Prof. Schwab studied food chemistry at the University of Würzburg and did his doctorate in 1989. Following a postdoctoral stay at Washington State University, he spent three years working in Hoechst AG’s agriculture division. He returned to the University of Würzburg to complete his lecturer qualification in 1999. He worked in research after that, notably at Plant Research International in Wageningen (the Netherlands) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Seville (Spain). In 2003, he accepted a position at TUM. Prof. Schwab is a member of the BfR Committee for Genetically Modified Food and Feed.

As part of his research, Prof. Schwab (b. 1961) isolates and identifies secondary plant substances and investigates their biosynthesis and metabolism. The goal is biotechnological production of natural products which, due to their technological or physiological effect, determine the quality of foodstuffs (e.g. as additives for “functional foods”).

Sandeep K. Vashist is the Head of Immunodiagnostics at Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung e.V. (HSG-IMIT) and Laboratory for MEMS Applications, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Germany. He was the Bioanalytical Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Dublin, Ireland (2006-2009) and the Team Leader at NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute, Singapore (2009-2012) after completing his Ph.D. from Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, India (2006). His research outputs include many successful technology transfers, several in vitro diagnostic and point-of-care technologies, over 80 publications in high impact factor journals and numerous patents, book chapters, and publications/talks in international conferences. He has constantly received highly prestigious fellowships and awards for scientific research excellence and innovation. Besides, he is acting as the Editorial Board and Executive Editor for several reputed journals (such as NPG’s Scientific Reports, Elsevier’s NPBR and MDPI’s Diagnostics).

His research interests include in vitro diagnostics, biosensors, point-of-care testing, nanotechnology, and smartphone-based personalized healthcare monitoring and management.

Dr. Guido Krupp (Ph.D.) is CEO and president of AmpTec GmbH. In 1981 he received his Ph.D. degree (Würzburg University & Max-Planck-Institute Martinsried). From 1983 to 1987 he was post-doc at Yale University. From 1987 to 2002: research group leader at Kiel University. Founder of artus GmbH (year 1998) & AmpTec GmbH (year 2005). Research interests: nucleic acid technology with focus on RNA, plant pathogens (viroids), ribozymes and telomerase. More than 60 publications, editor of Ribozyme Biochemistry & Biotechnology, and of Telomeres, Telomerases & Cancer, in the editorial board of Biotechnology Annual Review; SAB member of Orthogenics AS, Tromso, Norway.

Nucleic acid technology with focus on RNA, plant pathogens (viroids), ribozymes and telomerase.

Prof. Fuad Fares has completed his D.Sc studies at the Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and postdoctoral studiesat the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis Missouri. He is the director of the Department of Molecular Genetics at Carmel Medical Center and associated professor at the Department of Human Biology, University of Haifa. He has published more than 75 papers in reputed journals and serving as a member of the Israel Council for Higher Education. He is the inventor of designing long-acting recombinant proteins and the initiator of PROLOR Biotech company.

His research interests include Molecular Endocrinology; Molecular Genetics; Apoptosis and cancer

Dr. Idress Hamad Attitalla, (Associate Professor) has completed his PhD at the age of 31 years from Uppsala University (Sweden) and postdoctoral studies from USM:: University Sains Malaysia. He is the director of Research and Study at Agriculture Research Center (ARC), and Scientific Consultant, Libya and director of departments of microbiology at (Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya). He published more than 65 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of repute, and 1 book in Arabic about Algae and 1 translated book about proteomic

Plant Pathology, Plant Microbiology, Molecular Evolution