Dr. Zhong Lin Wang is the Director of the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, and Regents’ Professor and Hightower Chair at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Wang pioneered the nanogenerators field for distributed energy, self-powered sensors and large-scale blue energy.

Dr. Wang has received the Nano Research award (2022), Celsius Lecture Laureate, Uppsala University, Sweden (2020); The Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2019); Diels-Planck lecture award (2019); ENI award in Energy Frontiers (2018); The James C. McGroddy Prize in New Materials from American Physical Society (2014); and MRS Medal from Materials Research Soci. (2011). Dr. Wang was elected as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009, member of European Academy of Sciences in 2002, academician of Academia of Sinica 2018, International fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering 2019. Dr. Wang is the founding editor and chief editor of an international journal Nano Energy, which now has an impact factor of 19.0.

Haruko Takeyama received her Doctorate in Engineering at the Department of Biotechnology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 1992. From 1991 to 1994 was a research fellow at the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.  In 2005 she became Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Since 2007, Professor Takeyama, has been at Waseda University, Advanced Science and Engineering, Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience. She is Director for the Integrated Institute for Regulatory Science, Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, Waseda University from 2009.  Since July 2016, she has been appointed as Director for AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) and Waseda University Computational Bio Big-Data Open Innovation Laboratory and a Joint Appointed Fellow of AIST.

Her research areas are Environmental Science, Microbiology, Biotechnology and Genome technology. Her current research interests are Utilization of Environmental bio/gene resources, Metagenomic analysis, Single cell analysis and development of supporting technologies.

She was president of the Asia-Pacific Marine Biotechnology association, and vice president of the International Marine Biotechnology Association.

Shugo Watabe graduated from Department of Fisheries Science, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, in 1971, and received his Doctorate at the same University in 1976. He was enrolled as Professor at Department of Aquatic Biosciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, from 1994 to 2012, and as Professor and Project Professor at Kitasato University School of Marine Biosciences from 2012 to 2022. He was Visiting Scientist, College of Agriculture, Faculty of Food Science, The University of Arizona, USA, from 1983 to 1985. Since 2012, he has been Honorary Professor, The University of Tokyo, and Technical Advisor, Suzuhiro Kamaboko Honten, Co., Litd. He became Visiting Professor, Kitasato University School of Marine Biosciences, in 2022.

His research areas are Marine Biochemistry, Food Science, and Biomineralization. His current research interests are Effective Utilization of Marine Bioresources, Health Benefits of Marine Foods, Marine Metagenomics, and Pearl Formation.

He was Chair of World Fisheries Congress in 2008 (Yokohama) and Vice President of World Congress of Fisheries Societies from 2012 to 2016.

Professor Jeon was awarded his doctorate from the Department of Chemistry, Pukyong National University, Korea. After working in Canada in the Department of Biochemistry,  Memorial University of  Newfoundland, and the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Alberta, he returned to Korea. He is currently at the Jeju National University and is CEO of two companies. He has co-authored over 600 publications, has been cited over 34,000 times and has an h index of 91.

Prof Jeon’s research interests are in Health Functional Food where he has found compounds from Ecklonia cava with potent antiproliferative and antiradical activities; Dieckol isolated from E. cava has potential whitening effects and prominent protective effects on UV-B radiation-induced cell damage, which might have pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical applications. The potential antioxidant activities of three phlorotannins purified from Ecklonia cava, collected in Jeju Island, were evaluated for their potential value in food or cosmetic applications.

His contributions include the application of chitinous products to foods and pharmaceuticals, due to the antibacterial effect of chitooligosaccharides; Chitosan as an edible coating enhances the quality of seafoods during storage, as well as reduces lipid oxidation and growth of microorganisms.

He has also found that the profound functional properties of fucoidans have proven to be invaluable and could have potential industrial applications as natural functional ingredients with health benefits. For example, they advocate using fucoidans as a useful therapeutic approach for various inflammatory diseases.

Professor Jeon is a Member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and is a past President of the Korean Society for Marine Biotechnology.

Xiaoke Hu, Professor of Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology.

She serves as the Dean of the Laboratory of Coastal Biology and Biological Resources Conservation. She is also a member of the Chinese Society of Microbiology and Marine Biological Resources Committee. She is the editor of Frontiers in Microbiology and ISME Journal Communication. She serves as a PI for more than 30 research projects with a total of more than 50 million rmb. She published more than 120 research papers, one book in Chinese and 5 chapters in English. She was granted 25 patents. She received 6 major awards in China. She was granted the State Council special allowance.

