Prof. Ana García-Sáez is director of the department of Membrane Dynamics at the prestigious Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
At this institute, she leads a group conducting cutting-edge biophysical research investigating the early steps of programmed cell death by mitochondria – processes of major relevance to biology and medicine.
Her team combines advanced imaging approaches, including super-resolution microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. In addition, she developed AI-based algorithms to analyze biophysical datasets and characterize pore structures in the outer mitochondrial membrane.
Over the course of her career, Prof. García-Sáez has received numerous distinctions, including recognition as an EMBO Young Investigator and as a Henriette Herz Scout of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and she has been awarded multiple grants from the European Research Council (ERC).

Prof. Stefan W. Hell is an internationally recognized leader and pioneer in the biophysical field of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Mostly known for the invention and development STED-microscopy, he overcame the Abbe diffraction limit that had constrained optical microscopy to moderate spatial resolutions for more than a century. After winning the Nobel Prize for this revolutionary technique, Prof. Hell continued to push the boundaries of optical imaging by the development of MINFLUX, achieving molecular and even sub-molecular resolution. These high-resolution imaging methods enable the investigation of living samples and the tracking of molecular trajectories within biological systems.