Riccarda Antiochia is Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). She received a MSc degree in Chemistry with honors in 1992 and a MSc degree in Pharmacy with honors in 2009 both at Sapienza University of Rome. In 1994 received the Diploma of Imperial College at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London and in 1996 received a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome. She was awarded of the national scientific qualifications as Full Professor for the scientific sectors CHIM/01, Analytical Chemistry, in 2018, and MED/46, Applied Medical Technologies, in 2019.
She is a Member of the Steering Committee of CNIS, Research Center for Biotechnology applied to Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome from 2011. She is author of 90 papers on international peer-reviewed scientific journals, 3 book chapters and 1 monography.
Her scientific activity is focused on the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology and analytical chemistry. The main area of research is the design, development and application of electrochemical biosensors for biomedical, food and environmental analysis. More recently, she is involved in the characterization of new nanostructured materials for electrode modification in second- and third-generation electrochemical biosensors, biofuel cells and microneedles-based biosensors 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.
Dr. Loretta L. del Mercato is Senior Researcher at Institute of Nanotechnology of CNR (CNR NANOTEC) and coordinator of the «3DCellSensing» group, since December 2018. She received her Master Degree in Biotechnology from the University of Naples “Federico II” in 2004. In 2007, she got her PhD in “Innovative Materials and Technologies” from Institute of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (ISUFI), University of Salento, working at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL). From January 2008-April 2010, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Phillips University of Marburg (DE). In May 2010, she moved as Junior Researcher to the Nanoscience Institute of CNR (IT). In 2015, she joined the new-funded Nanotechnology Institute of CNR (CNR NANOTEC) as Principal Investigator where she started her own research program. She is unit leader of several projects, and she was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant in 2017 and a My First AIRC Grant in 2019, respectively. At CNR NANOTEC, Dr. del Mercato implements a highly interdisciplinary approach, spanning from Materials Science to Chemistry and Bioengineering, to address fundamental challenges in cancer-related research. Through the core expertise in biosensing, stimuli-responsive nanoparticles and biomaterials, her team develops novel approaches for studying cell-cell heterogeneity in 3D in vitro patient-matched tumor models.