Program

09:30    Seminar: Funding opportunities at the European Research Council (ERC)

11:00    Registration & welcome get together

12:00    Welcome & introduction
 

Keynote lecture I

12:15    Mitinori Saitou (Kyoto University)
    Mechanism and in vitro reconstitution of human germ-cell development

13:15    lunch break
 

    SESSION 1: Gene regulation and stem cells

14:15    Deborah Bourc'his (Institut Curie)
    Novel actors in chromatin-based control of transposable elements

14:45    José González Martínez (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)
The interaction between genetics and hormones in autism using brain organoids

15:00    Raquel Fueyo (Stanford University)
    Human-specific innovations driven by retrotransposons impact preimplantation development

15:30    break

16:00    Stanley Strawbridge (University of Sheffield)
Pushy guests: interrogating cell-fate specification in the early embryo through chimeras and computation

16:15    Madeleine Linneberg-Agerholm (University of Copenhagen)
    Regulative development in the preimplantation embryo: A role for OCT4 in plasticity maintenance in the mouse primitive endoderm. 

16:45    Barbara Pernaute (Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo-CSIC)
A developmentally programmed splicing failure regulates DNA damage response in the early mammalian embryo

17:00    break
 

    SESSION 2: Decoding cellular decisions in development

17:30    Silvia Santos (The Francis Crick Institute)
    Decoding signals during cellular transitions

18:00    Katharina Kohl (CeMM)
The transcription factor FOXA2 is a key regulator for gastric foveolar cell differentiation

18:15    POSTER SESSION I

20:00    Symposium Dinner [on site, open to everyone]
 

    SESSION 2: Decoding cellular decisions in development

09:00    Francis Corson (Centre national de la recherche scientifique - CNRS)
    Geometric models for fate patterning

09:30    Hocine Rekaik (College de France)
Genetic ablation of Hox function in mouse pseudo-embryos reveals major rewiring in the early developmental program

09:45    Michael Dorrity (European Molecular Biology Laboratory - EMBL)
    The role of cell type-specific timing in the robustness of development

10:15    break
 

    SESSION 3: Cell biology of stem cells

10:45    Léo Guignard (Developmental Biology institute of Marseille (IBDM) - Turing Centre for living systems (CENTURI))
    Comprehensive Quantification of Gastruloids Across Biological Scales: A Data-Driven Approach 

11:15    Giada Rossignoli (University of Padua)
Feeder-free culture of naive human pluripotent stem cells retaining embryonic, extraembryonic and blastoid generation potential

11:30    Alba Diz-Muñoz (European Molecular Biology Laboratory - EMBL)
    The Missing Mechanical Link: How Composite Interfaces Govern Cell Morphogenesis, Immune Migration, and Stem Cell Fate

12:00    break

12:30    Alex Kingston (Cambridge Stem Cell Institute)
    Modelling Cortical Mechanics in vitro: The Mechanobiology of Neural Progenitors in Development

12:45    Sonja Weterings (Hubrecht Institute)
    Frequency encoding regulates cell type composition in the small intestine

13:15    lunch & group picture
 

   SESSION 4: Stem cell niches

14:15    Ya-Chieh Hsu (Harvard University)
    Skin Deep: Stem Cells at the Nexus of the Niche, Physiology, and the External Environment

14:45    Ji-Hyun Lee (Institution For Basic Science)
Epithelial WNT secretion drives niche escape of developing gastric cancer

15:00    break

15:30    Simon Schäfer (Technical University of Munich)
    New approaches to decode human microglia phenotypes in health and disease

16:00    Ali Seleit (European Molecular Biology Laboratory - EMBL)
    Modular control of time and space during vertebrate axis segmentation
 

16:30    POSTER SESSION II

18:30    end of session - free evening for attendees

19:30    Speaker dinner [only by invitation]

    SESSION 5: Cellular dynamics in regeneration and aging

09:00    Elif Eroglu (Karolinska Institutet)
    More than a barrier? The role of tight junctions in salamander heart regeneration

09:30    Maximina Yun (Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden - CRTD)
    Probing the links between regeneration and ageing

10:00    break

10:30    Leonie Adelmann (University of Vienna)
A model system to decode the molecular mechanisms of age-dependent regenerative plasticity

10:45    Sandra Scharaw (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics)
    Endomembrane organelle organization in tissue renewal and with age

11:15    break

    SESSION 6: Transitioning stem cells into the clinic

11:45    Alok Javali (dawn-bio)
    A new dawn of IVF: First-principle approach to increase IVF success

12:15    Magdalena Renner (Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel)
Scaling Up Organoid Handling and Analysis for High-Throughput Gene Therapy Screening in Retinal Organoids

12:30    Volker Busskamp (Universitätsklinikum Bonn - UKB)
    The Effect of Vascularization on Human Retinal Organoids

13:00    lunch

14:00    Verena Schmied (Institute of Science and Technology Austria)
Microglia determine an immune-challenged environment and facilitate ibuprofen action in human retinal organoids

14:15    Joep Beumer (Institute of Human Biology - IHB)
    Modeling intestinal maturation and function in engineered human organoids

14:45    short break

Keynote lecture II

15:00    Fiona Doetsch (University of Basel)
    Regulation and Diversity of Adult Neural Stem Cells

16:00    Closing remarks

16:15    Coffee & cake & farewell