Dr. Christian Jorgensen specializes in Therapeutics and Rheumatology, he is the director of the IRMB, leader of the ‘Mesenchymal stem Cells, niche tissue and homeostasis’ research team and coordinator of the ECellFrance, a national infrastructure dedicated to stem cell therapy, and Cartigen platforms at Montpellier CHRU. He is an expert for Biologics at French National Authority or Health (HAS), and a former member of the Transparency Comity at HAS.

Dr. Jorgensen clinical interest are in stem cells, immunology and rheumatology. He leads the clinical immunology service dedicated to biotherapy applied to Rheumatoid Arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Dr. Jorgensen has published extensively (over 250 publications in the field of Immunology and stem cell therapy applied for rheumatic diseases), and has coordinated several national and European programs on immunology.

Dr. Jorgensen obtained his PhD and MD from the University of Paris in 1991.

Dr. Jean Martinez is Full Professor Emeritus at the University of Montpellier. In 2007, he created the Institut of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM), of which he was the Director until December 2014. He was also the Head of the department of Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins at IBMM. He served the University of Montpellier as a Member of the Scientific Council for 8 years and as Vice-President for 6 years (2009-2014).

Dr. Martinez is recognized for his important contributions, at the interface of chemistry and biology, to the development of methodology in organic and peptide synthesis, the design and the synthesis of various potent and selective neuropeptide analogues, and the development of biomaterials containing biomolecules. He has published over 900 original papers, 50 patents, numerous review articles, and he has been editor of several books. In 2012, he was accepted into the « Académie Nationale de Pharmacie », France, and in 2014 into the « Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia », Spain. In 2015, he was nominated Docteur Honoris causa of the Jagellonian University of Kracow, Poland. He has received various prizes including the Leonidas Zervas Award (Barcelona, Spain 1990), the Silver Medal CNRS (Paris, France 1996), The Labbe Award (Paris, France 1996), The Mentzer Award (Caen, France 1998), the Max Bergmann Medal (Munster, Germany 2004), the Cathay Award (Shanghai, China 2006), the Akabori Award (Tokohama, Japan 2006), the Ehrlich Award (Lyon, France 2011), the Roche Johannes Meinhofer Award (Boulder Co, USA 2011), the Léon Velluz Award (Paris, France 2015) and the Rudinger Award (Leipzig, Germany 2016). He is « Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques » (2010), and « Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur » (2011). Dr. Martinez served the European Peptide Society as French Representative, Member of the Executive Committee (1991-1998), Scientific Officer (1998-2001) and President (2001-2010).

Dr. Martinez received both his PhD in 1972 from the University of Montpellier, at the National School of Chemistry, and his Dr Sciences Degree in 1976 from the same University, under the supervision of Professor F. Winternitz.

Dr. Florence Apparailly is the Research Director of Pathophysiology and Immunotherpay of inflammatory disorders. She was recruited to INSERM in 2001 and since 2015 leads an INSERM team of 30 people on inflammation and immunotherapies.

Dr. Aparailly holds a PhD in physiology of reproduction from the University of Paris VI and a masters degree in cell biology and physiology from the University of Tours (France)

Dr. Muriel Amblard is a CNRS Research Director at the « Institut of Biomolecules Max Mousseron » (IBMM) in Montpellier. Her research interests are mainly at the interface of chemistry, biology and structural analysis for developing bioactive compounds and chemical tools that can mimic biological systems. Dr. Amblard developed a number of potent receptor agonists and antagonists of several peptide hormones. Her recent work focuses on the design and synthesis of 1) predictable and stable ribbon and helical molecular architectures, 2) stapled peptides that are applied to the identification of cell penetrating compounds, and 3) inhibitors of protein/protein interactions. Another part of her research interest is devoted to the development of selective protein degraders by using Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) technology.

Dr. Amblard obtained her PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Montpellier in the Lab of Prof Jean Martinez.