Her research interests include: the exploration of marine functional microorganisms and application of biotransformation technology; microbial ecology and restoration of seagrass bed; development of biological products based on coupling technology of enzyme catalysis and microbial fermentation.

Pia is a marine molecular ecologist, taking sources of novel biochemistry from the oceans to the human world. Her focus has gone from fundamental ecosystems research, to applied technology development in integrating marine sourced materials into biotechnology applications with a focus on human nutrition, health and medicine.

Currently Pia is in the commercialisation phase and is progressing to the scaling up of a platform of technologies, from the primary production source, the refinery for the production of a specific marine molecules and ingredients, as well as products and partnerships for market entry and expansion.

Professor Zhang  is  an inspiring leader in marine biorefinery and bioproduct development technologies, and he has passionately pursued an overarching career driving translational research with industry impacts.   

An entrepreneurial academic champion, Wei’s vision to connect formerly disparate marine bioproducts research and commercial sectors led to growing Australia’s industry R&D capability and market impacts into a new 3rd-Gen marine bioproducts industry,  sustainably utilising Australian untapped marine bioresources.   

He was the driving force behind ground-breaking work in functional foods, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and biomaterials, leading to the successful $270m Marine Bioproducts CRC.  Wei’s advanced bio-refinery technologies  allow  Australia to use untapped  unique  marine  bioresources  sustainably, creating new sectors for Australia’s research ecosystem and economy.

Dr. Wang started her career as a shrimp researcher in 2000 as a Master student and continued to obtain her Ph.D. in 2007 from National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan. She extensively used proteomics and structural biology to study the pathogenesis of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) that caused white spot disease (WSD) in shrimps. After graduating from NTU, Dr. Wang joined as a post-doctoral fellow at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan where she focused on shrimp immunity and transcriptomics. Later she joined National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in 2008. Her hard work and perseverance, led to her growth in career to becoming a Distinguished Professor by 2020. Apart from research, she currently holds the University Library Curator position at the NCKU from 2019~2023. Dr. Wang and her team have published over seventy SCI research papers since 2008.

Dr. Wang’s motivation is that although shrimp aquaculture is one of the most important economic activities in East Asia, it is severely threatened by pathogenic diseases, including those caused by viruses (e.g., WSD) and bacteria, in particular, acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND). She uses an integrated systems-biology and omics approach, including metabolomics and lipodomics, to study the complex biological phenomena of WSD and AHPND pathogenesis. Her effort is not only restricted to science but also to develop disease control strategies that are effective and eco-friendly. To accomplish this, a comprehensive scientific knowledge is essential, therefore, she always looks for ways to apply scientific findings to address the problems of shrimp diseases; the shrimp aquaculture industry has been profited from being able to use some of her discoveries in developing biosecurity management plans.

Dr. Wang is recognized as an outstanding young researcher and has received several awards from her university, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan as well as The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). From 2022, Dr, Wang now is also the expert of OIE reference laboratories for white spot disease (WSD) and acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND). She also serves as a member of the editorial board of two well-regarded scientific journals (Developmental and Comparative Immunology [DCI] & Fish and Shellfish Immunology [FSI]), one of five board members of the International Society of FSI, the chair of the Nimaviridae study group of the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), a member of the Executive Committee of the Fish Health Section (FHS) and Vice President of the Thirteenth Council of the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS) Executive Committee.

1994                    PhD: Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, UK.
2002-                  Group Leader IMB
2013-2015          ARC DORA Fellow
2017-                   Director of the Centre for Solar Biotechnology

Pierre Erwes is an oceanographer, an engineer in IT and Robotics with a master in pharmaceutical marketing. He is an entrepreneur with more than thirty-five years of international experience, primarily in the areas of marine bio resources and new technologies. He exercised managerial responsibilities in several companies and international groups.

From 2005 to 2008, under the chairmanship of Raymond Barre the former Prime Minister of France, Pierre Erwes worked at the Scientific Foundation of Lyon, during which he supported the development of innovative projects, oversaw the organization of BioVision (the World Life Sciences Forum), BioSquare (a biotech convention), and created the first BioMarine event in 2008.  Soon after, Pierre developed BioMarine independently and built and international network, quickly recognized as the broker for innovation, international collaborations, and investment in the marine bioresources industry.

