Program

Michael Birnbaum is an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT. He received his PhD in Immunology from Stanford University. At Stanford, he worked under Chris Garcia to study the molecular mechanisms of T cell receptor recognition, cross-reactivity, and activation. For the past six years, his lab in the Koch Institute has been developing ways to engineer immune recognition and signaling. 

Michael SAUER is Associated Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research aims at microbial production of base chemicals from renewable resources. Metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering are combined to provide microbial processes of industrial relevance. One focus is on the characterization and optimization of natural producers, exploiting natural diversity. Particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts are of industrial interest, due their high stress tolerance. A second line of research is dedicated to the development of synthetic tools aiding metabolic engineering approaches with a focus on microbial transport processes. The cellular membrane is a focal point to shield living cells from detrimental influences of the surroundings on the other hand overcoming of the membrane is a potential bottleneck for substrate uptake and product export as well.

Marie-Theres Hauser studied biotechnology and food technology at the BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. After her doctoral studies at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany on naked RNA plant pathogens called viroids she did her Postdoc years financed by a FWF Schrödinger fellowship at New York University. Since then and back at BOKU in the Department of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology, she employs the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to discover fundamental aspects of plant development. These projects focus on the molecular genetic analyses of cytoskeletal components and vesicles in cell division, cell wall biosynthesis and sensing, molecular responses to adverse environments such as increased levels of UV-B, mycotoxins and imbalances of metal ions affecting plant nutrition and growth. In recent years her research group broadens and translates their studies also to “useful” plant species such as willows, peaches and barley.

Wolfram Weckwerth is Full Professor at the University of Vienna and founding director of the Vienna Metabolomics Center. He integrates system-theoretical concepts with genome-scale molecular analysis using genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics – a PANOMICS platform - to understand and predict the genotype- environment-phenotype-map (GxExP). He investigates plants, microbes, animal and human systems and their interactions. Working in the field of metabolomics since 2000, he has pioneered systems biology and metabolomics, proteomics and phosphoproteomics platforms. Wolfram Weckwerth coined the term Green Systems Biology which integrates concepts of Agroecology, System Theory, Sustainability, Biotechnology up to Public Health. He has authored more than 240 publications with an H-Index of 72 (google scholar July 2022).

Tina Romeis studied Biochemistry and obtained her PhD in Microbiology in Tübingen. After postdoctoral research stays in Munich. GER, and Norwich, UK, she returned as independent group leader and Sofia-Kovalevskaja prize awardee to the MPI for Plant Breeding in Cologne, GER. In 2004 Tina became full professor for ‘Plant Biochemistry’ at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2019 she is Director and head of department for ‘Biochemistry of Plant Interactions’ at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle (Saale). Tina‘s reserach investigates signal transduction in plant pathogen interactions with a biochemical focus on protein kinases and calcium signalling that mediate plant growth, plant resistance to microbial pathogen attack, or plant tolerance to abiotic stress.

Lea Ann Dailey is a pharmacist by training and completed her PhD at the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, on the topic of biocompatibility testing of polymeric nanoparticles for the controlled release of drugs in the lung.  She continued working in the field of formulation science for inhalation therapies at Nektar Therapeutics (now Novartis, San Carlos, CA, USA), followed by positions at King’s College London, UK, the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, and the University of Vienna. Her research has focussed on the design of novel dosage forms for the delivery of antibiotics to the lung as well as the biocompatibility assessment of novel excipients for inhaled therapies.

Dr. med. Annika Y. Classen is working as a clinician scientist at the University Hospital Cologne (Germany) in the Department I for Internal Medicine. She is part of the clinical research group Cohorts in Infection Research (lead: Prof. Dr. Janne Vehreschild) that focuses on the evaluation of strategies against the development of antimicrobial resistance. As a postdoc she joined the Bacteriophage working group of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ, Braunschweig (Germany) in 2021 in order to evaluate the potential of phages for prevention and treatment of infections caused by multiresistant bacterial pathogens.

This session will focus on bridging the gap between basic research and potential clinical application in the field of cancer research. We will address two relevant aspects: (I) the exploration of biomarkers for use in the diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of cancer and (II) the application of three-dimensional (3D) culture systems in cancer research. In recent years, the search for cancer specific biomarkers has gained increasing attention in the global scientific community due to the need for new strategies for early cancer detection and new therapeutic approaches. There is also an increasing interest in three dimensional in vitro culture systems. When conducting 3D cell culture experiments, the cell environment can be engineered to imitate the in vivo situation and provide more accurate data on cell-cell interactions, tumor properties or metabolic profiles. 3D cell culture has the potential to provide alternative ways to investigate tumor characteristics and is expected to be able to eventually close the gap between 2D cell culture and animal models.

