Günter Müller is senior scientist for Biochemistry at Aventis Pharma Germany, Frankfurt am Main, and honorary lecturer for genetics at the University of Munich. He was born in Peissenberg (Germany) and studied anthropology, zoology, genetics and biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, finishing his PhD thesis under the supervision of R. Zimmermann in 1987. After post-doctoral fellowships at the universities of Ulm and Heidelberg, he joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1990 and received his habilitation at the University of Munich in 1996. He is interested in molecular mechanisms in both lower eukaryotes and mammalian cells, and their use as drug targets for metabolic disorder.

Stefan Petry is senior scientist in Medicinal Chemistry at Aventis Germany, Frankfurt am Main. He was born in Kaiserslautern (Germany) and studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, including his PhD thesis under the supervision of Jochen Lehmann on photo-affinity labeling of carbohydrate binding proteins. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1994. At Aventis he is responsible for projects in the field of diabetes. In particular, he is interested in the development of small molecules which interact with signal transduction processes or influence lipid metabolism.