BioMarine is recognized as the first and only industry and investment platform dedicated to marine bio resources. Since 2008, it has significantly contributed to the economic development of several blue regions and countries.

In 2013 Pierre Erwes launched the BioMarine International Cluster’s Association. Under the honorary chairmanship of HSH prince Albert II of Monaco, BICA’s mission was to foster new direct business opportunities based on direct interregional and blue cities collaboration. BICA benefited from a strong international business platform and an intensely networked set of marine bio-clusters. In 2018 he merged under the same umbrella “BioMarine Online Community” BICA, BioMarine Convention, MyBlueCity and BioMarine Consulting. The new entity will support and accelerate business ventures and facilitate the financing of transnational projects.

After the 2018 BioMarine convention, Pierre Erwes initiated a blue bioplastic consortium, which brought together technology providers, raw material producers, and large industry players. This consortium has already received support from governments and industry key players. In addition to finding sufficient sources of seaweed for the consortium, Pierre Erwes has also launched an international seaweed organization. This organization draws on regional cooperatives of producers from Quebec, Mexico, French Polynesia, Alaska, Norway, Portugal, Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand, as well as key industry leaders from the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and nutrition, and space industries.

In 2019, Pierre Erwes participated to the EU report on cellular mariculture and the disruptive aspects of the fish grown cell and cell plant technologies.  A new consortium was subsequently launched to allow industry players to financially de-risk the technology and allow international interactions.

In 2020, in partnership with Isabelle de Cremoux, the CEO of Seventure Partner (an investment firm that has already 1.1 b € under management), Pierre began to work on the launch of “Blue Forward”, a private equity fund dedicated to the blue economy. The fund invests in innovative blue companies to relieve pressure of human activities on the planetary boundaries. The fund aggregates the companies’ outcomes on measurable environmental KPIs.

Since 2008, Pierre Erwes has supported the development of over 40 SMEs from the BioMarine network by raising capital, developing new contracts, and opening new markets around the world. He is now ready to accelerate the companies which received funding form Blue Forward and participate to their global deployment.

Professor Haygood has investigated symbiosis between marine microbes and animals for more than 30 years, focusing on bioactive metabolite symbioses, in which microbial symbionts of marine invertebrates biosynthesize secondary metabolites, often for chemical defense. She uses the tools of microbiology, molecular biology, chemistry and advanced microscopy to investigate these systems, collaborating with chemists, to forge a comprehensive understanding of symbiotic metabolites, and use these insights for drug discovery and development.

A good example of this is her group’s recent work on shipworms, bivalve mollusks with a unique symbiosis with bacteria. Careful investigation of the biology of this system has led to a string of discoveries. The synthesis of this knowledge has led to a model in which the bacteria contribute antimicrobials to sequester food resources from competition. This reveals the shipworm symbionts as an untapped and tractable resource for discovery of new antibiotics. Two of the compounds from the shipworm symbionts are now in development for clinical use.

Professor Haygood was recently the director of the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont ICBG  (2008-2020), an international, multi-institutional collaboration focused on drug discovery from Philippine mollusk symbionts, biodiversity research and conservation and development of research capacity in the Philippines. In the latter area, we trained more than forty young researchers in the Philippines and the US. The project produced many publications in basic research, discovered novel lead compounds, trained Philippine researchers and strengthened research capability in the Philippines and improved knowledge of the biodiversity of marine mollusks. Collaborations that support researchers in developing countries in becoming self-sufficient in discovering and developing their biological resources will lead to a wealth of valuable discoveries.

Dr. Michèle Prinsep received her BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees from the University of Canterbury, where she studied the isolation and structural elucidation of biologically active secondary metabolites from sponges and bryozoans under the supervision of Professors Blunt and Munro. She undertook postdoctoral research on cyanobacteria with Richard Moore at the University of Hawaii before returning to New Zealand to take up a lectureship at the University of Waikato, where she is currently an Associate Professor.

Michèle’s current research interests include isolation and structural elucidation of marine natural products and their applications to horticulture, agriculture and biomedicine, chemical ecology, especially concerning predator-prey relationships in nudibranchs and bioactive compounds from terrestrial endophytic fungi. She is a key author of the highly cited review on marine natural products published annually in Natural Product Reports, a member of the editorial board of Marine Drugs and a Fellow and Council member of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC).

Dr Kirsten Benkendorff is a Professor of Marine Science at Southern Cross University who leads interdisciplinary research teams and mentors students to undertake rigorous evidence-based research. She has authored over 150 scientific papers and supervised 44 PhD and Masters research students to completion.