Heidi Fiegl is a molecular biologist and lecturer in Experimental Gynaecology at the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI), Austria. After completing her PhD studies at the Leopold-Franzens-University in Innsbruck, she started working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (MUI) in 2001. In 2005 she moved to University College London and in 2006 to the Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute in Innsbruck. During this time she worked intensively on DNA methylation aberrations in female malignancies. In 2007 she returned with an Elise Richter Fellowship to the MUI and established a research group at the Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. In 2008 she received the venia docendi, since 2010 she is the head of the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory and since 2014 she is Assoc. Professor. Her scientific work now focuses on translational research in women's cancers. She is the author of over 100 scientific publications in international journals.

Michael Bergmann, received an MD at the Medical University of Vienna (MUV). After a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Palese at Mount Sinai Medical School, New York on genetic engineering of influenza A virus he did a residency in general surgery at the MUV, specialized in colorectal surgery and became Associate Professor of Surgery in 2003. Dr. Bergmann established the first oncolytic influenza A virus, contributed to the understanding of toll-like-3 receptor signalling for apoptosis during viral infections and described an impact of retro-transposons to telomere regulation in tumor cells. With respect to clinical tumor immunology he investigated the impact of radiotherapy on the tumor microenviroment, designed prospective study protocols investigating immune checkpoint inhibitors during radio-chemotherapy in rectal cancer and the value of nuclear imaging to detect immune checkpoint molecules in gastrointestinal cancer.

Professor Martin Widschwendter is the Director of the European Translational Oncology Prevention and Screening (EUTOPS) Institute, University of Innsbruck, Austria, its core mission being to enable effective risk prediction, screening, and early detection of cancers using a systems biology approach. He is also Professor in Women’s Cancer at University College London, UK, (where he was the Head of Department of Women’s Cancer for almost 10 years until 2020) and Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist, Guest Professor at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and FRCOG (Fellows ad eundem) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, UK. Prof Widschwendter has been PI and Coordinator of several EU projects including FP7, H2020, and was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. He is an author on more than 200 papers, has contributed to numerous textbooks, secured substantial grant income, and lectured widely on his research/clinical experience.

Herta Steinkellner is a professor at the Department of Applied Genetics and Cell biology at University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU-Vienna). She is a molecular biologist working in the area of plant biotechnology. Her main interest is the expression of recombinant proteins in plants and engineering of posttranslational modifications like the glycosylation to enhance protein activity. She has published over 100 publication including highly prestigious journals like PNAS and nature (h index > 55) and is editorial board member of several scientific journals (like Plant Biotec Journal).

Richard Strasser is head of the Plant Molecular Glycobiology group at the Institute of Plant Biotechnology and Cell Biology at BOKU Vienna. During the last 25 years his research has focused on the characterization of protein glycosylation and N-glycan biosynthesis pathways in plants. His research activities are directed towards obtaining a detailed mechanistic insight into cellular processes like protein folding, protein quality control or protein degradation that involve glycosylation. He has also pioneered the development of glyco-engineering approaches in plants that allow controlled glycan modifications on recombinant proteins for functional analyses and rational design for improved properties and therapeutic potential.

Jie has a broad interest in biosynthesis and regulation of phytonutrients and approaches for nutrition enhancement in crops. In particular she is researching the biofortification of crop plants to provide healthy food. Vitamin D insufficiency is a highly prevalent health problem, with approximately 1 billion people affected world-wide. Jie investigates biofortification strategies of vitamin D in plants, which are generally very poor dietary sources of vitamin D. Jie is also interested in how crops can be fortified with other phytonutrients, such as carotenoids and polyphenols, to improve diets and address the growing challenge of escalating chronic disease. Jie is a board member of the EDESIA PhD programme to advance major aspects of plant-based nutrition and health. Prior to this she completed a Rotation PhD in plant biology at the John Innes Centre, funded by the John Innes Foundation.

Dr. Mouquet earned a MS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and a PhD in Immunology from the University of Rouen (Normandy, France). He performed his post-doctoral trainee in the laboratory of Michel C. Nussenzweig at the Rockefeller University (2007-2013), where he studied B-cell antibody response to HIV-1, isolated and characterized HIV-1 bNAbs. In 2013, Hugo started his group as a young investigator in the immunology department of the Institut Pasteur, supported by an ERC starting grant award. He currently heads the laboratory of Humoral Immunology at the Institut Pasteur. His lab investigates the humoral responses to pathogens in humans with a focus on HIV-1, Hepatitis viruses and emerging infections, and a dual interest in basic and translational research.

Claus is an academically trained biochemist (Free-University Berlin, AG Knaus), fine artist (Academy of Fine Arts Dresden, class of Susan Philipsz) and musician from Berlin. He is currently studying the master program Art&Science at the University of Applied Art Vienna. His main interests are the non-human and science theory, that which he narrates and researches through a multi-media art practice and in collaboration with scientists. His works make use of sound and music, moving image and objects to demonstrate how a human condition is embedded in a scientific practice. He has worked with chemical regimes of production, biotechnology, radio and micrography.

