Invited speakers
Plenary speaker
Session 1 Immune System and Its Impact on Health
The immune system protects us from bacteria, viruses, and parasites, but its powerful defenses can also lead to immunopathology. Such conditions include allergies, autoimmune diseases, and cancers driven by uncontrolled immune‑cell growth. The Schmidt‑Supprian group investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these disorders. Immune cells sense microbes through surface receptors that activate gene‑expression programs to fight infection. When these signaling pathways malfunction, they can cause autoimmunity, leukemia, or lymphomas. Using genetic gain‑ and loss‑of‑function approaches in mice, combined with cellular and biochemical methods, the group focuses on B cells, T cells, and mast cells to understand how dysregulated genes and proteins drive immunopathologies.
We study cell growth, one of the most fundamental biological processes. Cell growth depends on protein synthesis, which occurs on ribosomes. Because errors in ribosome production can alter protein synthesis and lead to numerous diseases, we hypothesized that mammalian cells possess mechanisms to detect such errors and prevent pathological outcomes. Using state‑of‑the‑art gene‑manipulation technologies in mice, we identified such a control mechanism.
My lab investigates how effective T cell responses against tumors and infections are generated and maintained. We study T cell responses in non‑small cell lung cancer and pediatric neuroblastoma to advance TIL therapy, and we generate peripheral‑blood-derived T cell products such as CAR and TCR‑engineered T cells. We analyze the heterogeneity and function of human blood‑derived T cells to understand how these differences influence their ability to kill target cells and how to produce the most potent therapeutic T cell products. In parallel, we examine the molecular mechanisms that regulate T cell effector function, with a particular focus on post‑transcriptional control by RNA‑binding proteins. Using newly developed analysis pipelines, we investigate how transcript sequence features shape protein output—key insights for improving T cell functionality.
Session 2 Computational Genomics from Cell Fate to Genome Function
How do we go from sequence to an understanding of genome function? This session brings together computational genomicists working across scales: from the mutational processes and quality-control mechanisms that guard genome integrity, through multi-omics and long-read transcriptomic approaches that reveal how gene expression is regulated in model and non-model organisms, to comparative and metagenomic perspectives on genome function and evolution. Beyond the biology, the talks will showcase the statistical methods, machine learning and open software tools that make these analyses possible.
In the Genome Data Science lab, we use statistical genomics and machine learning to study quality control (QC) mechanisms that protect the integrity of information stored in the cell: its genome and the transcriptome, as well as gene functional links. We perform large-scale bioinformatic studies of multi-omic data from human tumors (somatic mutations, and transcriptomes), human populations (germline variation) and metagenomes (incl. human microbiomes).
The Bioinformatics group was formed in 2002 in an effort to include bioinformatics and computational biology courses in the molecular biology curriculum and to motivate students for research in this prominent and highly interesting new field of biology. With a strong focus on education and collaboration, we support knowledge exchange through workshops, publications, and open-access tools.
The Genomics of Gene Expression lab is interested in understanding the functional aspects of gene expression by combining a wide variety of high-throughput molecular techniques, including transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, and single-cell data, for both model and non-model species.
The lab develops statistical methods and user-friendly software tools to analyse these multi-omics data. Its most current interest is the application of long-read sequencing technologies for transcriptome analysis and the integration of multi-omics data to model chromatin-metabolome regulation.
Session 3 Adaptation and Global Change
We will explore adaptation through behavioural, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives, from social interactions and individual behavioural differences to evolutionary responses to global change. Our speakers bring together theoretical, experimental, and long-term field approaches across diverse animal systems. This will give us insight into the mechanisms that generate adaptive responses at different levels of biological organization and how they shape animal responses to environmental change.
My main interest is adaptation, and especially the evolution of social behaviours, such as cooperation, altruism, spite, mutualism, and how these can influence major evolutionary transitions. I use a mixture of techniques including theory, experiment and across species comparative studies. My empirical work has utilised a range of organisms, from microbes to vertebrates.
My research focuses on evolution under climate change, and evolutionary processes associated with geographic range limits. I am interested in how social and behavioral factors interact with changing ecological conditions to faciliate or hinder evolutionary change and macroevolutionary processes associated with geographic range shifts and habitat shifts.
My research focuses on understanding the ecological consequences of animal behavior. I am particularly interested in how individual differences in behavior shape the way animals interact with their environment and, ultimately, influence ecosystem functioning. My group combines large-scale field studies with quantitative approaches, working primarily with small- and medium-sized mammals.
Session 4 Unconventional Models at the Frontiers of Cell Biology
This session highlights the value of unconventional model systems for addressing fundamental questions in cell biology and evolution. Bringing together research on microalgal photobiology, fungal adaptation to extreme environments, and developmental transitions in social amoebae, it demonstrates how diverse microbial eukaryotes can reveal biological mechanisms that may remain inaccessible in conventional model organisms. Together, the speakers show how non-traditional systems can broaden our understanding of cellular adaptation, environmental sensing, developmental decision-making, and eukaryotic evolution.
Angela Falciatore is a CNRS research director at IBPC in Paris, where she studies the biology of microalgae, with a particular focus on marine diatoms and other phytoplanktonic systems. Her research explores how light shapes cellular physiology, photosynthesis, photoperception and plastid function, linking fundamental cell biology with ecological and evolutionary questions. Her work brings a strong photobiology dimension to the session and highlights how unconventional photosynthetic models can illuminate broader biological principles.
Vlatka Antolović works on developmental biology and gene expression dynamics using Dictyostelium, the social amoeba, as a model system. Her research uses quantitative and single-cell approaches to understand how cells transition between states and make developmental decisions. Her work adds an important angle to the session by showing how an unconventional microbial eukaryote can be used to study core questions in development and evolution.
Nina Gunde-Cimerman is a professor of microbiology at the University of Ljubljana whose research focuses on extremophilic fungi and their remarkable adaptations to some of Earth's harshest environments, including hypersaline waters, glaciers, caves, and extreme indoor habitats. Her work combines fungal ecology, physiology, genomics, and evolution to understand the mechanisms that enable eukaryotic microorganisms to thrive under extreme environmental stress. Her research brings an evolutionary and ecological perspective to the session, demonstrating how unconventional fungal model systems can reveal fundamental principles of cellular adaptation, stress tolerance, and eukaryotic evolution.