6 – 8th November 2024 | Brussels (Belgium)
EVOMET Conference
Deconstructing the Evolution of Metastasis
Welcome to the Evomet Conference: “Deconstructing the evolution of metastasis” which will take place from 6th to 8th November 2024 in Brussels (Belgium).
Evomet conference aims to bring together early-stage and expert researchers, EU policymakers and patient advocate groups to discuss the issue of metastasis and the research being conducted to unravel it.
This conference will provide a unique opportunity for international and multidisciplinary exchanges, networking and future collaborations.
Moreover, Evomet will give young scientists the chance to actively participate in the conference and to have enriching discussions with their peers and prestigious scientists from around the world. Participants will have the opportunity to present a poster and to be selected for an oral presentation during the conference.
Giving even more importance to young scientific promises, participants will be able to boost their next steps in their professional career by participating in the Workshop “Careers after PhD”. Several roundtables of discussion will be organized to connect early-stage researchers with experts in different scientific fields, from young or established PIs, pharmaceutical industry or policy makers. Due to the limited number of participants, a selection process will be carried out. The details of the Workshop will be communicated to participants via email, where they will have to choose which discussion tables they would like to join.
When?
6th to 8th November 2024
Where?
Brussels (Belgium)
Next steps for the registered participants:
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- Practical information:
- Please note that the final scheduling of the workshop ‘Careers after PhD’ is ongoing – if you have expressed your interest in this session, you will receive more information in the upcoming weeks.
- Please note that coffee breaks are provided as well as lunch for Thursday and a cocktail reception at the end of the first day. In case you might need to grab some food for lunch the first day or the last one (if you are not participating in the workshop), you might like to know that there are several restaurants and shops in the campus.
- Poster instructions:
- Poster presenters will be divided into two poster sessions and will receive an email confirming the session their poster is allocated to. Presenters are expected to attend their allocated poster session and to be next to their poster to discuss their work with their colleagues. All posters will be displayed during the whole duration of the event, however presenters are only required to be present next to their poster during their allocated poster session and are encouraged to use the other session to view their colleague’s posters. All presenters should have printed their posters in advance and should mount them on the boards provided (120 cm width x 180 cm height), either before the commencement of the conference or during the coffee break of Session 1. Posters should be printed at A0 size and in portrait format. Pins will be provided at the venue.
- There will be a poster prize!
- Practical information:
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- Short talks:
- Participants selected for a short talk should, in addition to their poster, prepare a 10-minute talk which will be followed by a 5-minute Q&A session. Presentations should be sent to the organisation committee (evomet@irbbarcelona.org) in advance.
- Short talks:
Agenda
Program
6 November
13:00 – 13:45
Registration
13:45 – 14:00
Welcome speech
14:00 – 19:30
14:00 – 14:30
Frederic de Sauvage
Department of Molecular Oncology, Genentech Inc., South
San Francisco, USA
Title: “Tumor cell plasticity in colon cancer initiation, metastasis and response to therapy”
14:30 – 14:45 Discussion
14:45 – 15:05
Colinda Scheele
VIB Center for Cancer Biology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Title: “Predicting tumor initiation, progression and response using (intravital) imaging”
15:05 – 15:15 Discussion
15:15 – 15:25
Jean Berthelet
Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Australia
Title: “LeGOTeknik – a new optical barcoding library unveiled the transcriptome of breast cancer clones responsible for brain metastases”
15:25 – 15:30 Discussion
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 – 16:20
Cathrin Brisken
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland / ICR, London, UK
Title: “The biology of metastasis of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer or how to deal with sleeping cells”
16:20 – 16:30 Discussion
16:30 – 16:40
Leticia Castillon
