The University of Sydney School of Medical Sciences, Camperdown, Australia;
Dr Ashleigh S. Paparella is a Lecturer in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney. She specializes in enzymology, protein biochemistry, and antimicrobial drug discovery, with a focus on Clostridioides difficile toxins. Previously, she was a staff scientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Dr Paparella earned her PhD from the University of Adelaide and has recently started her own research group at the University of Sydney.

New York Structural Biology Center, New York, USA;
Michael J. Rudolph, Ph.D. is a structural biologist and molecular biochemist specializing in protein crystallography and drug discovery. With a Ph.D. from Stony Brook University and postdoctoral work at Harvard and Columbia, his research has led to high-impact publications and collaborations with the Department of Defense. He combines structural insight with advanced biochemical techniques to design novel small-molecule inhibitors and has extensive experience in teaching and mentoring.

Hannover Medical School | MHH · Institute for Toxicology;
Andreas Rummel, PhD, Senior Group Leader at the Institut für Toxikologie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (Germany), is an internationally recognized expert on clostridial neurotoxins. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles, 13 reviews/book chapters, co-edited Botulinum Neurotoxins, and holds multiple patents. Since 2015, he has served on the board of the International Neurotoxin Association and as editor of Toxins. Dr. Rummel is frequently invited to speak at international conferences and acts as a litigation expert for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Park Place, Wales, UK;
Professor Berry obtained his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Southampton and his PhD from the University of Bristol, later completing postdoctoral work at the National University of Singapore. He has held positions at Cardiff University since 1992, progressing from Royal Society Research Fellow to Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and, since 2019, Professor of Biochemistry. He is an active member of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology, where he has served as Chair of the Bacterial Division, and he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. Professor Colin Berry is based at the Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, where his research focuses on bacterial insecticidal proteins used in the biological control of agricultural pests and insect vectors of disease. His laboratory investigates the specificity and mechanisms of action of these proteins, as well as their structural properties through X-ray crystallography, Xfel, and cryo-electron microscopy. He also leads studies on mosquito behaviour and their responses to semiochemicals and artificial feedants.

Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), La Ràpita, Spain;
Mònica Campàs graduated in Chemical Sciences and obtained the European PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain). After her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Université de Perpignan-Via Domitia (France). Currently, she is a researcher at the Marine and Continental Waters Program of IRTA, where she is leading a research line on the development and application of biosensors and other biotechnological tools for the detection of toxins, microalgae, viruses and bacteria. She has published more than 100 articles and 14 book chapters, and has co-edited a book on marine toxins analysis. She has been principal investigator of 13 projects. She has directed 5 PhD thesis, 3 more being in progress. She is Executive Editor of Analytical Biochemistry (Elsevier) and Scientific Reports (Nature).