Riccarda Antiochia received a MSc degree in Chemistry with honours in 1992 and a MSc degree in Pharmacy with honours in 2009, both at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1994 she received the Diploma of Imperial College from Imperial College, London, and in 1996 a PhD in Chemical Sciences from Sapienza University of Rome, where she is actually Full Professor of Advanced Medical Technology and Methodology.
She is component of the Scientific Council of the National Research Council (CNR) and of the Italian Committee for Biosafety, Biotechnology and Sciences of Life of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
She is Member of the Steering Committee of the Research Center for Biotechnology applied to Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome (CNIS), and of the Technical Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Energetic Security (MASE) for the environmental impact assessment of projects from Integrates National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
She is author of more than 110 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, 3 book chapters and 1 monograph.
Her scientific activity is focused on the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology and analytical chemistry. Her main area of research is the design and development of electrochemical (bio)sensors for clinical applications. More recently, she has been involved in the characterization of new nanostructured materials for electrode modification for electro- chemical (bio)sensors, biofuel cells and microneedles-based biosensor development.
Liviu Movileanu is now a Professor of Physics at Syracuse University, Departments of Physics and Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. His expertise areas include single-molecule and membrane biophysics, chemical and synthetic biology, biosensors, and functional biomaterials. Liviu Movileanu is also affiliated with the BioInspired Institute, Syracuse, New York. Currently, his research group is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Núria Aliaga-Alcalde is ICREA Professor (https://www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/nuria--aliaga-alcalde-429) at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Spain, where she is part of the "Functional Surfaces and Interfaces" Research Unit and leader of the group FunNanoSurf, "Functional Nanomaterials & Surfaces" (http://departments.icmab.es/funnanosurf/). She completed her PhD in 2003 at Indiana University, USA, and did postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie, Germany, and Leiden University, The Netherlands. In 2007 she started as an ICREA Junior Researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB), becoming ICREA Professor in 2012 at the ICMAB. Her current research focuses on the design and characterization of molecular-based materials, including their nanostructuration and application, taking advantage of their magnetic, electronic and fluorescent properties in bulk, on surfaces, and as individual active components in nanodevices.
Loretta L. del Mercato, is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Nanotechnology of Cnr (Nanotec-Cnr) in Lecce, Italy, where she coordinates the 3D Cell Sensing group. She earned her Biotechnology degree in 2004 from the University "Federico II" of Naples (IT) and PhD in "Materials and Innovative Technologies" in 2007 from the Scuola Superiore “ISUFI” of University of Lecce (IT). She was post-doctoral researcher at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, from 2008 to 2010, and then Junior Researcher at the Nanoscience Institute of Cnr in Lecce. In 2015, she became Principal Investigator at the newly funded Nanotechnology Institute of Cnr in Lecce. Her expertise includes nanostructured systems and biomaterials for medical applications, combining optical imaging and computational techniques. She has led several national and international projects, receiving notable grants such as the ERC Starting Grant (2017) and the My First AIRC Grant (2019). She was visiting researcher in Spain (2009), Germany (2013), Netherlands (2015), and Brazil (2023). Since 2018, she has been on the Supervisory Board of the Technopole for Precision Medicine of Apulia (Tecnomed Puglia) and, since December 2022, coordinates the Center of Excellence for Advanced NanoBiomaterials and Technologies (CoE-NBT) in Lecce (IT). Additionally, she is founder and member of the Italian Pancreatic Cancer Community (I-PCC) and the “ERC in Italy” Association and serves as a grant evaluator for several funding agencies and journal reviewer/editor. More info here: http://intercellmed.nanotec.cnr.it.