Kirsten’s research focuses on the nutritional and medicinal properties of marine species and how these are impacted by a range of environmental stressors, including climate change and pollution. She works with the fisheries and aquaculture industry, government agencies, traditional owners and community groups to find solutions to environmental problems.  Her contributions to science have been recognised in several awards including the 2000 Young Australian of the Year for Science and Technology and the 2011 Australian Academy of Science Dorothy Hill Award for marine and earth science. She has also been named as a 2023 Superstar of STEM. Kirsten hopes that her current research will influence policies on water quality management and pesticide regulation, in order to keep our seafood safe and healthy.

Dr. Yonghua Sun is a Professor of Fish Molecular Development and Biotechnology in the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the founding director of the National Aquatic Biological Resource Center, and the founding director of the China Zebrafish Resource Center (http://zfish.cn), which has been recognized as one of the major resource centers in global zebrafish community.

Dr. Sun’s research mainly focuses on fish germ cell development and directional breeding of fishes. He headed the Zebrafish All-Gene Knockout Project, and realized the surrogate reproduction of genome edited sperm from another subfamily. He has published more than 110 papers in internationally recognized journals.

Dr. Sun serves as a Board Director of the International Zebrafish Society and Vice President and Secretary General of China Zebrafish Society. He has been awarded the National Science Funds for Excellent Young Scholars and the National Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Dr Sasimanas Unajak is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University and also holds the position of Director of the Kasetsart Vaccine and Bio-product Innovation Center or KU-VBIC.

Her background is in biochemistry and her research mainly focuses on aquatic animal health management. Therefore, she has fundamental expertise on diseases/isolation of pathogens which leads to advanced expertise in the development of several biologics to control aquatic animal disease.

Currently, her Center is fully developed and utilized. It is a platform for rationale fish vaccine design, and has introduced several fish vaccines, probiotics for control shrimp disease, and onsite disease detection.

Mike Packer is an algal biotechnologist with a background in redox biochemistry and cell biology. Mike’s research has centered around using algae, micro- and macro-, and other aquatic photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria, to an aim to help reduce human environmental impact and make the lives of people better.

His projects have included those on; farming algal species on different scales, photobioreactor and algal production technology, carbon recycling/capture, algal harvesting and dewatering technology, renewable bioenergy production, bio-based materials, bioremediation, animal feed and feed supplements for aquatic and terrestrial animals and endangered species (e.g. eel larvae), healthy and functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals and cosmetic ingredients, biomass conversion technologies and green chemistry extraction of useful metabolites.

This includes investigating how those metabolites interact with physiological and biochemical systems drawing on experience with cellular signaling/communication and bioenergetic systems, especially in mammalian stem and progenitor cells.

Mike drove biotechnological uses of algae and lead the Cawthron Aquaculture Park algae production unit in Nelson, New Zealand until the end of 2022. He has recently established Algavive Limited, to consult with and aid industry with biotechnology projects through innovative products, value chain design and project implementation.

Prof. Iwane Suzuki is currently serving as a Professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.

He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry, which he obtained from the University of Nagoya in 1995. Prior to his current position, he held various academic positions, including Research Associate at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Japan, and Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba.

With over 27 years of experience as a practicing researcher, Prof. Suzuki has made significant contributions to the field of acclimation to changes in environmental conditions of photosynthetic organisms. His research focuses on understanding how photosynthetic organisms adapt and respond to changes in their environment.

His research has been recognized with numerous honors and distinctions, including the Academic Award from the Japanese Society of Marine Biotechnologists, the Excellent Young Researcher Award from the Japanese Society of Botanists, and the Best Faculty Member award from the University of Tsukuba.

With over 20 years of experience of research in the seaweed industry, she has a comprehensive understanding of commercial seaweed extract applications, highly cited peer reviewed scientific publications and patents. Her areas of expertise lie in polymers for biomedical applications, with a focus on natural polysaccharides from marine macroalgae. She is a world-leading authority on fucoidan compounds.

As Australia increases the supply of macroalgae, there is increasing need to focus on extraction and application of both existing and novel compounds. Dr Fitton works with Venus Shell Systems and is a member of the scientific advisory committee for the Blue Economy CRC.