University of Helsinki, Finland
Title: “Transcriptional injury responses link ageing and carcinogenesis in the kidney “
16:40 – 16:45 Discussion
16:45 – 17:05
Thomas Brabletz
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen,
Germany
Title: “EMT and cell plasticity in cancer – driving force and therapeutic target”
17:05 – 17:15 Discussion
17:15 Closing of Day 1
17:30 – 19:30
Poster session 1 & drinks reception
7 November
08:30 – 09:10
Registration
09:10 – 15:30
09:10 – 09:15
Introduction
09:15 – 09:45
Leila Akkari
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Title: “Unveiling the determinants of myeloid cell heterogeneity in cancer”
09:45 – 10:00 Discussion
10:00 – 10:20
Erik Sahai
The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Title: “Evolutionary links between metastasis and therapy resistance”
10:20 – 10:30 Discussion
10:30 – 10:40
Panagiotis Karras
VIB Leuven, Belgium
Title: “Intratumor heterogeneity unravels organ-induced cellular programs favoring melanoma metastasis”
10:40 – 10:45 Discussion
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 – 11:35
Karin de Visser
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands/
Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Title: “Dissecting how breast tumors hijack myelopoiesis to promote metastasis”
11:35 – 11:45 Discussion
11:45 – 11:55
Marta Fidalgo
Institut d’investigació contra la leucèmia Josep Carreras, Spain
Title: “Endothelial cell-mediated signaling drives breast cancer metastasis and dormancy exit in bone”
11:55 – 12:00 Discussion
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch & poster session 2
14:00 – 14:20
Manuel Valiente
CNIO, Madrid, Spain
Title: “Strategies to challenge brain metastasis lethality and to improve quality of life in mice and human”
14:20 – 14:30 Discussion
14:30 – 14:40
Guillem Estivill
IMP, Vienna, Austria
Title: “Cancer cells impair monocyte-mediated intratumoral T cell stimulation to evade immunity”
14:40 – 14:45 Discussion
14:45 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 – 17:10
15:30 – 15:40
Introduction
15:40 – 16:00
Christine Desmedt
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Title: “Opportunities and challenges of rapid autopsies to advance metastatic cancer research”
16:00 – 16:10 Discussion
16:10 – 16:20
Ioanna Mavrommati
ICR, UK
Title: “Deconvoluting the intra-tumour heterogeneity and subclonal evolution of CDK4/6 inhibitor resistance in ER+ breast cancer”
16:20 – 16:25 Discussion
16:25 – 16:35
Gitte Zels
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Title: “Characterization of clinically relevant biomarkers in metastatic triple negative breast cancer in a post-mortem tissue donation cohort”
16:35 – 16:40 Discussion
16:40 – 17:00
Jean-Christophe Marine
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Title: “Studying melanoma evolution one cell at the time”
17:00 – 17:10 Discussion
17:10
Closing of day 2
8 November
08:30 – 09:10
Registration
09:10 – 12:00
09:10 – 09:15
Introduction
09:15 – 09:45
Joan Massagué
Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, USA
Title: “Metastasis initiating cells and immune ecosystems”
09:45 – 10:00 Discussion
10:00 – 10:45
Tanja Spanic – Patient advocate session
Europadonna
Title: TBA
10:45 – 11:25 Coffee break
11:25 – 11:45
Anwesha Dey
Department of Molecular Oncology, Genentech Inc., South
San Francisco, USA
Title: “Targeting the Hippo pathway in cancers”
11:45 – 11:55 Discussion
11:55 – 12:05
Jomar Sangalang
Universite Paris-Saclay, France
Title: “Epigenetic, transcriptomic and genetic analyses of HR+/HER2- primary and metastatic breast cancer reveals heterogeneous mechanisms of endocrine therapy resistance”
12:05 – 12:10 Discussion
12:10 – 12:30
Poster prizes and closing remarks
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch break – finger food [Workshop attendees]
13:30 – 15:30
Workshop – Careers after PhD [Students]
15:30 – 16:00
Coffee & Departure
Speakers
Keynote speakers
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Leila Akkari
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leila Akkari Group
EMBO Young Investigator Lecture
Leila Akkari
Leila Akkari was educated in cellular and molecular biology at the university of Montpellier in France, and did her master in oncology and immunology between Montpellier and Manchester in England. She was awarded her PhD in health sciences from the molecular genetics institute of Montpellier and subsequently joined Prof. Johanna Joyce’s laboratory at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, USA, occupying a post-doctoral position. Her main research focus at the time was in the pro-tumorigenic role of macrophages in multiple tumor microenvironments.
