Speakers

Yeşim AKTAŞ graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1994. She completed her master's degree in pharmaceutical technology at Hacettepe University and her doctorate at Hacettepe University and Paris Sud University. She has been a faculty member at Erciyes University, Faculty of Pharmacy and head of Department of Pharmaceutical Technology since 2010. Her research topics are ocular drug delivery, oral drug delivery, brain targeting, polymeric and lipid- based nano drug delivery systems.

Dr. Rita Ambrus, is an Associate Professor in Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Regulatory Affairs, University of Szeged. Professor Ambrus is also an experimental leader of Nanotechnological Research group of Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre University of Szeged. Her research interest is development of technological procedures (nano- and microparticle production) and alternative drug administration (pulmonary and intranasal) to reach improved bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. She published more than 180 research articles (IF: around 550; Q1/D1 type of publication: 130; first or corresponding author by 70 publications) with almost 2000 independent citations and her H index is 31. 

 She has active cooperation with national and international (8 active cooperation in Europe) higher education institutions and pharmaceutical industry partners. She is active member of the Spanish PhD Program Academic Commission (PPAC) in "Drug Research and Development" of the University of Santiago de Compostela and also a leading researcher of the Bulgarian "Strategic research and innovation program "Biomaterials and Nanostructure Drug Delivery" working group. She was a PI by Serbian, Slovenian and Croatian bilateral projects. She coordinated and managed the scientific work of 18 PhD students and 3 postdoctoral fellows. 

Dr. Rok Frlan is an Associate Professor and researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He earned his Master's degree in 2004 and his Ph.D. in 2009 from the same university, focusing on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of sulfonohydrazide inhibitors of Mur ligases.

Following his doctoral studies, he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Université Paris Descartes under the mentorship of Christine Gravier-Pelletier, where he furthered his expertise in the synthesis of MraY inhibitors. Throughout his academic career, dr. Frlan has been recognized for his innovative contributions, including receiving two prestigious Krka Awards and the National Gold Award for Innovation from the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce for his eco-friendly synthesis of sitagliptin.

As an Associate Professor, he teaches courses in pharmaceutical chemistry, laboratory biomedicine, and instrumental pharmaceutical analysis. An expert in bioinformatics, molecular modeling, and organic synthesis, dr. Frlan's main research objectives have focused on the design and synthesis of inhibitors targeting bacterial enzymes involved in bacterial cell wall synthesis, as well as the development of compounds for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

Andrea Heinz works as an Associate Professor in at the LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery, Department of Pharmacy of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She is a pharmacist and holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research aims to improve the treatment options for patients with recurring skin conditions such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and chronic wounds to ultimately improve their quality of life. To achieve that goal, her group focuses on the development of modern drug delivery systems providing possibilities for (I) enhanced drug permeation across the skin barrier and (II) tailored drug release corresponding to the patient’s individual disease state. Her research is cross-disciplinary, focusing on pharmaceutical scientific aspects such as formulation development and optimization, while making use of advanced analytical techniques for physicochemical and structural characterization in combination with data science to understand the structure, stability and drug release properties of the formulations.

Anssi-Pekka Karttunen graduated as a pharmacist in 2012 and completed a Ph.D. in Pharmacy in 2019, both at the University of Eastern Finland. Before and after completing the Ph.D., he worked in the pharmaceutical industry, handling tasks in R&D development, product lifecycle management, and technology transfer. These activities primarily focused on tablet products or nanosizing APIs for tablet production. During his Ph.D., he studied the continuous manufacturing of tablet products. Currently, he holds a position as a University lecturer at the University of Helsinki, splitting his time equally between teaching and research. His current focus areas include solubility enhancement, formulation of new materials, and development of new processes

Assist. Prof. Mirjam Gosenca Matjaž comes from University of Ljubljana, Faculty of pharmacy, where she works as a University teacher in different study programmes.

Her main research area within the Department of Pharmaceutical technology are advanced delivery systems, in particular for dermal application. Her work in this field focuses on two segments, namely the development and structural evaluation of delivery systems with main emphasis on lyotropic liquid crystals along with their biocompatibility evaluation on cell lines.