Dr Fitton holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester, a MSc from University College London and a PhD in Applied Chemistry from Aston University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dietmar W Hutmacher, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Regenerative Medicine at the Queensland University of Technology and is founding director of the Max Planck Queensland Centre for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices.  After building a successful career of more than 10 years in industry, Prof Hutmacher decided to pursue his long-term aspiration to foster a legacy in academia. He was awarded his PhD in 2001 at the age of 38. Hence, his academic career is less than 25 years young, yet he is one of the world’s most highly cited researchers with substantial influence across interdisciplinary research fields. In 2018, he was awarded the Ramaciotti medal for excellence in biomedical research and granted a Humboldt Lifetime Research Award while being listed as one of the 10 scientist/bioengineers (and the only non-US academic) who will shape the Biofabrication landscape in 2019 in a survey report of the world-leading Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute. He is a “Highly Cited Researcher” (Clarivate Analytics). His direct research contributions leading to pre-eminent international standing and impact is illustrated by his publication record (> 320 journal articles, 14 books, 34 book chapters and >500 conference abstracts) and citation record (Google Scholar: total > 70,600; h-index 129and > 32,000 citations since 2018; h-index 86, i10-index 349 since 2018).

Professor Colin Barrow is Alfred Deakin Professor and Chair of Biotechnology at Deakin University. His research focuses on food, agricultural and marine biotechnology. He is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Bioproducts and a Program Leader for the Marine Bioproducts CRC. He has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications with over 24,000 citations.

Dr Chang-Yun Wang is a Professor of marine medicinal chemistry at the Ocean University of China. He received his Ph.D. degree in marine drugs from Ocean University of China, Qingdao in 1999. From 2000 to 2002, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany, as a ‘German Academic Exchange Service’ (DAAD) fellow. Since 1995, he is a professor at Ocean University of China. His research interests include marine natural products chemistry, marine medicinal chemistry, and marine medicinal bioresources. He is a member of the Commission of Marine Drugs Special Committee, Pharmaceutical Association of China, and a senior adviser of the Council of Marine Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Society, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Association of China. He is also the editorial director of Chinese Marine Materia Medica, an editor of Marine Drugs, and the former section editor of Marine Life Science & Technology. Dr. Wang has been in charge of several important projects in China, such as 863 key projects and NSFC key projects. Up to date, he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and books.

Dr Song Qin, obtained Ph.D. degree in marine biology from Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994, is now deputy director and professor of Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research fields of Dr. Qin include: Genomics, Evolution, Genetic engineering, Phycobiliprotein, Lipid and carotenoid biosynthesis, Algae and microalgae bioenergy, and Molecular oceanography interdisciplinary research with colleagues around the world. He is the former President of Asia Pacific Society of Applied Phycology (APSAP) and Asia Pacific Society of Marine Biotechnology (APSMB) and now serves as Chairman of International Marine Biotechnology Association (IMBA). Since the 1990s, Dr. Qin has authored or co-authored more than 300 research articles and books, and his systematical research on molecular phycology and product engineering has revealed the distribution of algae resources in China under the influence of global climate change and human activities, stimulated the industrialization of microalgae, and promoted the upgrading of marine functional protein industry.

Lone Høj is a microbial ecologist who received her Doctorate from the Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway, in 2006. She is a Research Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, where she applies the principles and methods of microbial ecology to study tropical aquaculture systems.

Her early research projects in this field included investigations of microbial communities associated with wild and cultured larvae of the tropical rock lobster (Panulirus ornatus), their natural prey items, and their aquaculture environment. This work led to studies of the biology, ecology and genomics of the new pathogen species Vibrio owensii, the development of molecular tools for pathogen identification and monitoring, and the development of alternative microbial management protocols including the use of seawater ozonation, probiotics, bacteriophage, quorum sensing inhibitors and photodynamic chemotherapy. She currently leads a multi-disciplinary research project focused on the development of coral diets and probiotics for use in large-scale aquaculture production of coral for reef restoration purposes.

Professor Min Zhou achieved his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Shandong University in 1999 and obtained his PhD degree in Shandong University in 2006. He worked as a postdoc and instructor for several years at Ruhr University Bochum and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX., before joining Zhejiang University in 2016. He devotes himself to multidisciplinary research and education for molecular imaging and biomaterials, leading the team to make outstanding progress in the field of translation medicine. In recent years, he has initiated and demonstrated the several clinical trials of biomaterials technology and has accelerated the translational research of microalgae-based drug delivery system in the world. He has established a research system of multidisciplinary drug delivery platform based on microalgae for various clinical applications. He has more than 50 research papers published on journals with impact factors higher than 10.0, such as Advanced Materials, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials, Biomaterials (Journal of International Biomaterial Society), ACS Nano et al. These research achievements are specially commented by Nature Medicine, Nature website, and Science website.

