Fernando Albericio is a Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and an Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona. His major research interests cover practically all aspects of peptide synthesis and combinatorial chemistry methodologies. He has developed resins, linkers, coupling reagents, protecting groups, and Cysteine sidechain protecting groups. Furthermore, his group is concentrating efforts in greening peptide synthesis. He has published more than 1000 scientific articles, filed more than 60 patents, and graduated more than 75 Ph.D. students.

Ralph Schönleber is a chemist by training, with a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Basel, studying coumarins as photoactive protecting groups. Ralph joined Bachem AG in 2003 as a team leader at the Research and Development Department. After increasing responsibilities in the fields of process development (scale-up strategies for all amounts of peptide products), process research and synthesis of custom and catalog products, he became Head of the GMP Process Development Department in 2012. Currently, Ralph is Vice President Research and Development at Bachem AG and member of Bachem’s International Research Committee.

Chris McGee leads the Global Business Development department at Bachem. Together with a team of specialized business development professionals, he works to provide bespoke solutions for partners developing novel peptide- and oligonucleotide-based entities. He is passionate about our contribution to the discovery and development of innovative medicines and products and maintaining an industry-leading all-around experience for our partners.  Chris has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, and more than a decade of experience with Bachem.