Candidates for Council

Mascia Benedusi

Mascia Benedusi is an Assistant Professor at University of Ferrara, Italy. She gained her PhD in Neurobiological Sciences, at the University of Ferrara in 2004. Mascia is an extremely dynamic and exceptional researcher with the unique managing skills. This has been recognised by the University of Ferrara, highlighted by her promotion to Associate Professor (from 1st September 2024). She has been involved in the SFRR-E meetings for several years. Her research work is focused on the role of oxidative stress and redox homeostasis in different human body organs or tissues. During the last years her studies have been centred on the link between oxidative stress and melanoma development and progression. She has published 45 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high quality journals and has an H-index of 16. Mascia was in the organizing committee for the SFRR-Europe annual meeting in Ferrara in 2019 and also for the first “The Future of Redox Biology” congress in Siena in 2022.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mascia-Benedusi

 

Ann Cuypers

Ann Cuypers is a full professor at Hasselt University, Belgium, and heads the Environmental Biology – Plant Abiotic Stress Signaling & Solutions (PASS2) research group. Ann’s research is focused on plant abiotic stress responses using different approaches related to oxidative stress. She has used Arabidopsis as a model plant, and also introduced rice as a crop model in her research group, to examine abiotic stress, induced by metals, radionuclides, herbicides and more recently heat stress. Her results have been recently translated into solutions for sustainable agriculture using soil amendments and priming strategies in an interdisciplinary applied research line, resulting in patent application for a screening platform for plant growth and toxicity (recently filed). Ann has a wide international network and has extensive expertise in many different technologies, including those of direct relevance to redox reactions in plants. Her wide network and active involvement with other scientific societies, particularly her role as President of the Plant Oxygen Group (POG), will be valuable in strengthening and further developing collaboration between SFRR-E and POG.

Website: https://www.uhasselt.be/en/who-is-who/ann-cuypers

 

Ivan Gout

Ivan graduated as an MD at Lviv State Medical University (Ukraine) in 1983 with a great passion to become a surgeon in oncology. Thinking that a PhD in experimental oncology would help to realize his dream, he obtained his doctorate at the Institute of Experimental Oncology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1987. A fellowship from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) took him even further from clinical oncology, and he commenced post-doctoral training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (UCL Branch). In 1996, he started his own group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, focusing on the regulation of growth via the S6 kinase pathway. Since 2003, he has been a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UCL – now renamed Structural and Molecular Biology, where he has an active research group working on the regulation of cell growth and metabolism in health and disease. He has a strong research (142 papers in peer-reviewed journals, H-Index 60) and patent (10 world-wide patents) portfolio and run two anti-cancer drug discovery programs.

Website: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/8359-ivan-gout

 

Ana Ledo

Ana Ledo is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra and PI at the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra. She was awarded her PhD in Biochemistry (with honours) from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2007. She undertook postdoctoral work (2007- 2009) at the Faculty of National Resources and Engineering (University of Algarve) and at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-University of Coimbra). Her early research focused on understanding the role of nitric oxide (•NO) in the modulation of neurometabolic and neurovascular coupling. More recently, she has made important contributions to link changes in •NO bioactivity and bioavailability to derailment of neurovascular and neurometabolic in aging and neurodegeneration and to understanding the role of high-fat diets in precipitating neurological alterations. Ana Ledo serves on the editorial board of the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, and has been actively enrolled in SFRR-E activities over the years, including the co-organization with Bárbara Rocha of the First FEBS and SFRR-E Redox Medicine Workshop in Luso in 2023, the symposium “the microbiota-gut-brain axis: a journey from dietary nitrate to nitric oxide via inorganic nitrite” at the 2019 SFFR-E meeting in Ferrara and was also a member of the organizing committee of SFRR-I 2018, held in Lisbon. Ana has also won several prestigious awards, including the SFRR-E Leopold Flohé Redox Pioneer Young Investigator Award in 2019, and a Future of Redox Biology Award from SFRR-I in 2022.

Website: https://cnc.uc.pt/en/people/a-ledo

 

Christiane Ott

Dr. Christiane Ott is a project leader in the department of Molecular Toxicology at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, focusing on the impact of proteolysis on heart function in aging and metabolic dysfunction and how both can be improved by nutrition. Her doctoral thesis investigated the intracellular proteolysis during cell aging and the influence of age-related protein modifications, focusing on the Ubiquitin-Proteasomal and the Autophagy-Lysosomal System, which also involved a research stay in the group of Prof. Rafael Radi at the University of Montevideo in 2016. She showed that the age-related loss of proteasomal activity cannot be compensated by the other system, in particular by an impairment of autophagy, for which she was awarded the Young Investigator Award of the Society of Free Radical Research 2015. In 2017, she was appointed as a project leader at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke. In 2023, she received the Catherine Pasquier Award from the SFRR-E, having joined the Society in 2013.

Website: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3199-0655

Vanja Pekovic-Vaughan

Dr Vanja Pekovic-Vaughan is a Senior Lecturer in Circadian Physiology in the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences at the University of Liverpool (UoL), UK. She is currently an Academic Lead for Research & Impact for the Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Sciences and also serves on the Institutional Research Strategy Group and Ethics Committees. She gained a BSc (Hon) in Human Genetics (Leeds University, UK) and a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology of Ageing (Durham University, UK). She undertook postdoctoral training in several of the UK’s leading laboratories (Universities of Newcastle, Durham, Manchester, King’s College London) before being awarded a prestigious Welcome Trust Tenure-Track Fellowship at UoL, investigating the role of cellular ageing and redox signalling in age-related diseases and their temporal regulation by the circadian clock. Dr Pekovic-Vaughan has been an active member of SFRR-Europe society over the eight years, her group has received several best presentation prizes from the society, and she has organised a number of SFRR-E symposia serving as a symposium chair and a speaker.

Website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/life-course-and-medical-sciences/staff/vanja-pekovic-vaughan/

Carmen Veith

Dr. Carmen Veith obtained her PhD in Cell Biology in 2019 from Maastricht University, in collaboration with the University of Vermont. Her doctoral research focused on the NOX4-dependent oxidation of SRC family kinases and its implications for new therapeutic strategies for pulmonary fibrosis. Following her PhD, Carmen joined the lab of Tobias Dick at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher. During her postdoctoral tenure, she investigated the molecular organization of NADPH Oxidase redox signaling complexes using H2O2-sensitive reporters and oxidative biosensors on the cell membrane. Since 2023, Carmen has been working as a Scientist at Calliditas in Geneva, Switzerland aiming to identifying NOX-regulated pathways and evaluating NOX inhibitors as therapeutic targets for rare diseases. Carmen has been the recipient of various awards and scholarships, including a NWO-Nutrim Graduate Fellowship, short-term fellowships from the Dutch Longfonds and the European Respiratory Society, as well as several travel awards. She served as the chair of the 2022 NOX Family NADPH Oxidase Gordon Research Seminar. In addition to her fascination by NOXes, Carmen is one of the founding members of the Early Career Researcher (ECR) subcommittee of SFRR-Europe, where she currently serves as chair (2022-2024).

Website: www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-veith