Fernando Albericio got his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Barcelona (UB) under the guidance of Ernest Giralt.  After several postdoctoral stays at Tufts University (Victor Najjar); Université d’Aix-Marseille (Jurphass van Rietschoten); and University of Minnesota (George Barany) he returned to Barcelona in 1985 as an Associate Professor at the UB. From 1992-94, he was Director of Peptide Research at Millipore in Boston. He rejoined the UB after this period and was promoted to Full Professor in 1995. From 2003-2015, he was Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB).  From 2014-2015, he was founder Rector of Yachay Tech, a university in Ecuador.  Since 2016, he is Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa), where he has created the Peptide Science Laboratory.

Fernando has published more than 900 refereed papers, book chapters, and proceedings, edited 1 book, filed 60 patents, and has served as advisor for 72 Ph.D. students in different universities.

His major research interests cover practically all aspects of peptide synthesis (new reactions, building blocks, coupling reagents, solid phase supports, protecting groups, and linkers), as well as synthesis of peptides and small molecules with therapeutic activities (cancer and infectious diseases).  Furthermore, his group is also involved in developing new systems for drug delivery and strategies for diagnostics as well.  Lastly, he was working in the development of multicomponent platforms for the preparation of bioconjugates.

More than 30 of the commodities developed by his group has reached the market: PAL-linker, PEG-PS-resin, ChemMatrix resin, Cys(Phacm), Cys(Dpm), Cys(SDmp), OxymaPure, K-Oxyma, Oxyma-B, COMU, PyAOP, PyClock, PyOxim, allyl based orthogonal chemistry, and green chemistry technologies associated to solid-phase peptide synthesis, among others.

Fernando is deeply involved in the creation of the Entrepreneurial University in Spain, in Latinoamerica, and, presently, in South Africa. He participated in the foundation of the Barcelona Science Park (BSP), taking on various responsibilities, and served as General Director of this organization from 2005-2012.  During his tenure at the BSP, he catalyzed the creation of almost 100 start-up companies.  He is also co-founder of Biotechnology Incubator Durban (BID).

Dr. Brunello Nardone was awarded a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (2014) from the University of Salerno (Italy). He spent the last year of his PhD at the IRB Institute (Barcelona) under the supervision of Prof Fernando Albericio to work on peptide synthesis and native chemical ligation.

After a postdoctoral experience at the University of St Andrews and University of Oxford in the group of Prof Jim Naismith, he joined NPL as peptide chemist in the Biometrology group.

In 2019 he has joined CEM Corporation as Life Science sales technical specialist.Dr Nardone is an expert in chemistry with over 10 years of experience in the peptide and bio-organic research field. 

Brunello was awarded a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (2014) from the University of Salerno (Italy) working on the synthesis, structure and properties of cyclopeptides and cyclopeptoids. He spent the last year of his PhD at the IRB Institute (Barcelona) under the supervision of Prof Fernando Albericio to work on peptide synthesis and native chemical ligation. 

In 2014-2018 he did a 4 year postdoctoral experience at the University of St Andrews and University of Oxford in the group of Prof Jim Naismith and his main project was focused on the chemoenzymatic synthesis of patellamides. He patented a novel one-pot methodology for the solid-phase synthesis of cyclic peptides.  

In 2018 he joined NPL as senior peptide chemist and peptide facility manager in the Biometrology group. In 2019 he has joined CEM Corporation as Life Science sales technical specialist. He developed the life science market in the field of microwave synthesis and peptide arrays and he expanded the European peptide network co-organising 6 peptide conferences which involved academia and the biotech industry.

In 2022, Brunello joined SiliCycle Inc. where he works as business development manager  on the commercialization of functionalized silica for catalysis, metal scavenging (flow, batch) and purification of a broad range of molecules.

Wendy Hartsock, PhD is the Director of Scientific Acceleration and Life Science Marketing Director for CEM, USA. Dr. Hartsock received her PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Kansas under the guidance of Prof. Jane V. Aldrich, where she developed peptide-based tools to study the opioid receptors. She continued her education in peptide science with Prof. Robert S. Hodges at the University of Colorado working towards the development of universal vaccines against influenza as well as antimicrobial peptides to treat resistant bacterial infections. 

Dr. Hartsock is the Co-Chair of the 2022 Chemistry and Biology of Peptides Gordon Research Conference and holds organizational roles with the American Peptide Symposium (APS), Boulder Peptide Symposium, TIDEtalks, SyntheSips, and the European Peptide Synthesis Conference. She is also a councilor for the American Peptide Society as well as chair of the fundraising committee for the APS.