Professor Kenneth A. Dawson is Director of the Centre for BioNano Interactions (CBNI) at University College Dublin. His scientific work focuses on understanding how nanostructures interact with living systems, and he pioneered the biomolecular, or protein, corona concept, which became a central paradigm in the field.

His research aims to obtain a mechanistic and molecular understanding of nanoscale recognition in biology. His most recent work explores how fundamental insights at the nanoscale interface may help enable escape from endosomes and reach therapeutically inaccessible locations.

Professor Raymond Schiffelers is Professor of Nanomedicine at the University Medical Center Utrecht, where his work focuses on synthetic drug delivery systems, RNA delivery and extracellular vesicles as inspiration for new therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. Trained in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences at Leiden University, he obtained his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam on liposomal targeting of antimicrobial agents, before working on liposome- and polymer-based delivery systems for tumour vasculature targeting and siRNA delivery in Utrecht and in the US. He has contributed extensively to the development of nanomedicine platforms for diagnosis and therapy, has co-founded and advised several start-ups, and served as Chair of the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine from 2021 to 2025.