Björn Schmitz-Luhn studied legal science in Cologne and Phoenix, USA. In his research, he focuses on interdisciplinary and international questions of medical law, social justice in health care, liability and responsibility in medical care and communication, patients' and physicians' rights, as well as new technologies in medicine. He is the General Manager and scientific coordinator of ceres, the interdisciplinary research center on health-related matters of the University of Cologne.

Christiane Woopen studied human medicine and philosophy in Cologne, Bonn, and Hagen. She is the Executive Director of ceres, Professor of Ethics and Theory of Medicine, as well as Head of the Research Unit Ethics at the University of Cologne. Lately, she served on many international expert groups, most recently as Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies which advises the European Commission, Chair of the German Ethics Council, President of the 11th Global Summit of National Ethics/Bioethics Committees, member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO, and co-spokeswoman of the German Federal Government's Data Ethics Commission. Woopen is a Member of the Academia Europaea and of the Berlin-Brandenburg and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academies of Science. In 2017, she was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class.