Professor Catriona Macleod is the interim Executive Director at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. She is a benthic ecologist with more than 20 years’ experience in environmental impact assessment, system-wide interactions and natural resource management, particularly as this relates to sustainable development in marine and coastal systems, and science-based management and decision-making. Catriona has been a key investigator on 30 industry/government collaboration projects, a research leader in three CRCs (Aquaculture, Aquafin and Seafood), is involved in numerous industry and government advisory groups and is on the boards of New Zealand King Salmon and the Australian Sustainable Seaweed Alliance. She currently leads the sustainable production program within the Marine Bioproducts CRC, helping to support the development of marine biotechnology industries in Australia.

Associate Professor Kirsten was Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Marine Bioproducts Development, Flinders University and the Research Director of the China-Australia joint laboratory for Native Bioresource Industry Innovation (CANBI²).

As a recognised leader in Environmental, Industrial and Medical Biotechnology, Kirsten’s research focuses on closed system approaches using high-yield microbes in environmental, aqua- and agricultural and commercial applications for developing renewable products and sustainable industries.

Kirsten has held several roles in education and training including Course Coordinator of The Master of Biotechnology, Flinders University; and Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University.
In her current role she manages the Connect, Educate and Train (CET) Program of the Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Centre.

Dr Damien Belobrajdic graduated with a PhD in Nutritional Physiology from Adelaide University in 2004 and is currently a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Health & Biosecurity where he leads multidisciplinary research projects that investigate how food and food components modulate gut and metabolic health. His current research efforts focus on determining the nutritional and health benefits of alternate protein sources such as algae, insects and cereals. Damien has produced 43 refereed publications and has a Google Scholar H-index of 23 (>2,000 citations). Currently he is the Honourable Treasurer of the Nutritional Society of Australia and recently served on the board for Science Technology Australia (STA) as the Agriculture and Food Sciences cluster representative.

Dr Georgina Dowd is a cell and molecular biologist working at The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited where she leads the Marine Cell Technologies Team. Her work focuses on developing cell-lines from finfish for various applications including cellular agriculture – the production of agricultural products, such as meat, from cell cultures. This novel technology is advancing rapidly worldwide as researchers work towards overcoming challenges associated with cell-line development, media composition, scaffolding, and scale-up. This presentation will focus on the unique challenges and opportunities associated with cultured seafood and its potential impacts on food security.

Dr Yu-Zhong Zhang is a Professor of the College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, China. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in marine biology from the Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995. D. Zhang has been in charge of several important projects in China, such as the 863 key projects and NSFC key projects. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, some of which are in well-known international journals, such as Nature Microbiology, Nature Plants, Nature Communications, Science Advances, PNAS, eLife and The ISME J. Dr. Zhang is now an associate editor of Microbiome, an editor of FEMS Microbiology Letters and an editor in board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology.

The research interests of Dr. Zhang include Marine Microbiology, Marine microbial ecology, Marine microbial enzymology, the roles of marine microbes in biogeochemistry of organic carbon, organic nitrogen, and organic sulfur, such as DMSP and TMAO, the abundant special one carbon compounds in the ocean.

Ms Park graduated with a Marine Biotechnology Major from Inha University, Korea in 2001.Since 2005 she is the CEO of Athena Co. Ltd.

Her Research Interests are in developing functional ingredients for the cosmetics and the food industry. It includes the characterizing and development of polysaccharides from various seaweeds.

She also works on the optimal cultivation of macro-algae in land-based systems.

She is a member of the Federation of Environmental Movements; a member of the Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering; a member of The Korean Society of Oceanography; and is a member of the Suwon City Chamber of Commerce & Industry. In her keynote address she will cover “Prospects and Trends of Algae-derived ingredients for Cosmetic and Food industry in Korea”.

Dr Jin obtained her PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. With over 25 years of experience, she has made significant contributions to the field of the fundamental and applied aspects of photosynthetic organisms. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics, including photosynthesis, adaptive stress physiology of microalgae, development of genetic toolkits, and the application of microalgae in bio-mineralization and carbon conversion and utilization. Dr. Jin has also been involved in various leadership roles and editorial responsibilities in the scientific community. She previously served as the president of the Korean Society of Marine Biotechnology and currently holds positions as an Editorial Board member for several journals, including the Journal of Applied Phycology, Algae, and Marine Biotechnology.