Axel Brakhage holds a Full-Professorship at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, with simultaneous appointment to Head of Department and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena, Germany. He is the spokesperson of the interdisciplinary consortium InfectControl, of the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” and the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio on human pathogenic fungi - FungiNet. He serves as senator of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and as Vice-President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. His research is devoted to (i) structuring of microbiomes by natural products, (ii) biotechnological development of natural products as drugs and (iii) infection biology of human-pathogenic fungi, in particular of Aspergillus fumigatus, also including natural products and the development of anti-infective strategies.

References: eLife 2018; ISME J 2020; eLife 2020; NAR 2020; PNAS 2021

Michael SAUER is Associated Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research aims at microbial production of base chemicals from renewable resources. Metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering are combined to provide microbial processes of industrial relevance. One focus is on the characterization and optimization of natural producers, exploiting natural diversity. Particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts are of industrial interest, due their high stress tolerance. A second line of research is dedicated to the development of synthetic tools aiding metabolic engineering approaches with a focus on microbial transport processes. The cellular membrane is a focal point to shield living cells from detrimental influences of the surroundings on the other hand overcoming of the membrane is a potential bottleneck for substrate uptake and product export as well.

Cornelia Kasper received her Diploma in Chemistry at the Leibniz University Hannover and graduated as Dr. rer. nat. at the Institute for Technical Chemistry.

From 2000-2011 Cornelia Kasper has been head of Cell Culture and Tissue Engineering Group at the Institute for Technical Chemistry, Leibniz University of Hannover. She was also head of young researcher group JRG “Large Scale Cultivation” within Cluster of Excellence “Rebirth” (from Regenerative Biology and Reconstructive Therapies). She finished her Habilitation on “New approaches in cell culture techniques”and received the Venia legendi “Technische Chemie” (2007).

Since October 2011 Cornelia Kasper has been appointed at BOKU as University Professor (§98) at the Department of Biotechnology and she is Head of Institute for Cell and Tissue Culture Technologies. The research group within the institute is on development and optimization of processes and physiological cell culture conditions for manufacturing cells and cell-based products for cell-based therapies. Furthermore, she is chair of the Equal Opportunity Working Party at BOKU.

Dominik Egger received his master's degree in Life Science at the University of Hannover in 2014. The master thesis was on the optimization of culture conditions for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with an emphasis on guided differentiation in 3D matrices. His research focused on the application of fluid shear stress with a specialized perfusion bioreactor.

He continued his doctoral studies on the conceptual implementation of physiologic culture conditions for human MSCs at Prof. Kasper's lab at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and finished his Ph.D. studies (Dr.rer.nat) with summa cum laude by 2017. Currently, he is working as a University Assistant and postdoctoral researcher on new approaches for the isolation and expansion of hMSCs with a focus on 3D cell culture and bioreactor technology.

Ulrike Köhl is a full Professor for Immune Oncology at University of Leipzig, Germany and the director of Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology since 2017 and holds the position of a full Professor and director of Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at Hannover Medical School since 2012. She holds a degree in biology supplemented by a medicine study. She worked at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, USA and at University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany. She is an international leading expert in the development and manufacturing of cell and gene therapies in cancer and regenerative medicine and collaborates with international partners. She has a specific own research focus on primary human NK cells as well as chimeric antigen receptor expressing T and NK effector cells. Her team has been responsible for one of the first NK cell trial in Europe. She is heading “SaxoCell”, an excellence cluster for cell and gene therapy; and two EU consortia (“Mature-NK” and IMI-“ImSAVAR”).

Dr. Tomislav Cernava is a tenure-track professor at Graz University of Technology (Austria) and a guest professor at Guizhou University (China). He is leading several national as well international research projects at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology in Austria, where he obtained his PhD in 2015. In addition, he serves as associate editor for the internationally renowned journal Microbiome and other journals in the broader field of microbiology. Dr. Cernava’s research focus is on the plant microbiome, strategy development for targeted modulation of microbial communities, deciphering of host-microbe interactions, and the application of “meta-omics” techniques as an explorative tool in environmental microbiology. So far, he has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, many of them in high-impact journals such as Nature Microbiology, Nature Plants, Microbiome, etc.

I´m a PostDoc at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology at the Technical University of Graz. I studied “Biodiversity and Ecology” and “Plant Sciences” in Graz and did my PhD in “Environmental Biotechnology”. During my first PostDoc at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, I focused mainly on science communication, where I was responsible for the MOOC Microbiome & Health (https://imoox.at/course/microbiome). In my second PostDoc at the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), I was working on the development of microbial products for diverse crop production systems. Currently, my work is based on the analytical and bioinformatic analysis of microbiomes, as well as state-of-the-art microscopic analyses. This includes e.g. research of plant and soil microbiomes, the investigation of environmentally associated resistomes and their importance for human health, biotechnological decontamination processes, and climate-relevant microbiome research.

