Jean-Michel Merillon is the « Directeur de l’EA 3675 (Groupe d’Etude des Substances Vegetales à Activité Biologique + Polyphenols Biotech) », at the Faculte de Pharmacie, Universite de Bordeaux, Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin, in Villenave d’Ornon, France. He received his M.Pharma. (1979) and Ph.D. (1984) from the University of Tours in France. He joined the University of Tours as assistant professor in 1981, became associate professor in 1987. In 1993 he moved to the faculty of Pharmacy, University of Bordeaux, France, accepting a position as full professor. He is currently leading the “study group on biologically active plant substances” at the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences, which comprises 25 scientists and research students. The group has been working on phenolic compounds from vine and wine for many years, mainly complex stilbenes and their involvement in health. Prof. Mérillon has supervised the doctoral theses of 19 students. He is involved in developing teaching on plant biology, natural bioactive compounds and biotechnology.  Prof. Mérillon has published more than 145 research papers in internationally recognized journals, resulting in an H index of 35 (documents published between 1996 and 2015). He has co-edited books and reference works on secondary metabolites and biotechnology. Throughout his career, Prof. Mérillon has traveled widely as a senior professor. Scientists from several countries have been and are working in his laboratory, and his research is supported by funding from the Aquitaine Regional Government, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and various private companies. In 2004, he founded the technology transfer unit “Polyphenols Biotech”, providing support for R&D programs for SMEs and major groups from the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, agricultural and health-nutrition sectors. Gabriel Lefèvre is an ethnobotanist, postdoctoral researcher at the Universityof Lille (France) where he became interested in plants with antiviral activities, funded by an ANR project involving the UMRt BioEcoAgro, the Lille Infection and Immunity Center (UMR9017, U1019) and a CNRS team from the University of Strasbourg (UMR CNRS 7042-LIMA). He is now particularly interested in regional plants such as hop by carrying out a study of old and wild varieties as part of FEADER funding. He previously completed a PhD on the medicinal plants of Madagascar at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and pursued this theme during a Marie Curie post-doctorate in medical anthropology at the University of Oxford which led to the publication of a reference work published by L'Harmattan, entitled "Médecine traditionnelle à Madagascar, les mots-plantes à Toliara". Céline Rivière is an associate professor in pharmacognosy at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lille and is currently conducting research within the research unit BioEcoAgro (UMRt 1158). Previously, she set up a research programme on the medicinal chemistry of hops (Humulus lupulus) and their role in combatting bacterial resistance. In parallel with this, she has developed a project on phytochemical diversity and the antiviral activities of halophytes against hepatitis C virus.   Her ongoing research is focused on two aspects with several fundings: 1) Plant species as source of bioactive molecules against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2); 2) Chemical and genetic diversity of wild hops from northern France: varietal development and pharmaceutical, agri-food and agricultural assessments. Since 2016, she has also played a role in the working group on herbal food supplements (‘GT Plantes’) within the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). She represented France at the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) from 2013 to 2017. She is on the editorial board of Phytochemical Analysis. Céline has written more than 40 research articles in internationally renowned journals has co-published a book on natural antimicrobial agents with Jean-Michel Mérillon.