In 2017, Leila Akkari started her own research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, which focuses on the microenvironment-mediated mechanisms of tumor maintenance and therapeutic resistance to therapy in brain and liver malignancies. Her laboratory uses murine models of cancer to develop and test microenvironment-targeted drugs in a stage-dependent and population-dependent manner.
Recently, Leila Akkari was awarded with the EMBO Young Investigator Program Awardee, and during her career, Leila’s work has been distinguished with the award of several renowned grants.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Joan Massagué
Joan Massagué
Joan Massagué earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Barcelona in 1978. 10 years later he joined the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and in 2014 was named the director of the Sloan Kettering Institute. Along with many scientific achievements, doctor Massagué is credited with the discovery of the dual role of TGFβ in inhibiting and activating cancer cells, highlighting its significance in cancer progression. More recently, the Massagué Lab published a report in Nature cancer regarding the origin of metastases, opening the path to better cancer treatments. Currently, the Massague’s lab in New York is mainly interested in investigating metastatic stem cells and their stromal niches, with a focus on the role of TGFβ in the immune regulatory and regenerative signals. The main goal is to identify drug targets and enable clinical trials to treat metastasis.
Among many renowned awards and grants in the past 50 years of his career, more recently, in 2016, Massagué was awarded the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research and became a fellow of the AACR academy.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Frederic de Sauvage
Frederic de Sauvage
Frederic de Sauvage received his PhD from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1990. He then moved to San Francisco to start a position in Genentech, where he is currently fulfilling the role of Vice-President of the Molecular Oncology department. In the past 34 years at Genentech, Frederic published more than 180 publications and, in 2011, was distinguished with the achievement in advancing targeted therapies for cancer and melanoma from the American skin association. In 2016 he was elected as fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sauvage’s lab is studying and targeting several signaling pathways which were shown to be crucial for development in most organs such as Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch. Over the years, it has become clear that these pathways may play a role in tumorigenesis when expressed in adults. Frederic’s lab explores the role of this pathways with the aim of identifying novel therapies that may benefit patients who cannot be treated with surgery or radiation.
Speakers
SPEAKER
Anwesha Dey
Anwesha Dey
Anwesha Dey, received her PhD from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, where she was awarded with the 1st place in the Graduate Research Conference from the same university. She then was a postdoctoral fellow, first, at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore, and then at Genentech where she is currently the head of her own laboratory, and a director and distinguished scientist.
Dr. Dey’s lab focuses on gaining new insights into signaling pathways in cancer biology. They are interested in identifying and validating new targets to contribute to drug discovery and development of new treatments. Having access to both cutting edge basic biology and translational tools allows them to bring their science discoveries closely to therapeutic intervention to potentially directly help patients. In particular, they focus their research in the hippo signaling pathways and how it is deregulated in cancer and in the thorough investigation of the tumor suppressor BAP1 and its roles in cancer, metabolism and development. To do so, they take advantage of biochemical and proteomics tools and cellular and mouse models.
Besides running her own lab, Anwesha is a postdoc mentor in the Genentech postdoctoral program, where she takes the opportunity to collaborate with excellent scientists across multiple disciplines. During her time in Genentech, Dr. Anwesha Dey has published more than 34 renowned publications.
SPEAKER
Cathrin Brisken
Cathrin Brisken
Cathrin Brisken received her MD and PhD degree from the Georg August University of Göttingen, in Germany. After that, Dr. Brisken held appointments at different renowned cancer centers and conducted her postdoctoral work in cancer biology with Dr. R.A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, USA.
Currently, the Brisken laboratory focuses on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of estrogen and progesterone receptor signaling in the breast and their role in carcinogenesis. In order to better prevent and treat disease, they aim at better understanding how current exposures to endogenous and exogenous hormones may contribute to breast carcinogenesis. Cathrin Brisken and her team were pioneers in developing in vivo approaches to genetically dissect the role of the reproductive hormones in driving gland development and how they control intercellular communication. Among other things, they’ve developed ex vivo and humanized mouse models using patient samples to study hormone action in human tissues in homeostasis and during disease progression.