Jillian is Associate Professor at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna. Following undergraduate studies in her native Australia, she studied and researched marine microbiology at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany. She was awarded a Vienna Research Group grant from the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, which brought her to Austria in 2015.

Verena Labi studied microbiology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. During her PhD she identified key roles for the BH3-only proteins BIM and BMF in lymphocyte development, autoimmunity and cancer (ÖAW fellow). Further studies suggest that blocking apoptosis may aid hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. After her PhD studies she left to Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (EMBO fellow). She revealed that the epigenetic TET enzymes, initiators of DNA demethylation, are vital for the establishment of B lymphocyte identity. Further, she explored the roles of the miR-17-92 microRNAs in B lymphocyte selection and embryonic development. In 2015 Verena became a junior group leader at the Institute of Developmental Immunology, Medical University of Innsbruck, and has been granted tenure in 2019. Using genetic mouse models and human/murine cell culture systems her research group focuses on molecular control mechanisms of cell fitness and fate decisions in the hematopoietic system.

I studied Biology at the University of Salzburg. To broaden my knowledge in cancer biology and biochemical methods as well as murine tumour models I moved to Vienna and joined the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Vienna in 2006. I started my PhD in Veronika Sexl’s lab analyzing the role of the cell cycle kinase CDK6 in lymphoid malignancy and disease. In a landmark paper published in Cancer Cell in 2013 we were able to demonstrate that CDK6 acts not only as a cell cycle kinase but also as a transcriptional regulator. Its functions are both kinase-dependent and kinase-independent, relevant in hematopoietic and leukemic stem cells. In 2012 I joined the lab of Dr. Tony Green at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in Cambridge, UK to improve my knowledge into translational medicine. To combine the novel knowledge with the work on CDK6 I returned to Vienna and I am currently establishing my own research group. Our focus lies on understanding mechanisms influencing certain cell cycle members and the different functions of these members, with a strong focus on CDK6 in hematopoietic diseases.

Astrid DÜRAUER is senior scientist and lecturer at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and head deputy of the Institute of Bioprocess Science and Engineering (IBSE), also Key Researcher for Bioprocess Engineering within the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib). She is head of a research group at with the focus on integrated process development considering the engineering aspect of non-chromatographic downstream processes, their scalability with special interest on miniaturization and automation as well as the set-up of online monitoring strategies for downstream processing. Since October 2021 she is coordinator of the BOKU DocSchool Bioprocess Engineering.

Lena Achleitner is a PhD Stundent in the doctoral school BioProEng at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. She has already presented her work on virus-like particle production in insect cells at international conferences and is now looking forward to introduce her colleagues at the ÖGMBT annual meeting as a session chair.

Stefan Hofbauer studied Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna. He joined the FWF doctoral school BioToP (https://biotop.boku.ac.at/) as a student working on the elucidation of structure-function relationsips of heme enzymes in 2011 and graduated in 2014. After two years as a Post-Doc, employed at the University of Vienna, he came back to BOKU as an FWF fellow focussing on studying molecular mechanisms of redox enzymes involved in prokaryotic heme biosynthesis. Monoderm bacteria synthesize heme, which is essential for survival, via a unique route that differs significantly from the human pathway. This makes enzymes of this monoderm route promising targets for novel antibiotic substances, highly needed to treat infections of pathogenic multi-resistant monoderm bacteria like S. aureus. He received his venia docendi/habilitation in the field of Molecular Enzymology in 2021. Following his habilitation he re-joined BioToP as a faculty member.

I was born and raised in the south of Austria (Fürstenfeld) but moved to Vienna to study Food and Biotechnology at BOKU University.

I obtained both my Master's and PhD in the group of Roland Ludwig (BOKU University), where I focused on the biochemical investigation of fungal redox enzymes. The activation and function of the lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases became a central point of my research.

In April 2018 I moved to Manchester to work as a PostDoc at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) in Prof. Nigel Scrutton´s group. Since 2020 I am a University Assistant with Prof. Robert Kourist at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology.

Scientific key qualifications:  Biocatalysis, Enzyme production and engineering, Protein spectroscopy

Most important research achievements: Schroedinger Fellowship (2018), OEGMBT Award (2016), Vincent Massey Award (2017), ICS Young Researcher Award (2022), 67^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (2017)

Chris Oostenbrink is professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and heads the Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation (BOKU). He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers involving computational approaches to describe complex biomolecular systems. He was brought to BOKU on a Vienna Science Chair by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) in 2009 and was a recipient of a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC). He heads the doctoral program Biomolecular Technology of Proteins (BioToP) in which 54 doctoral candidate are currently enrolled. His main research interests are the structure and function of complex biomolecular systems, through molecular simulations and the accurate description of molecular interactions.

