Keynote speakers
Joana Pereira
VIB Group leader and KU Leuven assistant professor
Joana Pereira is an expert in computational structural biology and protein evolution, with a focus on structural bioinformatics. She is a biochemist with a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Hamburg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. She has over 7 years of postdoctoral experience in protein evolution and structural bioinformatics, having worked at both the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen (Germany) and the Biozentrum of the University of Basel (Switzerland).
Her research interests are focused on applying computer science, complex network analysis, and deep learning to investigate the structure, diversity, and evolution of the 'protein universe'. She led the Protein Universe Atlas project, funded by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. Her research is fundamentally computational, but she also collaborates closely with experimentalists in interdisciplinary projects focused primarily on prokaryotic interactions with the environment, as well as their unknown defense and resistance mechanisms.
Raphaëlle Lesage
Scientist - Systems Pharmacology consultant at ESQlabs GmbH
Raphaëlle Lesage, PhD is a scientist in Systems Pharmacology at ESQlabs, where she specializes in Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) and Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) modelling to support drug development. She is particularly interested in modelling special populations to optimize therapeutic strategies and prevent unsafe exposure.
Previously, she served as Chief Scientific Officer at the Virtual Physiological Human Institute (VPHi), where she led stakeholder engagement and regulatory initiatives for in silico medicine, contributing to multiple European H2020 projects. She holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Engineering and Biomedical Sciences from KU Leuven, where she conducted research on in silico modelling of osteochondral pathophysiology. In particular she developed a systems biology virtual chondrocyte to identify potential drug targets limiting cartilage degeneration or promote bone formation.