Dr. Brisken is member of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG), served as dean of EPFL doctoral school, was a member of the Hinterzartener Kreis and numerous other Swiss, European and AACR committees. Besides that, Dr. Brisken co-founded the International Cancer Prevention Institute.
SPEAKER
Christine Desmedt
Christine Desmedt
Christine Desmedt received her bio-engineer degree in Cells and Genes Biotechnology from KU Leuven. She then started working as a clinical monitor for the Breast European Adjuvant Studies Group, at the Jules Bordet Institute, in Brussels. In 2003, she joined the Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, in the same institute, to start her PhD. Until 2018, she was the translational research coordinator of the lab. She was also a visiting scientist for several months at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, in the Cancer Genome Project lab. In 2018, Dr. Desmedt was appointed as assistant professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where she is the head of the laboratory for translational breast cancer research.
Her lab focuses on understanding the risk of recurrence to guide treatment decisions for patients with luminal breast cancer. Dr. Desmedt and her colleagues aim to identify features of tumor cells and their microenvironment which may be associated with disease recurrence. To do so, they use a panoply of cutting-edge technologies such as single nuclei RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics. These studies will generate important insights that will ultimately allow the refinement of risk assessment and treatment decisions for breast cancer patients.
At the moment, Christine serves as co-leader of the Breast Cancer group of the Leuven Cancer Institute together with Prof. Dr. Hans Wildiers. She is also the co-developer of the breast cancer research autopsy program at UZ/KU Leuven with Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Floris. Moreover, Dr. Christine has been involved in many different leadership duties such as being the vice-president of the COST Action Lobsterpot which is devoted to lobular breast cancer research and being the co-coordinator of the Cancer Program of the Doctoral School of Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven.
SPEAKER
Colinda Scheele
Colinda Scheele
Colinda Scheele received a master in biomedical sciences from Utrecht University and developed her PhD research in the lab of Prof. Jacco van Rheenen at the Hubrecht Institute and the Netherlands Cancer Institute. During her PhD, her main research focus was to study how the mammary stem cells contribute to tumor initiation and progression and to develop her project, Colinda was awarded a prestigious Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD fellowship.
In 2020, Colinda joined the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology as a junior group leader. Her laboratory focuses on morphogenesis, homeostasis, and tumorigenesis of epithelial organs. They are particularly interested in understanding how the architecture and environment of the healthy tissue can modulate the different steps of tumorigenesis. The main techniques used in Scheele’s lab involve state-of-the-art imaging approaches complemented with spatial omics protocols and quantitative modeling to further elucidate the mechanisms of tissue transformation.
To acknowledge her extraordinary research into stem cells and the development of breast cancer, Colinda was awarded the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award in 2020 from the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
SPEAKER
Erik Sahai
Erik Sahai
Erik Sahai received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University College of London, in the UK. His PhD project focused on the study of RhoGTPases and their effectors and was done under the supervision of Richard Treisman. He then carried out postdoctoral work both in London and in New York. In 2004, Dr. Sahai established his laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, which is now a part of the Francis Crick Institute, where Erik Sahai is, since 2015, a group leader.
Erik’s lab studies how cancer spreads through the body and why it becomes resistant to cancer therapies, two of the most lethal aspects of cancer.
By carefully studying patient data and experimental models, they have been trying to uncover recurring patterns in the behavior of cancer. Their main focus is the study of the crosstalk between cancer cells and their surroundings, investigating the genetic and molecular changes that enable cancer cells to break away and start moving towards new sites. Using cutting-edge microscopy techniques to track the growth and spread of tumors inside a living organism and by modeling the complex dialogue between the cancer cells and the normal cells in their environment, the goal is to elucidate how this communication might accelerate metastasis or prevent chemotherapy from working. The Sahai laboratory is leading to new ways to predict how the disease will spread and pointing towards potential targets for treatments that can prevent it.
Among other discoveries, Dr. Erik revealed the diverse migration strategies that cancer cells adopt in three-dimensional environments, overturning the assumption that metastatic cancers used a common invasive program allowing therapies to work equivalently across all tumors.