Syma graduated with a first class degree in Chemistry from the University of Warwick in 2000. She remained at Warwick to read for a PhD under the supervision of Prof. P. Mark Rodger. After obtaining her PhD in 2003, she moved to the University of Oxford as a postdoc in Prof Mark Sansom’s lab, to study the structure-function relationship of bacterial outer membrane proteins. During her postdoctoral work, she also became interested in the application of molecular simulation techniques to problems in bionanotechnology. In 2007, she was appointed as RCUK fellow in chemical biology at the University of Southampton. In 2010, she was appointed to a full lectureship at Southampton.  She was promoted to Senior lecturer in 2012 and full Professor in 2016. In 2021 she was appointed as Professor of Computational Microbiology at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow at St Anne’s College. Syma is the chair of HECBioSim and is on the Council of the Biophysical Society

Paola Branduardi graduated cum Laude in Biological Sciences and received a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Milano. She moved in 2000 at the University of Milano Bicocca where she started to work on Industrial Biotechnology now covering the role of full professor in Chemistry of Fermentation and Industrial Microbiology. Paola’s group (https://indbiotechlab.btbs.unimib.it/) is interested in the development of sustainable microbial-based bioprocesses, as in the concept of biorefineries. This is pursued by tailoring microbial strains for the production of fine and bulk chemicals, biofuels, nutraceuticals. Synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, screening protocols and adaptive laboratory evolution are the approaches used to leverage microbial potential, including robustness against stress, to match industrial requirements.

Dr. Rozalyn Anderson is a Professor of Medicine and faculty member of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, and the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Her research investigates the biology of aging and what creates the age-associated increase in vulnerability to a spectrum of diseases and disorders. A primary focus is on the mechanisms of delayed aging by caloric restriction in mice and in monkeys, with a special emphasis on metabolism as a driver in aging and as a target for interventions to prevent age-related functional loss. Ongoing research on brain aging and the role of metabolism in neuronal health and resilience to disease as a function of age includes primary cell culture, mouse, and nonhuman primate studies.

Michael SAUER is Associated Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research aims at microbial production of base chemicals from renewable resources. Metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering are combined to provide microbial processes of industrial relevance. One focus is on the characterization and optimization of natural producers, exploiting natural diversity. Particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts are of industrial interest, due their high stress tolerance. A second line of research is dedicated to the development of synthetic tools aiding metabolic engineering approaches with a focus on microbial transport processes. The cellular membrane is a focal point to shield living cells from detrimental influences of the surroundings on the other hand overcoming of the membrane is a potential bottleneck for substrate uptake and product export as well.

Stefan Pflügl is a group leader for “Industrial biotechnology” at TU Wien and is affiliated with the Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) working on developing bioprocesses for microbial chemical production based on renewable resources. He completed stays abroad at the University of Kent and Technische Universität München. At TU Wien, his research focuses on the development of biocatalysts and bioprocessing strategies for the upgrading of gaseous and liquid one carbon compounds into value-added products such as chemicals, plastics, and fuels. The overall vision of his research is to contribute sustainable bioprocess solutions that could help the transition towards a circular bioeconomy.

The professorship for Microbial Biotechnology at the TUM Campus Straubing focuses on the development and optimization of microbial production processes for chemicals and fuels from renewable resources and systems-level physiological studies of microbes under industrial process conditions. To achieve this goal, we apply the methodology of metabolic engineering, systems biology and synthetic biology to exploit the potential of established and novel microbial systems for industrial biotechnology. The construction of tailor-made cell factories is carried out by modern methods of genetic engineering and is supported by metabolome analyzes. The development of a quantitative and systemic understanding of the metabolic performance of microbial platforms such as Vibrio natriegens, Pseudomonas putida, Hydrogenophaga pseudoflava and Corynebacterium glutamicum is essential in this context. 

Johannes Huppa is a molecular immunologist who graduated from the Free University of Berlin. As a PhD student he joined Hidde Ploegh’s lab at MIT and Harvard where he analyzed the assembly and degradation of the TCR-CD3 complex in the ER. At Stanford with Mark Davis and later as an independent PI at the Medical University of Vienna he devised live cell imaging modalities to study T-cell antigen recognition at the cell biological, biophysical and molecular level. He showed that continual TCR-engagement drives T helper cells to maintain the integrity of the immunological synapse, the area of T-cell contact with the antigen presenting cell, and unfold the full effector T-cell potential. With the use of advanced microscopy his Viennese team was able to demonstrate that TCRs and pMHCs act as monomeric entities within the immunological synapse. Furthermore, he and his team showed that sensitized antigen detection is mediated by short-lived TCR-pMHC interactions under the influence of piconewton forces. Recent advances concern analyses in viral infection, autoimmunity, non-HLA-allorecognition of transplants and cancer and include studies involving CAR-T-cells and T-cell engagers.

