Jetty Chung-Yung Lee is a Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong. For over 25 years, her research work has been centred around lipids namely oxidized omega-fatty acids as specialized lipid mediators and biomarkers in human diseases. She has developed analytical methods in lipidomics that are applied in numerous model systems e.g. cells, rodent tissues and human biological fluids, and more recently in hepatopancreas, gonads and guts of marine species. Using robust analytical tools, she integrated the knowledge into her current research that focuses in oxidized lipid mediators in health and diseases, and the environment and marine ecosystem. To highlight, in recent findings, she found  omega fatty acids are good biomarkers to assess oxidative stress in mangrove crabs, oysters and corals.

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Gauthier schaal is an associate professor at UBO, whose research ranges from community ecology to physiology, with the aim of understanding how the diet of marine organisms contributes to influencing ecological processes structuring biological assemblages at different scales. He uses a variety of trophic ecology approaches, including lipids (fatty acids, sterols), stable isotopes (carbon, nitrogen, mercury) and trace metals, on biological models ranging from benthic invertebrates to pelagic top predators. Among his main scientific interests is the importance of understanding the metabolic mechanisms likely to affect the use of lipids as trophic biomarkers. The dynamic nature of interactions between dietary inputs and metabolic requirements confers on any biomarker a number of inherent limitations, the characterization of which is a prerequisite for any use in trophic ecology. These limitations also highlight the need to develop couplings between complementary approaches. However, the conceptual framework for integrating these different approaches has yet to be developed.

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Felisa Rey is a researcher at the Marine Lipidomics Laboratory (University of Aveiro and CESAM, Portugal). She holds a degree in Marine Sciences (University of Vigo, Spain) and a Master’s degree in Marine Resources (University of Porto, Portugal & University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain). During her PhD, Felisa focused on investigating the significance of maternal investment and larval life in marine invertebrates with bi-phasic life cycle. Her research delved into understanding how these factors influence early life phenotypes, survival, and recruitment. It was during this period that she became immersed in the field of lipidomics, which has since become her primary area of expertise.

Over the course of her academic and curricular path, Felisa has developed proficiency in analysing marine samples using a range of physiological, biochemical, and lipidomic approaches. This diverse skill set has provided her with a multidisciplinary scientific background, particularly in the study of marine invertebrates and macroalgae.

Felisa’s research extends to exploring marine lipids as sources of bioactive compounds for the development of innovative applications. Her current research interests include marine lipids, photosynthetic animals, marine invertebrates and fungi, and macroalgae. She aims to leverage these interests in the development of applications within the field of blue biotechnology, contributing to the sustainable and innovative use of marine resources.

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Ana Paula Alonso obtained her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D in Biological and Medical Sciences from the Université Victor Segalen in Bordeaux, France. After four years of postdoctoral training in oilseed metabolism (Michigan State University), and microbial metabolism (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Toulouse, France), she joined the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in 2008 as a Visiting Assistant Professor to work in the exciting field of biofuel research. In 2010, Dr. Alonso accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at The Ohio State University where she was the Director of the Targeted Metabolomics Laboratory; she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. Dr. Alonso joined the BioDiscovery Institute at the University of North Texas in 2018 and most recently appointed Associate Director of the BioDiscovery Institute; she is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the director of the BioAnalytical Facility. Her group uses innovative systems level approaches, such as metabolomics and ¹³C-fluxomics, to address global challenges related to food and energy security. One of her major research interests lies in storage lipids, i.e the production of (un)usual fatty acids in food crops (maize, soybean), and alternative crops with bioenergy/industrial applications (Physaria fendleri L., Thlaspi arvense L.).

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Dr Sarah Coffinet is an assistant professor at the University of Rennes (France) part of the ECOBIO laboratory. Her research lies at the interface between microbial ecology and organic geochemistry. Her main focus of interest is microbial metabolisms in anoxic environments and their role in the carbon cycle of wetland ecosystems. She studies how microbial diversity and activity influence organic matter dynamics and vice-versa. Her favorite tools are microbial membrane lipids that she uses to track microbial assimilation of carbon in ecosystems. She analyzes their structural diversity and carbon isotopic composition in natural sites such as peatlands or swamps. She also conducts incubations in controlled conditions with ¹³C-enriched substrates to follow the fate of major components of the carbon cycle such as CO₂, CH₄ or organic biopolymers.

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Frédéric Beaudoin is a senior scientist in the Plant Sciences Department at Rothamsted Research and an honorary professor at the School of Biosciences at the University of Nottingham. His main interests are in plant lipid metabolism and biotechnology. He has a wealth of experience in metabolic engineering of plants (oilseeds), yeast and microalgae including 15 years investigating the biosynthesis of very long chain fatty acids and their role in growth and development. Over the past 20 years, his main research projects have involved manipulating plant lipid composition to enhance human nutrition, as well as for the sustainable production of fuel, lubricants, and chemical feedstocks. More recently, he started using high throughput lipidomic profiling and association genetics methods (GWAS) to identify the genetic components that control variation of traits representing biorefining opportunities in the oilseed crop, B. napus. His current research interests include the biosynthesis of very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs), plant waxes and vegetable oil minor components such as phytosterols and tocopherols.

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Alexandre Rodrigues holds a licentiate degree in Microbiology and Genetics and a PhD degree in Cellular Biology / Biomedicine, awarded by the University of Lisbon. His PhD studies, developed at the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, focused on the regeneration capacity of aquatic animals. After his PhD, Alexandre worked as a research technician in two laboratories in Barcelona, before he moved back to Portugal to work as a post-doc at the University of Algarve.

In 2017, Alexandre started collaborating with Necton S.A. in the sales team, but soon was invited to be part of the Innovation Department, given his scientific background. He was involved in R&D projects’ management and application, contributing to the growth of the Department. With an increasing number of projects and team members, Alexandre was nominated Coordinator of the Department in 2022. In 2023, Necton acquired Allmicroalgae S.A. and merged both Innovation Departments, so Alexandre is now coordinating a team of 4 post-docs, 3 technicians and 4 PhD students, supervising research trials and managing R&D projects both technically and financially.

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Michel Linder is a professor at the University of Lorraine and teaches at the Ecole Nationale d’Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires (ENSAIA). He conducts his research on lipids at the Laboratory of Biomolecular Engineering (LIBio). For over 25 years, his research has focused on the valorization of marine co-products rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and peptide hydrolysates using green processes (enzymatic extraction, supercritical CO2). He is specializing in industrial process optimization (utilizing experimental and mixture design, which he also teaches at ENSAIA) and collaborates with colleagues from Hokkaido University in Hakodate, Japan, on marine resource valorization processes (including salmon co-products, squid, krill, sea cucumber, among others). He is particularly interested in marine polar lipids, naturally rich in LC-PUFAs (EPA and DHA), and in the formulation of nanovectors for the transport of hydrophilic or hydrophobic active molecules of interest – sought after in the food, nutraceutical, and sometimes health fields.

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