Speakers

David Mooney is the Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute.
His laboratory designs biomaterials to promote regeneration and immunotherapy. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. His inventions have been licensed by over 20 companies, leading to commercialized products. He has founded companies, and is active on industrial scientific advisory boards.

María José Alonso’s lab has pioneered numerous discoveries in the field of Nanopharmaceutical Technology and nanomedicine. She has coordinated several research consortia financed by the WHO, the Gates Foundation and the European Commission. She has participated in 16 international projects. She is the author of 320 scientific contributions with more than 41,000 cites (H factor 108) and the inventor of 26 patent families. Because of the quality of her scientific articles she has been among the TOP TEN in Pharmacology (Times Higher Education international ranking, 2010) and she is on ‘The Power List’ of the most influential researchers in the field of Biopharmaceuticals (The Medicine Maker, 2020-21). She was former President of the CRS and she is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Delivery and Translational Research. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and of the Controlled Release Society (CRS), and a member of three Academies in Spain, the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, and the Academy of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of Argentina. She received the National Sciences Award ‘Juan de la Cierva’, the most prestigious award given to Spanish Scientists.

Joana Azeredo is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho and develops her research activity at the Centre of Biological Engineering, where she is a member of the direction board, leading the Biofilm Science and Technology Research Group. Her research focuses on the interaction of bacteriophages (the viruses of bacteria) with biofilms and on developing innovative bacteriophage-based strategies for pathogen detection and control. She has also pioneered the development of phage therapy in Portugal, establishing a leading role in advancing bacteriophage research and its clinical and technological applications.

María José Blanco-Prieto is Full Professor at the University of Navarra’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Nutrition. She holds a PhD from the Université de Paris-Sud and completed postdoctoral training at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on the development of nanomedicines for cancer, particularly pediatric cancer, and on tissue regeneration in the heart and brain.

She has authored over 160 scientific articles, 5 patents, and 21 book chapters, with an H-index of 60 and over 10,800 citations. She has led 37 research projects, including the recently awarded European HG4Heart project, and supervised 25 PhD theses.

Her scientific contributions have earned her membership in the French Academy of Medicine, the French Academy of Pharmacy, the Academia Europaea, and the College of Fellows of AIMBE. She currently serves as President of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and was President of SEFIG from 2020 to 2024.

David Brayden is a Full Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD) and a Senior Fellow of the UCD Conway Institute of Biotechnology in Ireland. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 research publications and patents in the areas of epithelial ion transport, oral peptide delivery, and nanomedicine. David was elected as a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society (CRS, 2012), the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS, 2017) and the Royal Irish Academy (2024). He was the Director of a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Cluster grant (The Irish Drug Delivery Research Network) from 2007-2013. He was the Deputy Coordinator of an EU 7th Framework grant on oral nanomedicines (www.TRANS-INT.eu), 2012-2017. In 2014, he became a co-lead PI on the SFI Centre for Medical Devices (CURAM) (2014-2026). He is also the current coordinator of BUCCAL-PEP, an EU Horizon Europe grant on buccal administration of peptides, (2023-2026). He was Chairman of the UK-Ireland Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (2003-2006), served on the CRS Board of Scientific Advisors (2006-2009) and the CRS Annual Meeting Programme Committees (2015, 2016). In 2021 David was appointed Chief Editor of “Frontiers in Drug Delivery”. Also in 2021, he was appointed by Ireland’s Minister of Health to the National Research Ethics Committee (Clinical Trials) and was re-appointed as a chairperson in 2024. He consults for Biotech and Pharma working on oral peptide delivery and is a member of the Science Advisory Boards of several companies.

Noémi Csaba is associate professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela and a principal investigator at the Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases, where she leads the “Natural Polymers and Biomimetics” research group. She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Santiago de Compostela and has completed her postdoctoral training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

Her research focuses on the design of transmucosal drug delivery systems for biomacromolecules, with main interest in the fields of vaccine delivery, cancer and infectious diseases. She is author of > 80 research articles and book chapters, with a current H index of 35. She is inventor of 7 international patent families and has been involved in numerous industrial and clinical partnerships for technology transfer. She has been principal investigator of > 15 national and international research projects and has acted as work package leader of several medium- and large-scale EU projects. She currently leads the development of innovative nasal delivery platforms for nucleic acid and protein vaccines for upper respiratory diseases within the “Nosevac” EVI – EU consortium.

Eva Martín Becerra is the Director and Founder of Kinrel, a consultancy specialising in regulatory affairs and in strategies for the protection and exploitation of research results in biomedicine and biotechnology.

She holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, with a double specialisation in Neurobiology and Health Biology, and a Master’s in Health Biotechnology from CESIF.

She began her career as a research assistant at the Ecology and Reproductive Biology Group (GEBIR) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She later developed her professional career in the biotechnology industry as Head of Clinical Development and Intellectual Property at Fina Biotech (formerly Indas Biotech) and subsequently as Project Manager at the spin-off Sanifit Laboratoris.

With over 15 years of experience in innovation management and technology transfer, since 2013 she has led Kinrel, working closely with Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), innovation offices, researchers, and entrepreneurs to drive the valorisation and transfer of their research and innovation projects.

Mariana B. Oliveira completed her Integrated Master’s in Biomedical Engineering (2010) and PhD in Biomedical Engineering (2014) at the University of Minho, Portugal. Her PhD research focused on developing materiomics-enabling devices to assess cell-biomaterial interactions. She joined CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro (UAveiro) in 2016 and is a (carreer) Assistant Researcher since 2022.

She has led a research line focused on cells for immunomodulation and cell-based/cell-derived materials. M.B. Oliveira has led 3 research grants (FCT and LEO Foundation) on the topic, and has integrated the teams of multiple funded projects in collaborative fields including drug delivery, metabolomics, and design of biomaterials. She has contributed to over 72 publications in journals like Advanced Materials, Science Advances and Biomaterials, and is an inventor of provisional patents on cell-derived materials and drug delivery. Oliveira has also been an active editorial board member and peer reviewer for high-impact journals and funding bodies.

Dr Alejandro J. Paredes is a Pharmacist by training (2011) and holds a PhD (2016), both degrees from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. He is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast, where he leads a research group focused on controlled and targeted drug delivery using nanocrystals. Dr Paredes is a named inventor in two patents, has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, and is the editor of two textbooks.

He has obtained prestigious grants (>£3 million) from the EPSRC, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society, the NI Department for Economy, and Applied Microbiology International. In 2024 he received the Emerging Scientist Award from the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UK) and a Springboard Award from the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK). Alejandro is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and CICOPS (Italy), an active member of various scientific societies where he contributes in different capacities, and an editorial board member of Materials Today Bio, AAPS PharmSciTech, and Drug Delivery and Translational Research.

Maria Teresa Peracchia is the Global Head of CMC Strategy & Execution in the Sanofi mRNA Center of Excellence, leading the CMC Project Leaders team and in charge of designing and aligning the End-to-End CMC strategy for the mRNA vaccine portfolio.

Maria-Teresa holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Parma, Italy. During her PhD, supervised by Professor Paolo Colombo, she was a Visiting Scientist (1992-1994) in Professor Robert Langer’s lab at MIT, developing PEGylated polymeric nanoparticles. She was a post-doctoral fellow (1995-1998) with Prof. Patrick Couvreur at the University Paris-Saclay, focusing her work on the design of new PEGylated nanoparticles from polymer chemistry to in vivo biodistribution. During her PhD and postdoc, she has authored/ co-authored over 20 publications in the field of drug delivery and filed 8 patents.

Maria Teresa joined Sanofi in 1999. She held several positions of increasing responsibility in formulation development, drug delivery and CMC project management. From 2013 to 2019, she served as CMC Project Leader for Dupilumab (Dupixent®) developed in collaboration with Regeneron, where she led the CMC team through successful submission, registration and launch of Dupilumab for Atopic Dermatitis and Asthma indications. In her last role of Global Head of Drug Delivery of Biologics in the CMC Global Development organization, she established novel delivery technology capabilities atSanofi through focused internal work and external partnerships.

Maria Teresa is deeply invested in the Controlled Release Society: she has been on the Board of Directors of the CRS since 2020, serving as Treasurer elect, Treasurer, Director at Large, and now secretary. As industry member and part of the IFC (Industry Foresight Council), that works with the CRS Board to better leverage the overall value that Industry can bring to the CRS community, MariaTeresa is exerting energy and passion in making sure the connection between CRS and the Industry keeps growing.

Claus-Michael Lehr is Professor at Saarland University, as well as cofounder and head of the department “Drug Delivery across Biological Barriers” at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). He is (co)author of more than 500 papers with >28.000 citations (h index = 107). In 2025, he received the CRS Distinguished Services Award.

Prof. Lehr’s team works on both advanced (nano-)carriers as well as on complex in vitro models of cellular (i.e. epithelial and immune cells) as well as non-cellular barriers, such as mucus and bacterial biofilms. Because of their human origin, such models may also help to replace and reduce animal experiments.

Prof. Lehr used to be member of the scientific advisory committee of EURL ECVAM (European Center for validation of Alternative Methods) and is chair of the scientific advisory board of SET Foundation, Germany. He is co-founder of two spin off companies and initiated the international conference “Biological Barriers” which takes place biennially in Saarbrücken, Germany. The next meeting will be jointly organized with the 30th Annual Meeting CRS Local Chapter DeChAt on March 3-6, 20026.

Khair Alhareth is an associate professor at Université Paris Cité and a researcher at UTBS Lab, Chemical and Biological Technologies for health, CNRS, INSERM. He is also a co-coordinator of the European Master of Nanomedicine for drug delivery. He holds a PhD in pharmaceutical technology and biopharmacy from Université Paris Saclay. He then pursued a postdoctoral training at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. His research focuses on the development of new nano-based drug delivery systems using automated processes, advanced technologies, and computational analysis. He has developed a workflow for the manufacturing of nanoparticles using microfluidics, integrating machine learning for faster development and a deeper understanding of the biological potential of nanomedicine.