Christopher Campbell is an Associate Professor at the University of Vienna in the Max Perutz Labs, which he joined in 2015. His lab studies the causes and consequences of chromosomal instability. The lab aims to determine how cells prevent chromosome missegregation in mitosis by properly positioning the chromosomes on the metaphase plate. In addition, the lab strives to understand the downstream consequences of chromosome missegregation by studying the patterns of aneuploidy that emerge after extended periods of chromosomal instability. To achieve these goals, a large variety of genetic, cell biological, biochemical and genomic approaches are used, primarily in budding yeast and human cell culture.

Dea Slade is a molecular biologist heading two groups: DNA Damage Response and Transcription Regulation (Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter) and Molecular Radiobiology (MedAustron, Wiener Neustadt). Her groups study how different proteins ensure the maintenace of genomic and transcriptomic stability, which are often deregulated in cancer cells, and how how we can exploit inherent cancer vulnerabilities to induce synthethic lethality in combination with radiation therapy.

Randi G. Syljuåsen studied biophysics at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim, Norway (1986-1991), followed by PhD studies at University of California, Los Angeles, USA (1991-1996). Her PhD thesis was conducted at the Department of Radiation Oncology, UCLA. She was a postdoctoral scientist in radiobiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA (1997-1998). She then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Cell Cycle and Cancer at the Danish Cancer Society (1999-2006) and as a guest scientist at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, Copenhagen University (6 months in 2007). Since 2007 she has been leading the research group "Radiation Biology and DNA Damage Signaling" at the Department of Radiation Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital. The group focuses on DNA damage checkpoints, replication stress and repair after ionizing radiation.

This session will highlight how synthetic microbiology shapes strain development for the application in industrial bioprocesses. The session may cover synthetic metabolism, synthetic microbial consortia, conditional features controlled by biosensores and further strain characteristics with the potential to boost performance of industrial processes.

Volker F. Wendisch holds the Chair of Genetics of Prokaryotes at the Faculty of Biology at Bielefeld University, Germany. He is Deputy Scientific Director of the university’s Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) and speaker of its research area “Metabolic Engineering of Unicellular Systems and Bioproduction”.

Volker F. Wendisch received his diploma in biology from Cologne University, Germany. After having completed his PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology 1 of the Forschungszentrum Jülich in 1997, he worked as postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

From 2006 - 2009, he was Professor for Metabolic Engineering at the Münster University. His research interests concern genome-based metabolic engineering of industrially relevant microorganisms, systems and synthetic microbiology.

In 2019, he received the Distinguished Scientist Award Distinction from International Bioprocessing Association - An International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses.

Michael SAUER is Associated Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research aims at microbial production of base chemicals from renewable resources. Metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering are combined to provide microbial processes of industrial relevance. One focus is on the characterization and optimization of natural producers, exploiting natural diversity. Particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts are of industrial interest, due their high stress tolerance. A second line of research is dedicated to the development of synthetic tools aiding metabolic engineering approaches with a focus on microbial transport processes. The cellular membrane is a focal point to shield living cells from detrimental influences of the surroundings on the other hand overcoming of the membrane is a potential bottleneck for substrate uptake and product export as well.

Protein synthesis is a central process in every living cell and also a central research interest of our laboratory located at the Institute of Genomics and RNomics at the Medical University of Innsbruck. A fascinating aspect of translation is the necessity of modified RNA nucleotides to provide fast and accurate protein synthesis. All involved classes of RNAs, namely tRNAs, rRNAs and mRNAs, are decorated with numerous different modified nucleotides. In order to reveal their functional contributions, we employ chemically synthesized RNA derivatives, which are site-specifically incorporated into the RNA of interest. These modified RNAs are then tested in different translation systems to determine their impact on translation. Besides natural occurring modifications, also non-natural modifications can be introduced to enable the characterization of single chemical groups to provide a better understanding of molecular interactions during protein synthesis.

Alexandra Lusser is a professor of molecular biology at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Research in her lab deals with the study of the establishment, maintenance and modification of eukaryotic chromatin structure, in particular mechanisms of  chromatin remodeling and variant histone assembly. In addition, the lab is interested in “epitranscriptomic” mechanisms, such as mRNA base modifications (5-methylcytosine) and their potential roles for mRNA metabolism and translation.

Norbert Polacek is professor for biochemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Bern. During his research in Vienna (1996-2000), Berlin (1998-1999), Chicago (2000-2003), Innsbruck (2003-2011) and Bern (2011-now) he developed his interest in RNA biology with a special focus on molecular mechanisms of ribosome functions and small non-coding RNA regulators in health and disease. In order to address these topics and to uncover possible evolutionary relations between ncRNA regulators, the lab utilizes model systems spanning all three domains of life.  

Dr. Mikolaj Ogrodnik is a group leader at the LBG-Senescence and Healing of Wounds. He received his PhD at the Newcastle Institute for Ageing (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and did his post-doctoral research at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, US). Ogrodnik’s laboratory explores a wide range of subjects including the early-onset responses of skin to injury, the mechanisms of scar formation, molecular basis of cell senescence in skin, relationship between cytoskeletal proteins and cell migration and engineering of artificial skin. For that, the laboratory utilizes methods including high-resolution histology, in vitro cell culture, transgenic and wild-type pre-clinical models of wounding and ageing, bioinformatics including single-cell RNA sequencing and tissue engineering. The aim of this research is to broaden our understanding about healing and aging of skin and to improve the lives of people with non-healing wounds.