SPEAKER
Jean-Christophe Marine
Jean-Christophe Marine
Jean-Christophe Marine received his PhD from the University of Liège in Belgium. He did a postdoc at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, USA, and worked at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. Since 2004, Dr. Marine is the head of the VIB Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Biology and was a EMBO Young Investigator in 2006.
His lab focuses on the identification and characterization of cancer growth modulators, such as p53. Their goal is to understand how the genes that are implicated in cancer control fundamental cellular processes in normal cells. They aim at understanding how mechanisms by which non-mutational events interfere with these natural processes to promote tumor development and to affect therapy outcome. In particular, they are interested in aberrant RNA biology in cancer and in targeting the cancer cell specific malignant RNAs. To do so, they take advantage of technologies such as mouse genetics and patient-derived xenograft models, which allows them to study cancer gene function in vivo and to test novel therapeutic modalities. Apart from their interest in the p53 tumor suppressor, they recently acquired a growing interest in melanoma biology. Putting their efforts together might result in new and improved combined therapies for cancer patients.
Apart from leading his own group, Dr. Marine is currently the science director of VIB-KU Leuven Center for cancer biology and a full professor at the department of Oncology in the KU Leuven, Belgium.
SPEAKER
Karin de Visser
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands/
Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Karin de Visser
Karin de Visser received her PhD in tumor immunotherapy from the department of immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, in Amsterdam. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in San Francisco, USA, where she developed an active interest in the interplay between the adaptive and innate immune system during cancer development. In 2005, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Jos Jonkers in Amsterdam, and focused her research in the field of inflammation and mammary carcinogenesis, using conditional mouse models. Currently, Dr. Visser leads her own group at the division of Tumor Biology and Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and at the Oncode Institute alongside with being a professor of Experimental Immunobiology of Cancer at the Leiden University Medical Center.
Her group focuses on understanding by which mechanisms the immune system influences metastatic breast cancer. Among many other findings, Dr. Karin’s group identified how mammary tumors induce a systemic inflammatory response that facilitates metastasis formation and how the genetics make-up of breast cancer dictates systemic pro-metastatic inflammation. Through mechanistic understanding of the crosstalk between the immune system and cancer, her lab aims to contribute to the design of novel immunomodulatory strategies to fight metastatic breast cancer.
Across her career, Karin de Visser has been awarded with renowned grants and awards, among them an ERC consolidator grant in 2014 and, more recently, a prestigious NOW-VICI grant. In 2015, she was awarded with the Metastasis Research Prize of the Beug Foundation, and in 2016, was selected as a member of the EMBO young investigator program.
SPEAKER
Manuel Valiente
Manuel Valiente – CNIO, Madrid, Spain
Manuel Valiente
Manuel Valiente has a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Zaragoza and in 2009 he obtained a PhD in Neuroscience developed in the laboratory of Dr. Oscar Marín. During his PhD, Manuel developed several projects with the common goal of understanding the principles that govern the migration of neuronal precursors that established functional circuits in the adult brain. In 2010, Manuel joined the laboratory of Joan Massagué, in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York, USA. During his stay in the MAssagué lab, Manuel discovered the molecular bases of high inefficiency in the metastatic colonization of the brain and identified a cell adhesion molecule critical for vascular co-option.
In 2015, Dr. Valiente established his own group at the CNIO. The focus of his group is to discover critical aspects of the biology of brain metastasis that can be directed towards the development of new therapeutic opportunities. Using innovative approaches, experimental mouse models and patient-derived materials, they aim to understand how metastatic cells from different cancer types can get access to the brain, survive and colonize this vital organ. Ultimately, this knowledge will be translated into more and better prevention and treatment opportunities for patients with secondary brain tumors.
Among several grants and awards, Dr. Valiente is a Ramón y Cajal investigator (2013) and the beneficiary of the IX FERO Fellowship. In 2010, he received a Hope Funds for Cancer Research postdoctoral Award and more recently, in 2015, he received the ADEA Innovation Award.
SPEAKER
Thomas Brabletz
Thomas Brabletz
Thomas Brabletz received his MD and PhD from the University of Würzburg, in Germany. He continued his postdoctoral studies in the department of pathology of the same university which was followed by several positions as a scientist and professor in the Friedrich-Alexander University. Since 2014, Thomar Brabletz is a full professor of molecular oncology and chairman of the department of experimental medicine in the University of Erlangen, in Germany.
His lab focuses mainly on malignant cancer progression, in particular mechanisms of invasion and metastasis, making the effort to integrate both basic and clinically relevant cancer research. Thomas proposed a concept of transient rounds of EMT and MET, resulting in aberrant cellular plasticity and in the generation of ‘migrant cancer stem cells’ which are the driving force of metastasis. Currently, the major interests of his work relate to elucidating underlying mechanisms between EMT-inducers, oncogenic pathways and microRNAs, so they can serve as a basis for novel therapeutic strategies to fight cancer metastasis.
Dr. Brabletz work has been recognized with renowned grants and awards including the German Cancer Award in 2018. More recently, in 2019, Dr. Brabletz became a member of the German Academy of Sciences and received a Betty Hay Oration Award of the International EMT Association.
Patient advocate
SPEAKER
Tanja Spanic
Tanja Spanic
Tanja Spanic is a professional patient advocate and current president of Europa Donna Slovenia and past president of Europa Donna – The European Breast Cancer Coalition.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 26. A year after her diagnosis, she joined Europa Donna Slovenia. Since then, she is an active breast cancer advocate nationally and internationally.
Currently she has active roles as faculty member at BCY and EBCC, in steering committee of clinical trial OlympiA and in POSITIVE trial, as chair of ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group and member of ESMO policy making group, she is a member of EBCTCG at Oxford, and Lancet Oncology Breast Cancer
Commission team. In Slovenia she is a member of Ethical committee at Institute of Oncology, and of steering committee for screening programs at Ministry of Health and a member of Health council at Ministry of Health. She is co-author in several breast cancer scientific papers.
She has a professional background in veterinary medicine, and she has a PhD in molecular and behavioral neuroscience.
“Careers after PhD” workshop
SPEAKER
Juliet Wairimu Frederiksen
Juliet Wairimu Frederiksen
Juliet Frederiksen obtained a PhD in Bioinformatics at the Technical university of Denmark. Juliet’s work was mainly focused on using several bioinformatic methods to analyze single-cell data. During her PhD she also had the opportunity to do an external stay at the Dana Pe’er laboratory at the Columbia University in New York, where she applied her bioinformatics knowledge in the analysis of single-cell data in Cancer Immunotherapy studies. She then started working at Intomics, as a bioinformatics consultant followed by a project manager position. In this experience, Juliet was developing projects for clients mainly focusing on target and biomarkers discovery. Still at Intomics, Juliet became a team leader focusing in disease systems biology and biomarker discovery, where her responsibilities encompassed a wide range of skills including hiring, coaching, negotiation with clients and project development. More recently, in 2022, Juliet became a bioinformatics manager for ZS, where her main responsibilities stand on stakeholder management, team leadership, key account management and coaching. Across her career, Juliet has gained valuable experience in uncovering complex disease mechanisms for therapeutic interventions with the objective of improving patient care, alongside with insightful experience in management, strategic thinking and business development in fast-paced environments.
SPEAKER
Felix Holstein
Felix Holstein
Felix Holstein was trained in Biomedicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and in Munich. He recently finished his PhD in the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, under the supervision of Dr. Anna Obenauf. His focus during his PhD was to study possibilities to circumvent cancer immune evasion, during which he was awarded the Lauwers Award from IMP. Currently, Dr. Holstein is a medical manager at Novartis in Wien, Österreich, Austria.
SPEAKER
Frances Turrell
Frances Turrell
Frances Turrell has received her PhD from the university of Cambridge in 2017 after developing a project on p53 in lung cancer in the lab of Dr. Carla Martins. She then followed with a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Clare Isacke at the ICR in London, England. In 2024 she became a full-time lecturer in cancer biology in the university of Manchester and a junior PI, leading her own research group.
