Soraya Taleb is a Research Professor at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (PARCC). Her research focuses on the role of immune responses in cardiometabolic diseases, including obesity and atherosclerosis, with a particular interest in how diet influences the gut microbiota and cardiovascular health. Her recent work has uncovered mechanisms linking dietary factors, microbiota composition, and cardiometabolic disease development.
Soraya Taleb has received several distinctions for her research, including awards from the French Society of Cardiology (2015 and 2021) and the French Academy of Medicine (2016). More recently, she was honored with the European Society of Cardiology Outstanding Achievement Award (2024) in recognition of her contributions to the field of cardiometabolism. Her research has been published in leading journals, including Nature Medicine, Cell Metabolism, Circulation, Circulation Research, and Cell Reports, among others.
Johannes Meiser is Head of the Cancer Metabolism group and Director of the Department of Cancer Research at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), with more than twelve years of experience in the field of mammalian cell metabolism. During his postdoctoral stays at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine and the CRUK Scotland Institute in Glasgow, which were both supported by competitive individual fellowships (FNR AFR Postdoc fellowship and DFG Research Fellowship), he specialized in the field of mammalian cell metabolism with a focus on cancer metabolism. His career was fueled by the uncovering of a new metabolic pathway for serine catabolism, a finding with which he significantly contributed to the advancement of the field. In 2018, he successfully transitioned to a Principal Investigator position at LIH, core funded by the FNR ATTRACT program, a 1.5 Mio €, 5-year tenure track program providing the opportunity to establish an independent research group. In 2022, he also built a Metabolomics facility at LIH providing cutting-edge Mass Spectrometry-based services. Since May 2024, his research team is core funded by an ERC consolidator grant. The expertise of his lab resides at the quantitative analysis of mammalian cell metabolism applying stable isotope-assisted metabolic flux analysis and analytical chemistry using mass spectrometry. This metabolic phenotyping is combined with cell biology and functional in vitro and in vivo models to study cancer plasticity in context of metastasis. A particular focus is set but not limited to folate-dependent serine metabolism.
Morten Scheibye-Knudsen is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. He combines computational approaches and wet lab science to investigate the molecular basis of aging and to develop interventions allowing us to live longer and healthier lives. He used machine learning to identify changes in mitochondria, the energy producing furnace of our cells, in genetic diseases where patients age rapidly. Here he linked DNA damage to loss of the central metabolite NAD+ and neurodegeneration, suggesting that increasing NAD+ could be therapeutic, a hypothesis he recently supported in a clinical trial of exsmokers suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly smokers lung. As a way to measure outcomes of aging interventions, his lab has developed algorithms using the shape of the nucleus of cells able to predict cellular senescence, a cellular state associated with aging where cells grow bigger and more inflammatory. He has linked this predictor to the risk of developing cancer in the future. Outside of his scientific approaches he organizes the yearly ARDD conference (www.agingpharma.org); is the CSO of the Healhty Longevity Clinic, act as a chief editor at Frontiers in Aging; and serve as the president of the Nordic Aging Society. He is an elected member of the Academy for Health- and Lifespan Research.
Birgitta van der Kolk is a metabolic researcher whose work focuses on the molecular mechanisms linking obesity to cardiometabolic disease and insulin resistance. Using detailed metabolic phenotyping, human intervention studies, and multi-omics approaches, Birgitta van der Kolk investigates adipose tissue and skeletal muscle metabolism, lipid handling, and mitochondrial function. Working with a unique cohort of identical twin pairs discordant for body weight, Birgitta van der Kolk aims to uncover the biological drivers of metabolic heterogeneity and identify molecular mechanisms underlying obesity, weight loss, and metabolic health.
MASTERCLASS
Matthijs van Haren is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Cantoni Therapeutics, the company he co-founded in December 2022. He holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Utrecht University. His PhD work focused on the development of small molecule inhibitors of methyltransferase enzymes for the treatment of cardiometabolic disease and oncology. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University on combatting antimicrobial resistance mechanisms through small molecule inhibition of metallo-beta-lactamase enzymes. Matthijs has over a decade of experience working on small molecule inhibitor development and in vitro and in vivo target validation and is co-inventor on the patents that resulted from his PhD and postdoctoral research, including the patent underlying Cantoni’s assets.
Cantoni Therapeutics is a Netherlands-based biotech company, founded in 2022 as a spin-out from Leiden University. It is pioneering the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors targeting nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) with best-in-class potential for the treatment of cardiorenal-metabolic diseases. NNMT is a metabolic enzyme linked to obesity and its comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, kidney disease and cardiovascular diseases. Cantoni’s novel, non-incretin bisubstrate inhibitors of NNMT have shown in preclinical studies to reduce body weight and fat mass, preserve lean mass and improve overall metabolic health by increasing energy metabolism. The company is actively progressing its lead programs toward clinical stage for the lead indication of obesity and its comorbidities.
Guido Krenning is Chief Scientific Officer of Sulfateq. Guido is a specialist in molecular biology with extensive experience in mitochondrial biochemistry and the cardiovascular field. Guido has a MSc degree in molecular biology and a PhD degree in medical sciences from the University of Groningen. Next to his involvement in the scientific developments at Sulfateq, Guido is leading a preclinical research group as principal investigator at the University Medical Center Groningen.
Sulfateq is an innovative privately held biotechnology company whose mission is to bring innovative treatments to patients in a wide range of therapeutic indications related to mitochondrial dysfunction. Inspired by natures natural mechanisms to cope with mitochondrial stress, Sulfateq develops phenotypic screening assays that allow for the
discovery of new chemical entities that improve mitochondrial function during chronic non
communicable diseases disease. Sulfateq is an early-stage biotech that specializes in the
discovery and development of first-in-class small molecules that facilitate mitochondrial
respiration (i.e. ATP production), mitigate mitochondrial damage or limit mitochondrial
oxidative stress. Sulfateq’ s lead compounds SUL-138(238), SUL-150 and SUL-151 are orally bioavailable and effective in preclinical models of diabetic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure and neurodegeneration. In these disease areas, a strong medical need exists in these disease areas, as currently approved treatments are symptomatic and associated with low median survival. The SUL compounds have a unique mechanism-of action and the potential to revolutionize the standard-of-care of diseases associated with a declined mitochondrial function.