Zerrin Sezgin Bayındır is currently Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at Ankara University Faculty of Pharmacy. Her current studies are focused on targeting biomimetic nanoparticle systems to the brain for the treatment of neurological diseases, the use of targeted/stimulus-responsive nanocarriers in cancer treatment, increasing the oral bioavailability of active substances, transforming nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems into finished products and developing dermocosmetic formulations for the market. In addition to national collaborations, she has international joint studies with different researchers. She worked on nearly 20 granted projects and has many publications, oral / poster presentations presented in international congresses, patent applications, assistant and guest editorships in international journals. She has received many awards including, “TUBITAK Incentive Award-2023”, “TUBA Outstanding Young Scientists Award”, “Novartis Pharmaceutical Technology Research Award", Elsevier- "EJPB Highest Cited Article Award" and the “Best Poster Award” given by the British Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS). She has professional memberships such as membership of the Drug License Commission operating within the Ministry of Health, Turkish Pharmacopoeia Preparation Working Group Membership, ECZAKDER-International Activities Development Working Group Membership. She has served as scientific secretary, vice president, organization committee and scientific board member in national and international congresses.

Dr. Leena Peltonen (PhD, Pharm.) has educational background both in physical chemistry and in pharmacy. She received the doctoral degree in 2001, and the title of docent in 2004 from the area of pharmaceutical technology in the University of Helsinki, Finland. After her dissertation she initialized the nanotechnological research in the Division of Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Helsinki, and she is currently Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology in Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki. Her main research areas are nanoparticles, solubility enhancing technologies, physicochemical analysis, dissolution and solubility testing and physical pharmacy. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 10 book chapters and 2 patent

Kristiine Roostar holds an MSc in Pharmacy from the University of Tartu, completed in 2022. She currently works as a Junior Research Fellow in Pharmaceutical Technology and is a Doctoral Student at the Institute of Pharmacy, University of Tartu. Her research focuses on the development of pharmaceutical 3D printing and personalized medicine, a rapidly evolving field she finds both challenging and rewarding. Kristiine is passionate about laboratory research and teaching students.

Since November 2022, she has also been working as a pharmacist in a community pharmacy, where she enjoys advising patients on their health conditions and medication use.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristiine gained valuable experience as a nurse in the internal clinic at the University Clinic of Tartu, working with infectious disease patients. This experience solidified her desire to contribute to healthcare.

Kristiine's academic work includes participation in a research publication on community pharmacy service provision during the pandemic: "A qualitative study of the challenges in rearranging community pharmacy service provision during the COVID-19 public health emergency: The prism of social practice theory" (2021).

In her free time, she enjoys sailing and traveling.

Tamás Tábi was gradueted as pharmacist in 2001 and gained his PhD in 2006. Since his graduation he works at the Department of Pharmacodynamics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Currently he is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department and also holds the position of  the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University. He acts as the Secretary General of the Hungarian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences as well.

His research interest is in the multidisciplinary cross-section of pharmacology and bioanalytical fields. He develops and uses capillary electrophoresis methods for pharmacological research. Cytoprotective compounds and mechanisms, neurochemistry of neurodegeneration and pain transmission, as well as capillary electrophoresis analysis of drugs, amino acids and glycolipids in biological samples belong to his area of interest.

Anita Tuula is a pharmacist and PhD candidate. For several years, she worked as a pharmacist in a community pharmacy. In 2020, she started her pharmacy practice research journey at University of Tartu. Her work focuses on promoting medication adherence and medication safety in elderly polypharmacy patients through community pharmacist-led medication reviews. She is one of the coordinators of the medication review network in the Baltics and Eastern Europe. Anita’s other interests include medication adherence, pharmacy ethics and medication shortages. From 2024, she serves as a specialist of medication shortages at the Estonian State Agency of Medicines.

Annette Bauer-Brandl is an accredited pharmacist from Germany with a doctoral degree in Pharmaceutics (Dr.rer.nat.) on physical processes during tableting.

After holding several research positions in Wellcome (London, UK), Novartis (Basle CH), and at the University of Freiburg, Germany, she was appointed professor at University of Tromsø, Norway. There she was involved in starting the cand. pharm. curriculum; her current position in Odense also embraced the start-up of the cand. pharm. curriculum.

She is well-known for her awarded Handbook on Formulation, Manufacturing and Quality Assurance of Solid Dosage Forms (“Die Tablette”, 4^th ed. 2023). She serves at the EDQM (European Directorate for Quality of Medicines) in the Expert Group 12 (Dosage Forms and Methods).

Her research background is on the solid state of drug substances, the dissolution process and solvation of drug molecules. Currently her research interest focusses on prediction of oral bioavailability of drugs from formulations, especially for enabling formulations of poorly soluble drugs. Examples of study are enabling formulations such as amorphous solid dispersion (ASDs) based on polymers and surfactants, as well as cyclodextrin formulations and co-crystals. Her group has invented the artificial biomimetic membrane Permeapad® that allows permeation experiments under harsh conditions such as digestive processes. Alternative novel devices and set-ups to study dissolution / permeation simultaneously in more detail (e.g. Permealoop ™) or using high throughput formats (96 well plates) are being developed. Novel analytical tools to measure free drug concentrations are being also used and evaluated. These efforts are directed towards 3R: animal-free drug development by improved IVIVCs.