SPEAKER
Soufiane Boumahdi
Soufiane Boumahdi
Soufiane Boumahdi completed his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Cédric Blanpain in Brussels, Belgium. He then followed his PhD with a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Frederic de Sauvage in San Francisco, USA. Over the course of his PhD and Postdoc, Soufiane has acquired expertise in several molecular oncology techniques which include, cell-based assays, in vivo modeling, several omics techniques and cell engineering. Some of Dr. Boumahdi’s topics of interest across the years have been cancer stem cells, cell plasticity, tumor heterogeneity and resistance to therapy. In his career, Dr. Soufiane has published several high impact articles and he is currently a Senior Scientist at iTeos Therapeutics, in Gosselies, Belgium.
SPEAKER
Veronica Caraffini
Veronica Caraffini
Veronica Caraffini completed her PhD in molecular medicine and accepted a postdoctoral position with the intention of becoming a principal investigator. During this period Veronica realized that maybe the traditional academic career path was not aligned with her career vision and decided to apply to a blue book traineeship. The blue book traineeship is a very competitive program and Veronica got accepted into the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA). In this position Veronica’s work’s goal was to get an overview of the type of research that was funded by the ERC funding program and identifying those contributing to three key policy areas of the European Union. To develop this task, Veronica had to collaborate and work closely with stakeholders, the ERC scientific council, teams from different research fields, and communication teams. Currently Veronica thrives as Project Adviser at the European Research ERCEA.
SPEAKER
María García Fernández
María García Fernández
María García Fernández received her PhD in Biology from the University of Seville, where she studied the physiology of acute hypoxia and hypoglycemia sensing. After her PhD, María held several postdoctoral positions at the Rockefeller University in New York, in the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO, Madrid) and The University of Cambridge, where she studied how the bone marrow microenvironment regulates cancer-stem cells during the development of Leukemia. As a result from several years of scientific research, Dr. García Fernández has several high-impact scientific publications.
In January of 2019, Dr. María García Fernández joined Nature Communications. Currently María is the Locum Chief Editor of the cancer team, in Springer Nature at UK, which covers a broad spectrum of cancer research: from molecular and biological advances to therapeutic implications, from the genetic basis of cancer predisposition to the investigation of the mechanisms behind specific driver mutations. Thus, María handles a variety of manuscripts related to topics such as cancer metabolism, blood cancer and cancer clinical trials. She is currently based in the London office.
Travel
Venue
Auditoire Madeleine De Genst (W building)
Erasme campus, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Route de Lennik 808,
1070 Brussels
ULB Erasme
Hotel suggestions
City center
Ibis Brussels off Grand Place
Grasmarkt 100, Rue du Marché aux Herbes 100, 1000 BRUSSELS, Belgique
City center
Motel one Brussels
Motel One Bruselas, Rue Royale/Koningsstraat 120, 1000 Brussels, Belgique
Near venue
Ibis Brussels Erasmus
- Route De Lennik 790, Anderlecht, 1070 Brussels, Belgique
How to arrive
From City Center to venue (Hotel 1 and 2)
- By metro: The Hotels are situated 25 minutes by metro from the venue (Take metro Line 5 at Gare Central – drop off at Erasme station).
By taxi: 30 minutes
From Airport to City Center
Zaventem Airport
- By train: from Zaventem Airport to Gare Central/Schuman: 15 – 20 min
- By bus: from Zaventem Airport to City Center (9 stops) : 20 – 40 min
By taxi: 35 min
Charleroi Airport
- By bus: from Charleroi to City Center (Gare du Midi): 55 min
By taxi: 15-20 min
From airport to venue
- By metro: Go to city center and take Metro – Line 5 from Gare Central or Schuman, or take a taxi (information above)
- By taxi
From train station (Gare du Midi) to venue
- By metro: 25 min
- Take Line 2 (Simonis) or 6 (Roi Baudouin) from Gare du Midi to Beekkant (4 stops)
- Take Line 5 (Erasme) from Beekkant to Erasme (10 stops)
- By taxi: 20-25 min
