The Editors

Rumiana Dimova leads an experimental lab in biophysics at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. She has been working with giant vesicles already from the beginning of her scientific career. After being introduced into the magic of their preparation during her studies as a student in Bulgaria, she remained fascinated by their application and over the years pursued a variety of projects employing giant vesicles as a platform to develop new methods for the biophysical characterization of membranes and processes involving them. Until now, these studies have resulted in more than hundred peer-reviewed publications. Recently, she was also awarded the Emmy Noether distinction for women in physics of the European Physical Society.

Carlos Marques, a CNRS senior scientist, founded the MCube group at the Charles Sadron Institute in Strasbourg, France, where he gears experimental and theoretical research towards the understanding of the physical properties of self-assembled lipid bilayers. Trained as a polymer theoretician, Carlos first got interested in membranes because they interact with polymers and published the first prediction for the membrane changes expected when polymers adsorb on lipid bilayers. He then expanded the scope of his group to include experiments and numerical simulations, and has now published many papers based on research with giant unilamellar vesicles, including the first study of lipid oxidation in GUVs and the discovery of the so-called PVA method for vesicle growth.

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