Dr. Markus Schosserer is a group leader at the Medical University of Vienna, Center for Pathobiochemistry and Genetics, Institute of Medical Genetics since 2022. He received his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in 2012. Since September 2020, he is module head of the CD-Lab for Multimodal Imaging of Aging and Senescence of the Skin (SkinMAGINE).

His research interests lie in geroscience, skin aging, and RNA biology, particularly RNA modifications, ribosomes, and protein translation. Markus Schosserer is also interested in advanced microscopy techniques, including Raman and STED.

Markus Schosserer co-authored more than 40 papers and presented his work at several national and international conferences, and seminars as an invited speaker. He won several posters and talk awards and collaborates actively with researchers in several other disciplines of aging research and RNA/ribosome biology.

Josh Bagley is a neuroscientist interested in game-changing technologies to discover next generation therapies for brain diseases. He currently holds a position as CSO of a:head bio AG, where he leads a diverse team of stem cell biologists, neuroscientists, neurophysiologists, and data scientists. From 2015 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Juergen Knoblich’s lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna, Austria where he designed advanced human brain organoids aiming to recapitulate the architecture and function of the developing brain. He obtained his PhD from University of California, San Francisco, where he studied genetic regulation of neuron morphology using fruit flies. Josh published as a first author in leading peer-reviewed journals and was awarded multiple prestigious fellowships. He is an outdoor aficionado and loves to climb the highest summits.

For more than 20 years of clinical experience as a horse surgeon, I saw so many patients devastated by arthritis, without satisfying treatment outcomes. When I became an arthritis patient myself, I learned firsthand that treatment outcomes are shockingly similar in human medicine.
Subsequently I founded PreGenerate, where our personalized approach offers a simple yet eloquent solution for the hundreds of millions of people suffering from this debilitating disease. I am honored to build this startup and vision as CEO with such a talented team and prestigious
advisors.

Matthias Brand, PhD, studied medical and molecular biotechnology in Milan (IT) and Zurich (CH). He specialized on targeted protein degradation via small molecules during his graduate studies with Georg Winter at CeMM in Vienna (AT). In particular, he worked on means to engineer selectivity into PROTACs and resistance mechanisms to this novel pharmacology. He furthermore contributed to the development of screening assays for the scalable identification of novel E3 modulators. Since 2020, he is VP Biology and co-founder of Proxygen, a biotech startup dedicated to the discovery and development of novel molecular glue degraders to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Dr. Matthias Hackl is the co-founder and CEO of TAmiRNA GmbH, which was founded in 2013 in Vienna, Austria. He holds a Ph.D. in biotechnology and, before co-founding TAmiRNA, developed and led genomic and transcriptomic research projects in academia, including fellowships at the University of Minnesota and the University Bielefeld to decipher the non-coding RNA transcriptome in mammalian cell lines. He has several years of experience in in-vitro diagnostics development with a focus on microRNA biomarkers and liquid biopsies. At TAmiRNA Dr. Hackl and his team are currently developing applications of microRNA biomarkers in the area of bone, cardiovascular, and liver disease, toxicology, and cellular senescence. Dr. Hackl has received Young Investigator Awards from ASBMR and ECTS for work on microRNA biomarkers discovery and validation in osteoporosis and has received several national entrepreneurship awards.

Johannes Hackethal has worked with over 10 years' experience in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. He has written many grants, published various human extracellular matrix (ECM) isolation papers and created invention reports/IP in that field during his doctoral thesis, which he accomplished 2018 at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) with distinction, with Prof. Heinz Redl (doctor father).

In 2020, he founded the spin-off THT-Biomaterials GmbH (The Human Touch; THT) from the LBI Trauma with the aim to establish an industrial human placenta ECM- based platform technology for Universities and Life Science Companies.

His farsighted vision aims to create an Affordable, Sustainable and Personalized Medicine for Society. THT Biomaterials is a member of TERMIS, EUSAAT, the Austrian 3R society, ÖGMBT, ÖPPM, the Austrian Cluster for Tissue Engineering, and others. Prizes 2021 “Top 10 Sallinger award”; 2022 “top 3 Mercur”, LUSH price candidate.

Representing is a method used by the arts and the sciences. Its history originates from religious bans of visual representations to ancient ideology. During the Renaissance these paradigms were translated into a scientific mode of representation that holds true to the present day. What all our representations - be they scientific or artistic - share is their exemplariness of our human senses. A case that is often ignored in quest of originality or truth. Our art is human art and our science is human science, or is it not?

This talk tries to draw a rough outline of the history of representations - and dares to pose the question what a beast science might look like.

