THE OTHER PEOPLE
SPECIES EXPERTS
Professor in molecular biology
Bonnie L. Bassler is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. The research in her laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication. This process is called quorum sensing. Bassler’s research is paving the way to the development of novel therapies for combating bacteria by disrupting quorum-sensing-mediated communication.
Biochemist
Sir Paul Maxime Nurse won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001 for discovering key regulators of the cell cycle. In the mid-1970s Nurse, using yeast as his model organism, discovered the gene cdc2. His research demonstrated that the gene served as a master switch, regulating the timing of cell-cycle events, such as division. Nurse’s work aided in the scientific understanding of cancer.
Epigenetic expert
Bruce H. Lipton bridges the gap between science and spirit. He is a stem cell biologist, bestselling author of "The Biology of Belief" and recipient of the 2009 Goi Peace Award. In 1982, Dr. Lipton began examining the principles of quantum physics and how they might be integrated into his understanding of the cell’s information processing systems. His discoveries, which ran counter to the established scientific view that life is controlled by the genes, presaged one of today’s most important fields of study, the science of epigenetics.
Primatologist and anthropologist
Jane Goodall is known for her exceptionally detailed and long-term research on the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She worked as a secretary and as a film production assistant until she gained passage to Africa. Once there, Goodall began assisting paleontologist and anthropologist Louis Leakey. In 1977 she cofounded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation (commonly called the Jane Goodall Institute) in California.
JENNIFER DOUDNA
Biochemist, CRISPR-Cas9
Jennifer Doudna first made her name uncovering the basic structure and function of the first ribozyme, a type of catalytic ribonucleic acid (RNA) that helps catalyse chemical reactions. This work helped lay the foundation for her later helping to pioneer CRISPR-Cas 9, a tool that has provided the means to edit genes on an unprecedented scale and at minimal cost.on 7th October 2020 she was jointly awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry together with Emanuelle Charpentier for their development of gene editing.
EMMANUELLE CHARPENTIER
Biochemist, Max Planck Institute
Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier is a professor and researcher in microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry. Since 2015, she has been a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In 2018, she founded an independent research institute, the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens. Charpentier is best known for her Nobel-winning work of deciphering the molecular mechanisms of CRISPR/Cas9, and repurposing it into a tool for genome editing. In particular, she uncovered a novel mechanism for the maturation of a non-coding RNA which is pivotal in the function of CRISPR/Cas9.
PAUL & MICHAEL DABROWSKI
Co-founders of Synthego
The brothers Paul and Michael Dabrowski founded Synthego, a genetic engineering startup that makes synthetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) in 2012. Today the Silicon Valley startup, which has raised more than $250 million in funding functions as a swift provider of cutting-edge tools and platform applications (RNA, engineered cell lines, Crispr reagents) that allows scientists to get straight to their most meaningful work. Crispr coinventor Jennifer Doudna sits on Synthego’s advisory board.
Animal communicator
Anna is a professional animal communicator who has received advanced training through the Assisi International Animal Institute in California, USA and has been practising for 18 years in South Africa, Europe and the USA with domestic and wild animals. Her conservation experience includes working with cheetahs, lions, wolves, baboons and elephants in educational and rehabilitation programmes. Anna's goal is to raise awareness and advance the relationships among humans and other species, on both the personal and spiritual levels.
Animal communicator
Dean Schneider is a Swiss animal sanctuary founder and social media personality based in South Africa. Schneider was a banker and financial planner in Switzerland before moving to South Africa in 2017 to establish a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center, Hakuna Mipaka (Swahili for "no limits"). It is a 400 ha (4 square kilometer) estate for lions born in captivity. A separate area hosts zebras, impalas, kudu, hyenas, baboons and cheetahs.
Founder and executive President, The World Bee Project
Sabiha Malik founded The World Bee Project CIC in 2014 to initiate a global perspective, addressing pollinator and biodiversity decline, food insecurity and climate change as the single challenge confronting humanity. Sabiha works at the intersection of design, activism, technology, science and art. The World Bee Project is grounded in technology and science but draws on the full richness of human imagination to help activate socially and environmentally conscious solutions.
Manager, Wildlife Conservation, WWF
Nilanga Jayasinghe is a Manager on the Wildlife Conservation team at WWF, focusing on Asian species, particularly elephants, rhinos, tigers, and snow leopards, among others. Her areas of expertise include human-wildlife conflict, Asian elephants, strategic planning, connectivity conservation, protected area management, capacity building, and technological applications for wildlife conservation. In her role, Nilanga works with WWF field teams and partners in more than 15 countries in Asia to further conservation efforts on the ground for WWF’s priority flagship species.