Associate Professor Bomi Ryu obtained her doctorate in Chemistry and Marine Biochemistry from Pukyong National University in 2011 and carried out her first postdoctoral position at the Marine Bioprocess Research Center, Pukyong National University. She then won a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the School of Pharmacy and at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences. She returned to Korea in 2017 as an Assistant Professor at Jeju National University and in 2022 was appointed as Associate Professor in the Discipline of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Fisheries Science, Pukyong National University.

Associate Professor Ryu’s research interests are in Drug discovery, isolation and characterisation of natural-derived compounds from marine derived resources and their use in health promotion and disease prevention (in particular diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer), pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals.

Professor Yoshiko Okamura is currently serving as a Vice Dean for the Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life and a Vice Director for Seto Inland Sea Carbon-neutral Research Center, Hiroshima University.

She obtained her PhD in Engineering from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2001. With over 20 years of experience, she has made significant contributions to the field of the fundamental and applied aspects of marine microorganisms. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics including biomineralization, biomass energy and biorefinery, genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Her research focuses on carbon recycling or reduction through bioprocessing.

She serves as a committee member in several scientific communities and as an Associate Member of Science Council of Japan.

Professor Dong Wei is a full professor of Microalgal Biotechnology in School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology (SCUT), P. R. China. Dr. Wei’s research mainly focuses on the physiology, biochemistry and omics study of microalgae, high-cell-density fermentation of microalgae for bioactive compounds and biomass production, and C/N/P bioconversion for recycling utilization through microalgal cultivation.

He is also an Executive member of International Society for Applied Phycology (ISAP) since 2021, an Executive member of Chinese Association of Algal Industry since 2016, and Executive member of Microalgal Branch of the Chinese Society of Oceanic and Limnology since 2010.

He serves as the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Marine Science for Marine Biotechnology and Bioproducts, and the editorial board member of Synthetic Biology and Engineering.

Mariko Iijima received her Doctorate in Marine Biosciences from Kitasato University in 2019. She served as a research fellow at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) from 2019 to 2021, followed by a Research Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2021 to 2023. In 2023, she joined AIST as a researcher.

Her research areas are of the impacts of terrestrial loads on coastal ecosystems, coral skeletal formation, and the dynamics of phosphate on calcareous sediments.

Associate Professor Suhelen Egan is a microbiologist at UNSW, Sydney Australia with over 20 years of experience in molecular microbiology, microbial symbioses, and marine biotechnology. Her current research interests include understanding the role of microorganisms for the heath and function of seaweeds. Suhelen also leads research on natural product discovery from marine microbial symbionts. She is the current president of the Australia New Zealand Marine Biotechnology Society.

( https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/suhelen-egan).

Dr. Hou-Wen Lin received his PhD degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in 1998 and did his joint research at Kanagawa University, Japan. He relocated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a National Yang-Zi River Scholar in Marine Drugs and took charge of the Research Centre for Marine Drugs and Department of Pharmacy of Shanghai Renji Hospital from 2013. His scientific interests focus on the discovery, synthesis, biosynthesis, and mechanisms of bioactive metabolites from marine sponges and their microbial symbionts, and his scholarly achievements have been profound. During the past 5 years, Dr. Lin has published 46 peer-reviewed research papers, some of which are in prestigious journals in the field of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry. In addition, more than 22 patents have been approved by the national patent agencies. He is the chairman of Marine Branch of the Chinese Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Dr. Kunlaya Somboonwiwat is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Chulalongkorn University. Her research interest is to investigate the molecular mechanisms of various non-coding RNAs, genes, and proteins in the shrimp immune response against important pathogens for the shrimp industry. To find therapeutic compounds for shrimp disease control, a variety of Omics technologies, molecular biology, and cell biology have been used.

She has received several awards for her contributions to science, including the Outstanding Royal Golden Jubilee Alumni Award (in Biological Science) in 2015, the M.R. Jisnuson Svasti Young Protein Scientist of Thailand Award in 2018, and the Excellent Research Award from the National Research Council of Thailand in 2022.

Associate Professor Tetsushi Mori graduated from the Tokyo University of Agriculture Technology (TUAT), Japan, in 2009 majoring in Biotechnology. After serving 1 year as a Postdoctoral Fellow at TUAT, he joined Waseda University, Japan, where he worked on projects related to the isolation and analysis of marine environmental microbes using single-cell and metagenomic approaches. In 2017, he returned to TUAT to establish his own laboratory.

