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning and Director of Research of the School of Chemistry.

Her main area of research is framed within the Medicinal Chemistry field, and thus her group works in the modelling, preparation and biophysical and biological evaluation of: (i) agents targeting nucleic acids (as anticancer or antiprotozoal therapies); (ii) guanidine-based inhibitors of protein kinases; and (iii) compounds targeting adrenergic alpha2- or specifically alpha2C-receptors with application as antidepressants or antipsychotic agents. In addition, she has an interest in the theoretical study of weak interactions such as hydrogen bonds. She has published around 150 papers and collaborates with several groups in Ireland, Spain, UK, India, Canada and USA

E-mail: rozasi@tcd.ie
Web Page: http://chemistry.tcd.ie/staff/people/Rozas/Welcome.html

Dr. Anders Hogner is a drug hunter with +15 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry in the field of chemistry/computer aided drug design. Anders holds a M.Sc. in Chemistry (Gothenburg University Sweden) and a PhD degree in X-ray protein crystallography from University of Copenhagen (2002). Anders started his career as a Computational Chemist at AstraZeneca in 2002 and has since then hold various positions within the organization. Since 2010 Anders has lead and shaped computational chemistry within the Medicinal Chemistry department in the Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic diseases (CVRM) disease unit and in 2012 became head of computational chemistry in CVRM. The group consists today of 6 PhD’s, 1 postdocs and 2 students. Anders has solid track record of impacting project milestones through innovative approaches resulted in being named co-inventor on 3 clinical drug projects. Anders is passionate about innovation but also for talent management, mentoring, and developing people.

Gaia has extensive experience in strategic, operational and drug development management. She has been responsible in driving operations and accountable in the areas of CMC, non-clinical and clinical development, as well as regulatory and quality. At HiTech Health, Gaia focuses on developing strategies and implementing plans to ensure that researchers and companies can successfully develop, launch and supply their products. Detailed capabilities include building teams and processes to ensure successful operations are in place, mapping drug development processes, selecting and managing outsourcing activities globally, setting up clinical operations and material supply, managing programmes and supporting EU regulatory submissions. Previously, Gaia has been key in the full life-cycle of the start-up Trino Therapeutics Ltd, where as VP of Operations she drove the company operations and advanced drug candidates from university bench and pre-clinical development to early clinical trials. Gaia holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Belfast, U.K., a post-doctorate from Trinity College Dublin and a Diploma in Management Studies from the Dublin Business School in Ireland.

Dr Andreas Bender is a Reader for Molecular Informatics with the Centre for Molecular Science Informatics at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cambridge, leading a group of about 22 postdocs, PhD and graduate students and academic visitors. In his work, Andreas is involved with the integration and analysis of chemical and biological data, aimed at understanding phenotypic compound action (such as cellular readouts, and also organism-level effects) on a mechanistic level, predicting molecular properties related to both compound effiacy and toxicity, as well as drug repurposing. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and worked in the Lead Discovery Informatics group at Novartis in Cambridge/MA as well as at Leiden University in the Netherlands before his current post. In 2013 he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to model mixture effects of chemical structures in biological systems using mechanistic approaches, an area currently very little understood.