**About the Editors**

**Antonella Leone** is a biologist who holds a PhD in Plant Genetics and who focused her scientific interests and research activities on the study of the biological activities of natural compounds extracted from a diverse array of living eukaryotic organisms, including microalgae, plants and vegetables, as well as marine invertebrates. She is currently working on the development of new processing methodologies for novel food and nutraceutical products from jellyfish within the EU Horizon 2020 project "GoJelly", coupling the sustainability of production through the use of neglected resources (jellyfish biomasses, production waste and byproducts) and the use of innovative processes, such as supercritical CO2 extraction. She also studies the nutraceutical potential and health-promoting effect of dietary components on human cell culture systems by investigations on some underlying action mechanisms of bioactive molecules, such as the modulation of cell–cell communication mediated by gap junctions (GJIC), a key control of cellular homeostasis, development and differentiation, as well as a target mechanism of tumor promotion.

**Gian Luigi Mariottini** is a biologist (MSc) and physician (MD), qualified for the practice of both professions. In 1986–1987, he carried out research on neuroblastoma at the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital of Genova (Italy). From 1987 to 2020, he was employed at the University of Genova, Italy, and retired in June 2020 from the Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences. His research activity focused on ecotoxicology, planktonology and environmental sciences; his main research field was the study of cnidarian toxicity and cytotoxicity on cultured cells, in the perspective of the utilization of extracts from tissues and nematocysts for drug discovery or for other purposes. He was involved in several national and international research projects and working groups, and is member of the Italian Society for Experimental Biology (Societa Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale—SIBS). `

**Stefano Piraino** is an associate professor of Zoology at the University of Salento. Over the last thirty years, he has authored 120 international scientific (ISI) articles in the field of marine invertebrate zoology, ecology, developmental biology and evolution, with a special focus on marine cnidarians (jellyfish and polyps). His research spans from reproductive biology, taxonomy, and systematics, to symbiotic interactions and trophic ecology, as well as from ontogeny to organogenesis, cell differentiation, and more recently, to bioprospecting and blue growth resource exploitation. He is currently a member of the EuroMarine and JRC-EASIN European networks, as well as the Chairman of the Academic Board in Biology at the University of Salento.
