Our Guest Speakers
The GGL is proud to announce this year's guest speakers for the annual conference. We are honoured to have them contributing to our conference and offer our sincere appreciation for their efforts.
Prof. Dr. Bruno Christ (Section 1)
Department of Visceral, Transplant, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery University of Leipzig Medical Center
Prof. Dr. Bruno Christ has been professor of Applied Molecular Hepatology in the Department of Visceral, Transplant, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at the University of Leipzig Medical Center since 2011. He received his Diploma in biology from the University of Bonn in 1980 and completed his doctorate on the hormone physiology of crustaceans, followed by habilitation in 1993 at the University of Gottingen, where he later worked as an Apl. Professor. Prior to his professorship at the University of Leipzig, he was associate professor at the Institute of Medical Biochemistry and Genetics at the University of Copenhagen (1999-2001) and the head of the Molecular Hepatology Lab at the University of Halle/Saale (2002-2011). From 1998-2011 Prof. Bruno Christ was also CEO and owner of Biomed Consult in Gottingen and member of several advisory boards including ISO Working Group 4/TC84 and DSO-G working group „Leberzellen".
Prof. Bruno Christ is a member of many scientific societies including Gesellschaft für Biologie Chemie und Molekularbiologie (GBM), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zellbiologie (DGZ) and the European Association for the Study of the Live (GSCN). Additionally, he is guest editor at several editorial boards including Stem Cells International and Methods of Molecular Biology, and is an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Regenerative Medicine & Tissue Engineering.
Prof. Dr. Marylyn Addo (Section 2)
Department for Infectiology and Tropical Medicine, I. Medical Clinic, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf
Prof. Dr. Marylyn Addo first completed her studies in Human Medicine in Bonn in 1996 and continued on to completed her doctoral studies and received a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H, LSHTM) and a Master of Science in Applied Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases (LSHTM). Following these, she moved to Boston Massachusetts, where began working as a postdoctoral research fellow in HIV Immunology at the Partners AIDS Research Center and Harvard Medical School. There she obtained her certifications in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases from the American Board of Internal Medicine and eventually her full medical license from the Massachusetts Registration Board. She was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and member of the Harvard Center of AIDS Research (CFAR) from 2010-2013.
Throughout her work, Prof. Addo has been asked if those working in such fields are putting themselves at risk of infection. Though she admits to often having to go beyond her boundaries for the sake of the cause, such as during the 2015 Ebola outbreak, she makes it clear that being well-informed on the diseases and treatment regulations allows for the proper protection measures to be taken.
Since 2013, she is Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Since 2015, she is the director of the Department for Infectiology and Tropical Medicine at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Prof. Emilio Hirsch (Section 3)
Medical School, University of Torino, Italy
Prof. Emilio Hirsch is professor and PhD board member at the medical school of the University of Torino in Italy, where he also completed his first studies in biology in 1988, as well as his Ph.D. in 1994. He is author of over 230 publications and his work has received over 17000 citations. Additionally, he has trained over 36 undergraduates, PhD students and postdocs, many of which have moved on to academic and industry positions.
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Prof. Hirsch obtained a postdoc fellowship from 1995-1996 at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, Germany. From 1995 until beginning his full professorship 2005, he was associate professor in the Department for Genetics, Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Torino, Italy. He was a member of the Translational Research Committee of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society for Cardiology (ESC) from 2006-2012 and Vice President of the School of Medicine in Torino from 2005-2011. In 2013 he founded the biotechnological academic spin-off Kither Biotech SrL, which focuses on the development of drugs for local treatment in lung diseases and is currently developing Pl3K inhibitors for pulmonary fibrosis, severe asthma, lung cancer and cystic fibrosis.
Prof. Hirsch is an editorial board member of PLoSONE as well a member of numerous scientific societies including the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the International Society for Heart Research.
Prof. Dr. Markus Bohnsack (Section 4)
Department of Molecular Biology, University Medical Centre (UMG), Gottingen
Prof. Dr. Bohnsack is Professor of Molecular Biology at the University Medical Centre in Gottingen. His current research focuses on the roles of RNA-Protein Complexes (RNPs) in cellular processes, particularly in classes of RNPs in yeast and mammalian cells. A strong motivating factor to his research comes from the increasing number of diseases discovered to be caused by RNP malfunction.
He completed his doctoral studies in biology at the Centre for Biology (ZMBH) at the University of Heidelberg in 2005 and in the following year began working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh. Before beginning his professorship in Gottingen in 2012, he worked at the Goethe University in Frankfurt as a group leader at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences. Subsequently he also worked as an adjunct investigator at the Cluster of Excellence Frankfurt (CEF) “Macromolecular Complexes”.
PD Dr. Martin Hadamitzky (Section 5)
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, Essen University Hospital
Dr. Hadamitzky first began his studies in at the University of Bremen, where he completed his Diploma in Neurobiology and proceeded to complete his Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of San Diego (USD). In 2010 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher as the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne, followed by another postdoctoral research position at the Institute for Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.
In 2017 he completed his habilitation on Behavioural Immunology at the Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioural Immunology at the University Hospital in Essen.
Dr. Rainer Fürbaß (Section 6)
Institute of Reproductive Biology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN)
Dr. Anne-Marie Chèvre (Section 7)
INRA-Agrocampus Ouest, Institute for Genetics, Environment and Plant Protection (IGEPP),
University of Rennes 1, France
Since 2007 Dr. Chèvre has been team leader of the group Biodiversity and Polyploidy. Her research focuses primarily on Brassiceae species as well as on the process of polyploidy stabilization through regulation of homologous and homoeolgous recombination in Brassica.
She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Boudreaux II in 1985 on the topic “In vitro vegetative micropropagation of chestnut”. Over the next decade she worked as a permanent scientist (CR) at INRA, Research Unit APBV, Le Rheu, France. She then began working there as a senior scientist, later working at INRA, where she still works to this day. From 1988-1989 she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California in the Department for Vegetable Crops. From 2009-2011 she was head of the research unit UMR118 APBV and from 2012-2016 Deputy head of the new research unit UMR1349 both at the University of Rennes 1, where she was in charge of research teams comprised of up to 250 members.
Dr. David Scurr (Section 8)
School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham
Dr. David Scurr is a Senior Research Fellow in Surface Analysis in the Faculty of Science at the University of Nottingham. He leads a research team composed of both Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers. His research focuses on characterising and understanding permeation mechanisms of active pharmaceutical, cosmetic and antibacterial compounds within complex tissues at the micron and nano scale.
He completed his Ph.D. on microstructural deformation and mechanisms of natural composite materials at the School of Materials at the University of Manchester, where he then worked as a postdoctoral research associate from 2005-2007. He then began working as a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory for biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA) at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. As of 2012 he is a senior postdoctoral research associate in Advanced Healthcare Technologies (AMHT) likewise at the University of Nottingham.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht (Section 9)
Center for Natural History, University of Hamburg
He is professor for biodiversity of animals and has been the director of the Centre for Natural History at the University of Hamburg since 2014. He completed his habilitation on the topic of evolution systematic of limnetic gastropods. While he may have completed his studies and even habilitation at the University of Hamburg, he has regularly completed field studies throughout the world. From 1987 until 2011 he completed field studies in various countries: France, Bermuda, the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, and Australia, just to name a few. His work in the United States included research for the Smithsonian Institute in various locations including the Ft. Pierce Marine Research Station in Florida. In Australia he frequently worked in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
He is a member of numerous scientific societies including the Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie. and the Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik, which he also founded.