Dr Piotr Merks is a polish licensed Pharmacist, Adiunct Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Funder of The Polish Pharmacy Practice Research Ntwork (PPPRN), Sciencific Director of Piktorex limited company funded by the National Center for Research Development in Poland and Black Pearls VC. Holds international expertise in various pharmacy sectors: educational facilities, governmental and non-governmental bodies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, community pharmacies. As an educator and innovator Piotr works to empower pharmaceutical scientists and pharmacists as the future leaders in healthcare.

Piotr first started his career as a registered Pharmacist in the UK primary care setting delivering public health interventions to patient in underserved communities across the UK. It was his early experience in practice that inspired him to conduct research in social pharmacy, before moving into the academic sector full time in 2011. He went on to earn his Ph.D in pharmaceutical care services, at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, and achieved his degree in 2017.  Piotr launched the Polish Pharmacy Trade Union (ZZPF) to fight for the rights of employees in pharmacy sector in Poland. Since 2012 he raises awareness around the falsified medicines in Poland as an external independent expert.

Dr Merks has presented widely at national and international meetings and is a recognized leader across the pharmacy profession and, more widely, in science, pharmaceutical technology and innovation. He is also working closely with FIP on development of pharmaceutical pictograms, and Polish pharmacy sector as an advisor. In 2015, Piotr was appointed to the Board of Mazovian Pharmacy Chamber and International Affairs Section of the National Pharmacy Chamber in Poland and still works as a Delegate. Currently Piotr was responsible for National Pharmaceutical Care Pilot, and leading research in the area of Medicine Use Review, under supervision of Ministry of Health and Main Pharmaceutical Inspectorate.

His work, research and leadership, have been recognized internationally, and he is being invited to many international events as a guest speaker. Throughout his career Piotr has acted as a passionate advocate for the pharmacy profession and has partnered with stakeholders across sectors to align the pharmacy workforce with the Sustainable Development Goals to make an embracing change for the pharmacy as a profession. 

Associate Professor Mia Sivén's research focuses on sustainable dosage forms and manufacturing, regulatory science, and educational research. Her doctoral thesis in biopharmacy focused on the development of gastro-retentive dosage forms to enhance bioavailability, utilising a novel pharmaceutical excipient of nature origin. Throughout her career, she has pursued her passion for pharmaceutical dosage forms and processes, addressing the unmet needs of specific patient groups. She has supervised several theses in this area, the most recent of which focused on 3D printed age-appropriate dosage forms for pediatric patients. She has a broad methodological experience in pharmaceutical research, encompassing laboratory work and qualitative and quantitative research methods. Secondments to a pharmaceutical company in Ireland have deepened her understanding of industry operations and regulations. She has also been merited as an educator and developer of higher education, having been awarded the esteemed Fellowship of the Teachers’ Academy. In 2020, she was granted the Title of Docent in Industrial Pharmacy. Currently, she serves as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Helsinki. In 2024, she was appointed to the newly established Professorship of Sustainable Pharmacy. She emphasises the importance of a comprehensive approach to sustainable pharmacy, encompassing sustainability perspectives throughout the life cycle of medicines, and the significance of transdisciplinary collaboration

Tambet Teesalu is a cancer biologist and a Professor of Nanomedicine  and Head of the Laboratory of Precision- and Nanomedicine of the University of Tartu and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Materials Research Laboratory of the University of California Santa Barbara.  Tambet Teesalu is an internationally recognized leader in using in vivo peptide phage display to develop organ- and disease-specific homing peptides and to characterize vascular heterogeneity (“vascular ZIP codes”). His laboratory focuses on affinity targeting of drugs, imaging agents and nanoparticles to preclinical models of solid tumors and neurological diseases with homing peptides and peptidomimetic compounds.  He has authored ~100 peer-reviewed publications and his H-index is 52. Prof. Teesalu’s research is translationally oriented – he has 12 patented/pending inventions and he is a founder and major shareholder Nasdaq-traded Lisata Therapeutics that has a lead tumor penetrating peptide in a series in clinical trials, including phage 2b clinical trial for pancreatic cancer therapy.

Awards and recognitions: S. Komen for Cure Career development award (2010), ERC starting grant (2010), Wellcome Trust senior international fellowship (2010), EMBO installation grant (2010), Estonian National Prize in Medicine (2017), University of Tartu Annual Research Award (2021).