Andrea Bonini received his PhD in Chemistry and Materials Science from the University of Pisa (UNIPI), Italy, in 2022, which included a research stay at ICN2 (Barcelona, Spain) in the Bioelectronics and Biosensors Group. He began his postdoctoral work in the Microbiology Section at UNIPI, and since January 2023, he has been part of the Single Molecule and Biophysics Group at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). His research focuses on developing electrochemical biosensors and single-molecule detection strategies using biological nanopores, aiming to overcome the limitations of conventional analytical techniques. In September 2025, he will be appointed as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Florence (Italy).

Elisa Michelini is associate professor in analytical chemistry at the Department of Chemistry “Giacomo Ciamician” of the University of Bologna (Italy). Her research activity deals with the development of optical biosensors, mainly relying on bio-chemiluminescence and colorimetric detection, for clinical diagnostics, water, environmental, and agro-food sectors. In the last ten years her activity has been also focused on smartphone biosensors, paper sensors and biosensors relying on 3D cell models. She is author of more than 100 articles on high impact journals (h-index 39) and her work has been cited more than 4700 times (Scopus). She has been trecipient of several awards including the Nanotech Applications Award (2009), Marlene DeLuca Prize (2012), Genelux Award (2014) and EPA Water Toxicity Sensor Challenge (2022). She coordinated a NATO-SPS project and has been deeply involved in projects funded by European Commission and PRIMA-Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area. She is associate Editor per Frontiers in Bioengineering and Member of the Advisory board of the Sensors & Diagnostic Journal (Royal Society of Chemistry).

Gabriel Ortega obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the Ramon Llull University, IQS School of Engineering and continued his scientific pursuits by completing his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and CIC bioGUNE, Spain. In 2016, Dr. Ortega joined the laboratory Prof. Kevin Plaxco at the University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center for Bioengineering (United States). In his postdoctoral research he advanced the development of aptamer-based sensors for continuous, real time in vivo measurements; developed new tools to study the biophysics of protein-surface interactions; and explored new strategies for optimizing the response of biomolecular receptors. In 2021, Dr. Ortega became an Ikerbasque Research Fellow in the Precision Medicine and Metabolism Lab at CIC bioGUNE. In 2022, he was awarded a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship, and he currently holds the position of Emerging Scientist.Dr. Ortega investigates the biophysical principles governing biomolecular function to develop innovative biomedical and biotechnological applications. His work spans extremophile adaptation, rare diseases, protein electrostatics, biosensors, and molecular engineering, with a focus on advancing personalized medicine through smart diagnostics and imaging technologies.

Fetah Podvorica is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Prishtina and Corresponding Member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova. Since 2014 he has been visiting professor at University of Paris, former University of Paris 7, and previously was visiting professor at Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie de Paris (ESPCI); during the period 2003-2013. He did his PhD thesis at the University of Paris 7 in 2000 and his Habilitation he obtained in 2010 at the University of Paris 6. His research interests include: electrochemical or chemical modification of material’s surfaces with 2D organic thin layers and their use for different applications; the use of Electro-Fenton method for the degradation of organic pollutants in waste water. He has 2 patents, 1 book and 4 book chapters, more than 50 published papers in peer review journals, H index: 26 and over 5900 citations (scholar). He was Associate Editor in the Springer journal, Chemistry Africa and is member of Advisory Boards of several journals.

Simona Ranallo is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Science and Technologies of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. During her PhD she was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA) and at the University of Montréal (Canada). As post-doc, she obtained her own funding through competitive individual fellowships: 2019 Umberto Veronesi Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Individual Global Fellowship for the development of novel optical and electrochemical DNA-based sensors for diagnostic applications. As part of her MSCA she spent two years as post-doc researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, working in the group headed by Prof. Kevin Plaxco. As an Assistant Professor she started a new line of research to develop cell-free systems for diagnostic and drug delivery applications. This line of research aims to merge the fields of DNA nanotechnology and synthetic biology by exploiting the high programmability of nucleic acids with the high specificity of cellular machinery. In 2024 she was awarded with an ERC Staring Grant from the European Research Council and with a FIS2 – Fondo Italiano per la Scienza from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR). Her trajectory has also been recognized with several awards, including: “2014 Best Thesis”, “2019 Primo Levi Award, post-doc category” and “Premio Cristina Giovannoli 2022”.

Dr. Alessandra Zanut is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Sciences (DiSC) of the University of Padova in the Analytical Chemistry group and co-founder of the start-up NanoPhoenix Srl, which develops micro- and nanostructured devices for life science applications. She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bologna (Italy) and after that she was granted the NYU Provost postdoctoral fellowship to work at the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (New York, USA). Her research focuses on the fabrication and characterization of nanostructured materials for advanced electrochemical (EC) and electrochemiluminescent (ECL) biosensors applied to health, environmental, and biochemical monitoring. A key aspect of her work is investigating ECL mechanisms underlying excited-state generation, utilizing both standard analytical devices and diverse molecular and micro/nanostructured components.