President

Rima is currently a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and holds an adjunct professor appointment at the Biology Department of Western University. Her research program is focused on producing veterinary subunit vaccines and antibodies in plants with the goal of oral administration to animals as an inexpensive method to treat and/or prevent animal diseases

Treasurer/Membership secretary

Julian holds the Hotung Chair of Molecular Immunology at St. George’s, University of London. He is also Director of the Institute for Infection and Immunity. He has worked in the field of Molecular Farming for vaccines and antibodies since 1991 and has a particular interest in developing products for major infectious diseases affecting developing countries.

Secretary

Marc-André is Chief Scientific Officer of Aramis Biotechnologies, a company developing new approaches to vaccines and therapeutics using plant-based expression and manufacturing technologies. He studied plant biochemistry and molecular biology at Laval University and worked for 24 years with Medicago.

Past President

Inge is emeritus Professor at the University of Rostock. Her research is focussed on the usage of transgenic plants for a sustainable agriculture.  

During her carrier she pioneered the risk assessment on transgenic plants and developed new methods like the inducible male sterility in plants. Recent research is focussed on the production of vaccines and biodegradable polymers in transgenic plants.

Website Manager

Heribert is Professor for Plant Biotechnology and Metabolic Engineering at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. His main research interests are to understand how plants build complex metabolites with pharmacological properties and how to engineer novel pathways.

Communication Officer

Jenni is a Research and Development Scientist at Cape Biologix, Cape Town. Her work focuses on the development of plant-made diagnostic reagents and kits for Africa in Africa.  Her passion lies with providing affordable and effective vaccines and diagnostic reagents/kits in low-to-middle-income countries.

Communication Officer

Sancha owns the consultancy company chart Biotechnology, which focuses on commercial evaluation and support to development of innovative early stage research technologies and products. She worked as a scientist in plant gene regulation. Her interests are Molecular Farming, medical use of plant-derived products and efficient bioprocesses. She did her PhD research project at the John Innes Institute (1992) and has an MBA from TiasNimbas University (2003,NL).

Communication Officer/

Chief Twit

Hadrien is Assistant Professor of Plant Virology and Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham, in the UK. Along with research on the molecular biology of plant viruses, Hadrien’s research focuses on plant transient expression vectors and their use for the production of high-value proteins. In particular, plant-produced virus-like particles (VLPs) and VLP-based technologies have been a big focus of his research.

Society Awards Manager

Kirsi-Marja (PhD Pharm) is a Senior Adviser in the Industrial Biotechnology and Food Solutions research area at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. and adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki. Her research interest focuses on understanding the complexity of biosynthetic pathways of plant secondary metabolism at systems level.

Communication Officer

Eugenio is Senior Scientist, Laboratory of Biotechnology Head at ENEA, Biotechnology and Agroindustry Division, Italy. He has thirty years experience in genetics and molecular biology. His fields of interests are agrobacterium-mediated plant gene transfer, plant virology, and antibody engineering. 

Administrative Support

Sarah is a Science Support Administra tor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. She has worked supporting science for more than 20 years and has extensive experience in organising conferences and online events.

Conference Manager

Diego Orzáez is a Scientific Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and co-leads the Plant Genomics and Biotechnology Group at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Plant Biology (IBMCP) in Valencia, Spain. His lab specializes in Plant Synthetic Biology, focusing on genetically reprogramming plants to enhance the production of high-value bioproducts. Diego is also co-founder of two spin-off companies in the field of Molecular Farming.

2014 - 2016

2016 - 2018

2018 - 2021

2021 - 2024

Communication Officer 2014 - 2024

Communication Officer/Conference Organizer 2014 - 2024

Deputy Secretary 2021 - 2024

Secretary 2014 - 2018