Confirmed Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Wei Wang

Wei Wang is a physician-scientist who applies large-scale glycomics to population and preventive health. Leading the Centre for Precision Health at Edith Cowan University, he studies immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation as a biomarker of ageing, suboptimal health status and chronic disease risk, and developed the concept of a glycan clock of ageing. He connects clinical glycan profiling with predictive, preventive and personalised medicine across international cohorts.

Professor of Global Health and Glycomics at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

Prof. Hans H. Wandall

Hans Wandall is professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and vice-director of the Copenhagen Center for Glycomics. Combining gene editing, glycoengineered cell lines, organotypic tissue models and mass spectrometry, his group maps the human glycogenome and defines how O- and N-glycans shape tissue development, cancer, inflammation and host-pathogen interactions, translating these insights into diagnostics, antivirals, vaccines and glycan-targeted therapies.

Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Prof. em. Dr. Markus Aebi

Markus Aebi is a pioneer of microbial glycobiology who used yeast and bacterial model systems to dissect the machinery of protein N-glycosylation. His group characterised the oligosaccharyltransferase complex, illuminated congenital disorders of glycosylation, and transferred the Campylobacter jejuni N-glycosylation system into Escherichia coli — the foundation of bacterial glycoengineering and recombinant glycoconjugate vaccines. He received the Society for Glycobiology Karl Meyer Award in 2013.

Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at ETH Zürich, Switzerland (retired 2020)

Prof. Matthew P. DeLisa

Matthew DeLisa is a leader in synthetic glycobiology who engineers the protein machinery of living cells to solve problems in biology and medicine. His group reprograms bacteria and cell-free systems to produce human-like glycoproteins, glycoconjugate vaccines and glycan-modified therapeutics, and develops glycoengineering tools for immunoengineering. He directs the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology and is a fellow of AAAS and the American Academy of Microbiology.

William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering at the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

Invited Speakers

Dr. Thomas Pohl

Thomas Pohl leads an analytical development team at Novartis responsible for the physico-chemical characterisation of biopharmaceuticals from early- to late-stage development. His work focuses on mass spectrometry-based characterisation of therapeutic proteins, including glycosylation and other post-translational modifications as critical quality attributes, and on implementing the multi-attribute method for routine quality control of biologics in an industrial setting.

Director Analytical Development, Biologics Technical Research and Development, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland

Julia Baumeister

Julia Baumeister investigates how Fc N-glycosylation governs the behaviour of therapeutic antibodies. Her research introduced the concept of glycan pairing, showing that symmetrical and asymmetrical glycan combinations on a single IgG molecule differently control mannose receptor-mediated clearance, Fc gamma receptor engagement and effector function. Using affinity chromatography, mass spectrometry and cell-based assays, she translates these findings into glycan-based quality attributes for biologics development.

Scientist, Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany

Dr. Bernd Stahl

Bernd Stahl has shaped human milk science for more than 30 years. Trained in analytical glycobiology at the University of Münster, he leads human milk research at Danone Research & Innovation, where his work on human milk oligosaccharides and other bioactive glycans informs next-generation infant nutrition. A recipient of the DGMS Mattauch-Herzog Award for Mass Spectrometry, he connects industrial research with academic glycoscience in Utrecht and Boston.

R&D Director Human Milk Research & Analytical Science, Danone Research & Innovation, and Affiliated Associate Professor of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Dr. Javier Sastre Toraño

Javier Sastre Toraño is an analytical chemist who leads the Analytical Glycoscience Group in the Department of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Utrecht University. His research tackles key challenges in glycan analysis, notably the accurate determination of glycan structures and their quantification, combining ion mobility spectrometry, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis and liquid chromatography to support glycoscience and pharmaceutical analysis.

Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Ruben R. Rosencrantz

Ruben Rosencrantz works at the interface of polymer chemistry, glycobiology and biotechnology. Trained in chemistry and biology at RWTH Aachen, where he earned his doctorate on glycobiomaterials, he now leads the Life Science and Bioprocesses Division at Fraunhofer IAP. His team uses chemoenzymatic synthesis to build glycopolymers and glycan-functionalised surfaces, translating the biological functions of sugars into materials for biosensing, medicine and sustainable applications.

Junior Professor of Biofunctional Polymer Materials at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and Director of the Life Science and Bioprocesses Division at Fraunhofer IAP, Potsdam, Germany

Prof. Dr. Kevin Pagel

Kevin Pagel develops analytical methods that resolve the structural complexity of carbohydrates. At Freie Universität Berlin and the Fritz Haber Institute, his group combines liquid chromatography, ion mobility-mass spectrometry and cryogenic gas-phase infrared spectroscopy to distinguish glycan isomers, anomeric configurations and regiochemistry that classical techniques cannot separate — enabling unambiguous sequencing of glycans, glycoconjugates and synthetic oligosaccharides.

Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany