Sebastian Cosgrove
Keele University, England
Sebastian obtained his MChem in Chemistry from the University of Manchester, before undertaking a PhD with Prof. Steve Marsden at the University of Leeds in synthetic organic photochemistry. An EPSRC Doctoral Prize allowed him to carry out postdoctoral research with Profs Nick Turner and Sabine Flitsch in Manchester, followed by a year with Prof. Nigel Scrutton as a research fellow in the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub. He established his independent research group at Keele University in 2020, focusing on bioprocess optimisation towards the improved synthetic performance of enzymes. In particular, the group uses enzyme immobilisation and continuous flow as enabling technologies.
Julia Reisenbauer
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Austria
Dr. Julia C. Reisenbauer has been an Assistant Professor in the field of biocatalysis at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) since February 2026, where her research group investigates how synthetic chemical methodologies can be replaced and further advanced through the use of engineered enzymes. After completing her doctoral studies in organic chemistry at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich as an SSCI fellow, she pursued postdoctoral research in enzyme engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an SNSF Postdoc.Mobility fellow. She has now moved to Austria to establish her own interdisciplinary research group at the interface between chemistry and biology.
Scott France
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA
Scott France is an Associate Principal Scientist in the Biocatalysis group within Process Research and Development at Merck & Co. His research focuses on the discovery and application of enzymes for efficient and sustainable pharmaceutical synthesis, including the development of new biocatalytic reactions and enzyme cascades. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in the group of Prof. Nicholas Turner, where he worked on imine reductases (IREDs) and reductive aminases (RedAms) for asymmetric synthesis. His work has contributed to establishing reductive amination as an important biocatalytic transformation for the preparation of chiral amines and pharmaceutical intermediates.