12:00 – 12:30

Opening Ceremony:

Chaired by Ulf Dittmer, PhD, BIOME Chair, Director of the Institute for Virology, University of Duisburg-Essen, DE

Welcoming Address

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dagmar Führer-Sakel

Vice-Rector for Research, Career Development & Science Transfer, University of Duisburg-Essen, DE

Prof. Dr. Jan Buer

Dean of the Medical Faculty, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, DE

​12:30 – 13:30​

External Keynote Speaker:

Macrophage targeted immunotherapy - a clever approach

Maija Hollmén, PhD

Academy Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, FI

Research Focus: Macrophages and their role in cancer immunotherapy

13:30 – 13:50

Science Session:

A scientific journey of modulating in vivo tumour microenvironments to promote anti-tumour therapies

Ilseyar Akhmetzyanova, MD, PhD

Cancer Immunologist, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Tarrytown, NY, US

Former Tumour and Signalling Core member and first BIOME MD/PhD candidate, doctoral supervisor: Ulf Dittmer

13:50  – 14:10

Extracellular vesicles or why small things should matter to everyone

André Görgens, PhD

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institut, Stockholm, SE

Former Genetics and Cell Biology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Bernd Giebel

14:10  – 14:30

A journey from patients to a research mouse and back

Meike Kaulfuß, MD

Institute of Experimental Immunology, Cellular Immunotherapy, University of Zurich, CH

Former Cellular and Molecular Immunology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Wibke Bayer

14:30 – 14:50

Improving cancer therapies through immune modulation and vaccines

Federica Cappuccini, PhD

Research Scientist, The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, UK

Former Cellular and Molecular Immunology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Verena Jendrossek

15:00 – 15:30

Coffee break

15:30 – 15:50

Session: Alternative Career Paths

Too many lemons, not enough lemonade: overcoming career challenges

Tim Wehrs

Quality Assurance & Audit Manager, Ada Health GmbH, Berlin, DE

Former Cellular and Molecular Immunology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Sven Brandau

15:50 – 16:10

How I followed my passion for blood - an uncommon career path in biology

Anita Hollenbeck, PhD

Deputy Head of Laboratory, Qualified Person § 14 AMG, DRK-Blutspendedienst West gGmbH, Hagen, DE

Former Cellular and Molecular Immunology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Joachim Göthert

16:10 – 16:30

A career in science management: from the Life Sciences to Economics

Christian Reiter, PhD

Referent für Forschung und Nachwuchsförderung, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE

Former Genetics and Cell Biology Core member, doctoral supervisor: Ann Ehrenhofer-Murray

16:30 – 16:50

Clinical Research Associate - how an unplanned job opportunity became my passion 

Sven Lindner, PhD

Clinical Research Monitor, Medtronic GmbH, DE

Former Tumour and Signalling Core member, doctoral supervisor: Alexander Schramm

17:00 - 18:00

External Keynote Speaker:

Host-microbiome interactions in health and disease

Eran Elinav, MD, PhD

Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, IL

Research Focus: Host-microbiome interaction

18:00 - 20:00

20:00

Official end of 1^st day

09:30 – 09:50

Session: Research and Development

From product to successful market launch – the Medical Department

Katrin Schöneweis, PhD

Senior Medical Advisor, Myr GmbH, Bad Homburg, DE

Former TRR 60 Antiviral Immunity member, doctoral supervisor: Michael Roggendorf

09:50 – 10:10

From science to finance

Irina Maria Bienia

Data Analyst, Research & Development GSA, Ernst & Young, Essen, DE

Former Computational Biomedicine Core member, doctoral supervisor: Daniel Hoffmann

10:10 – 10:30

From microbes to binary code: let’s talk about Bioinformatics

Rocio Rebollido-Rios, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher, CECAD Cologne, DE

Former Computational Biomedicine Core member, doctoral supervisor: Daniel Hoffmann

10:30– 11:00

Coffee break

11:00 – 11:20

Science Session:

In virus veritas: some lessons viruses have taught me so far

Mirko Trilling, PhD

Professor for Virology and BIOME Scientific Coordinator, University Hospital Essen, DE

Former RTG 1045 Host-Pathogen Interaction member, doctoral supervisor: Hartmut Hengel

11:20 – 11:40

Interleukin-1β – old cytokine, novel functions

Dennis Lapuente, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Virology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE

Former RTG 1949 Innate and Adaptive Immunity member, doctoral supervisor: Matthias Tenbusch

11:40 – 12:00

Dissecting triplex-induced DNA damage response

Adam Krysztofiak, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, US

Former RTG 1739 Radiation Sciences member, doctoral supervisor: Verena Jendrossek  

12:00 – 12:20

BIOME PEP Session:

Metabolic regulation of Natural Killer cells' anti-retroviral responses

Elisabeth Littwitz-Salomon, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Immunometabolism, Trinity College Dublin, IE

Former Cellular and Molecular Immunology Core member and first BIOME PEP candidate, doctoral supervisor: Ulf Dittmer

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 14:30

External Keynote Speaker:

Tissue engineering, AI and nanotechnology for the next-generation biomedical solutions

Ali Ertürk, PhD

Head of Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ITERM), Helmholtz Zentrum München, DE

Research focus: Using a multidisciplinary approach to understand the key mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration after acute brain injury

14:30 – 15:00

Closing Remarks:

Sven Brandau, PhD

BIOME Chair, Head of the Research Division, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Duisburg-Essen, DE

15:00

Official end of event