His current interest falls in the application of cell-penetrating peptides to establish techniques for efficient biomolecule delivery and protein characterization in bacteria. He has also strong interest in cell isolation techniques and cultivation approaches of uncultivable microbes.

Prof Kui Hong, from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University, is mainly engaged in the research of marine microbial new drug discovery. She has been selected as the China Ministry of Education “New Century Outstanding Talents Program” and won the KC Wong Scholarship of the Royal Society of UK. She is the vice chairman of Chinese marine society of marine microbial resources committee; Member of the committees of China society of marine medicine, molecular biology and biology engineering, marine microbiology, and marine biochemistry. She is on the editorial board of the journal “Marine Drugs”. She has undertaken a number of research projects, including the Chief scientist of “National Key Research and Development Project”, NSFC, 863 and 973, as well as the EU7. She has published over 120 SCI papers, possesses 24 national, 2 PCT, and 1 US patents.

Bin Wu obtained his Ph.D. in the field of organic chemistry in 2007 at the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China). Subsequently, he relocated to the Pharmaceutical College, Zhejiang University where he pursued research in the field of Medicinal Chemistry as a Post-doc research fellow, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. In 2011, he moved his lab to the Ocean College, Zhejiang University where he was promoted as a full Professor. He is now engaged in a range of projects related to the discovery of new natural products from the sea. Projects vary from stress-driven discovery of bioactive natural products from extreme marine environment – hydrothermal vent, evaluation of microbial diversity of unique marine habitats to the development of new ways of culture and molecular methods to access cryptic natural product biosynthetic pathways, development of new approaches to purify and characterize polysaccharides, characterization of toxin to the research of metabonomics. Dr. Wu has authored more than 100 publications. He has been in the Editorial Board of many international journals, including The Natural Products Journal (Editor-in-Chief), Current Organic Chemistry (Opinion Paper Editor), Frontiers in Marine Science – Marine Biotechnology (Associate Editor), and Marine Drugs, Fitoterapia and Chemistry and Biodiversity（Editorial Board member）.

Russell Hill has served as Director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) since 2012. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cape Town in 1988 and did postdoctoral studies with Rita Colwell at the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), University of Maryland. He worked for several years at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and returned to COMB, serving as Professor and Associate Director. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. He is on the Board and past-President of the International Marine Biotechnology Association. Research interests include the biodiversity and functions of marine symbiotic microbes associated with marine invertebrates, particularly sponges. He studies the potential of marine microbes as sources of new drugs. He has an interest in marine microalgae and associated bacteria as a source of biofuel and other products.

Prof.Dr Maria Barbosa is Professor in Bioprocess Engineering and is Director of AlgaePARC (https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/prouClx18lizxLl9hGbScZ?domain=algaeparc.com) at Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands. She has been president of the Dutch Biotechnology Association (NBV) and is a member of the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) steering group. She holds a Ph.D. in Bioprocess Engineering obtained at Wageningen University.  She has worked at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Switzerland, IBET, and at EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation), Germany.

She presently leads the group on microalgal biotechnology and coordinates several large research programs covering the entire microalgae production chain and applications in the food and feed sectors.

Her scientific interests are in microalgae strain improvement, cultivation and scale-up.

Munish Puri FRSC is a Biotechnology Program Coordinator and Group Head Bioprocessing, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.  Professor Puri has spent his career in academia (20+ years) and successfully led a range of multidisciplinary industry funded projects, and multi-institutional funding. He spearheads a research team that uses bioprocessing (precision fermentation) to address global challenges in sustainability, food security and human wellbeing. His lab has four major research programs: a) cell factories for metabolite production such as therapeutic proteins, enzymes and lipids, b) food biotechnology for nutraceutical extraction, and functional foods development relating to Omega-3 fatty acids, c) health substantiation by validation of bioactives functionality and d) nanotechnology for enhancing thermostability of enzymes with applications for health products and bioenergy. Collectively, this research has led to high number of highly cited publications (155+ peer reviewed publications; h index 49) reflecting transformative research reaching a broad readership. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK and an active SA representative of national society, Bioprocessing Network Australia. He is particularly recognized for his discovery of i) single cell oil production and ii) enzyme-based technology for food bioactive extraction, a technology which is safe and improves product yield.