Kogularamanan (Rama) Suntharalingam obtained an MSci degree in Chemistry from Imperial College London. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in Professor Michael Hill's laboratory, investigating catalytic alkaline earth complexes. He subsequently completed his PhD at Imperial College London under the supervision of Professor Ramon Vilar, where he studied the interactions between metal complexes and G-quadruplex DNA. Following the award of the Misrock Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Rama joined Professor Stephen Lippard's research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, his research focused on elucidating the mechanisms of action of third-row transition metal anticancer complexes and advancing their translation towards clinical application. Rama began his independent academic career in the Department of Chemistry at King's College London (KCL) after receiving a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Following the successful completion of the fellowship, he was appointed Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry at KCL. In 2019, Rama joined the University of Leicester as an Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry. In 2023, he was appointed Deputy Head of the School of Chemistry. His current research focuses on the development of inorganic compounds and nanoscale delivery systems to target both bulk tumour cells and treatment-resistant cancer subpopulations. His contributions to the field have been recognised through awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Inorganic Biochemistry Discussion Group Investigator Award and the RSC Dalton Young Researchers Award. 

Sylvestre Bonnet is Full Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry at Leiden University. He obtained his PhD in 2005 at the University of Strasbourg, France, in the group of Nobel Laureate Jean-Pierre Sauvage. He then moved to The Netherlands as a postdoc, where he successively worked in the groups of Gerard van Koten (Utrecht), Jan Reedijk (Leiden), and Antoinette Killian and Bert Klein Gebbink (Utrecht). Between 2009 and 2014 he completed a Tenure Track position in Inorganic Chemistry at Leiden University, where he was tenured in 2015 and became full professor in 2020. He obtained several prestigious grants, including a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (2013), a Transition grant from the European Innovation Council (2023), and three young investigator grants (VENI 2008, VIDI 2012, VICI 2019) from the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He is alumni of the Young Academy of Europe, of which he was a board member (2017-2020). His expertise lies at the crossing point between bioinorganic chemistry, photochemistry, and lipid membranes. His current research interests are anticancer photoactivated chemotherapy, supramolecular photocatalysis, and upconversion.