University of Groningen

Madeline is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology at the Institute of Chemistry of Leiden University. However, she is a native of Sydney, Australia, which is where should completed her Bachelor and Master’s degrees, under the supervision of Professor Michael Kassiou at the University of Sydney School of Chemistry. For her PhD, Madeline moved to the UK to work with Professor Chris Abell’s at the University of Cambridge, where she applied fragment-based strategies to develop small molecules inhibitor of essential enzymes in bacterial pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  After completing her degree in 2017, Madeline had the opportunity to work briefly with Professor Chris Schofield at the University of Oxford on the development of metallo-beta-lactamase inhibitors to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria, before moving to the US for postdoctoral training in Professor Ben Cravatt’s lab at Scripps Research, California. During her postdoc, Madeline developed a strong interest in applying chemical proteomics to discover better understand biology and to develop chemical probes or drug-like compounds that can modulate proteins through unconventional mechanisms of action, which is a them that she is pursuing in her new lab. Madeline’s research has been recognized by several notable awards including the University of Sydney Medal and Australian Postgraduate Award, Commonwealth PhD Scholarship, ACS Young Chemist Crossing Boarders award, and Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, and has had the opportunity to speak at many international conferences and events.

Johannes Teichert has been professor of organic chemistry at Technische Universität Chemnitz since 2021. He studied at Philipps-Universität Marburg (diploma thesis with Prof. Gerhard Hilt) and at Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. In 2006, he joined the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands for his Ph.D. in the field of asymmetric catalysis. After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Jeffrey Bode at ETH Zurich, he started his independent research group at Technische Universität Berlin (under the auspices of Prof. Martin Oestreich). Johannes’s research interests include method development in organic synthesis, transition metal catalysis, and especially reductive transformations employing H2, as well as new hydrocarbon frameworks, homoaromaticity and photoswitches.

Dr. Toro-Mendoza is a physicist with 20 years of experience in the highly interdisciplinary field of soft matter science with more than 35 publications in journals such as ACS Nano, Langmuir, and JPC, among others. Jhoan earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research. His work aimed to understand droplet deformability as a critical factor affecting emulsion evolution. After his PhD, Jhoan was a postdoc at the University of New Mexico, USA, with Prof. Dimiter Petsev. There he developed a new strategy to predict film evolution during droplet coalescence. Returning to his homeland in Venezuela, Jhoan developed his independent research group, expanding his repertoire of research interests to microfluidic devices, microrheology of ionic colloidal systems, active droplets, Ostwald ripening, self-assembled carbon nanotubes at fluid interfaces, nanofilm dynamics, emulsion formation and understanding the granular behaviour of liquid dispersions. During this period, Jhoan supervised students at all levels from undergraduate to postdocs while serving as head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Physics, a period that lasted more than six years. More recently, Jhoan worked with Prof. Luis Liz-Marzán at CIC biomaGUNE in Spain on protein-nanoparticle interactions and corona formation. Almost three years ago, Jhoan joined ACS Publications based in Oxford, UK.