Dr Zvjezdana Findrik Blažević is a full professor at the Department of Reaction Engineering and Catalysis at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology in the University of Zagreb, (Croatia). Her research focuses on studying biotransformations catalysed by purified enzymes or enzymes within whole microbial cells. In her work she applies the chemical engineering methodology in the development and optimisation of single and multi-enzymatic reactions. This implies the use of mathematical kinetic models, as well as statistic and stochastic methods for process optimisation, i.e., finding the optimum reaction conditions and the best reactor mode, to obtain the maximum process output. The purpose of her work is not only to understand the complexity of biotransformations, but also to bring them one step closer to industrial application, by showing their potential in relevant numbers.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat  Andreas Thiel leitet die Arbeitsgruppe „Regenerative Immunologie und Altern“ an der Charité und am Berlin Institute of Health in der Charité (BIH). Er ist darüberhinaus Co-Initiator und Sprecher des Si-M (Institut `Der Simulierte Mensch´), eines neuen gemeinsamen Forschungsinstituts der Technischen Universität Berlin und der Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin (https://www.si-m.org). Die Arbeitsgruppe Thiel ist weltweit führend auf dem Gebiet der Antigen-spezifischen Analyse von Lymphozyten und wenden seit 2020 hierbei auch semi-automatische zytometrische Verfahren an. Im Rahmen der COVID-19 Pandemie wurden diese Verfahren erfolgreich angewandt, um erstmals T-Zellreaktivitäten gegen SARS-CoV-2 zu verstehen (Braun et al., Nature, 2020). Wir haben demonstrieren können, wie bereits vorhandene, in früheren Infektionen mit endemischen Corona-Erkältungsviren entstandene SARS-CoV-2 kreuzreaktive T-Zellen, SARS-CoV-2 Infektionen und Impfantworten positiv beeinflussen (Loyal et al., 2022). Solche T-Zellen sind pan-Coronavirus-spezifisch und an lang-andauernden Immunitäten auch gegenüber SARS-CoV-2 Varianten essentiell.

Professor Julian Ma is the Hotung Chair of Molecular Immunology and Director of the Institute for Infection and Immunity at St. George’s, University of London. He also holds honorary Consultant appointments in Oral Medicine at King’s College London and in Infection and Immunity at St. George’s University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust.

Julian graduated in dentistry at Guy's Hospital in 1983, and went on there to gain his PhD in immunology, studying topical anti-microbial immunotherapy in the mouth, using monoclonal antibodies. He was a post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California in the laboratory which pioneered the expression of recombinant antibodies in genetically modified plants.

He moved to St. George’s in 2003 to explore the wider applications of plant biotechnology for global infectious diseases. His work focuses on infectious diseases that predominantly affect the poor in developing countries, including HIV, rabies, chikungunya, dengue, Ebola, TB and now SARS-CoV-2.

Zlatko Trajanoski is a professor for bioinformatics at the Division of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. Research in his laboratory focuses on deciphering tumour–immune cell interaction using computational approaches and developing analytical tools for precision immune-oncology. His work was instrumental for the elucidation of the role of the adaptive immune system in human colorectal cancer and has led to the development of a novel immune score for the stratification of patients. His recent work focuses on the identification of mechanisms of intrinsic and acquired resistance to immunotherapy in colorectal cancer using combined experimental/computational approaches.

Michael SAUER is Associated Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research aims at microbial production of base chemicals from renewable resources. Metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering are combined to provide microbial processes of industrial relevance. One focus is on the characterization and optimization of natural producers, exploiting natural diversity. Particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts are of industrial interest, due their high stress tolerance. A second line of research is dedicated to the development of synthetic tools aiding metabolic engineering approaches with a focus on microbial transport processes. The cellular membrane is a focal point to shield living cells from detrimental influences of the surroundings on the other hand overcoming of the membrane is a potential bottleneck for substrate uptake and product export as well.

Prof Dr Markus Morrison is Director of the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology within the faculty of Energy-, Process- and Biotechnology of the University of Stuttgart and Director of the Stuttgart Research Center Systems Biology, one of the largest German inter-faculty infrastructures for systems biological research that brings together experimental and mathematical simulation groups. The team of Prof Morrison covers expertise in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Imaging, and Computational Modelling. His group develops and utilizes innovative experimental and mathematical approaches to monitor key processes controlling cell suicide and proliferation signaling. In combination with complex systems analyses this strategy provides functional insight into the intricate control of cell fate decisions between death and survival.

Ashutosh Chilkoti is the Alan L. Kaganov Professor and of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. His areas of research include genetically encoded materials and biointerface science.  He has published ~330 papers, has been cited ~42,000 times, has a Google Scholar H-index of 107, and has 40 patents and 60 patent applications in process. Prof. Chilkoti was awarded the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials in 2011, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture award by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2013, was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, received the Distinguished Alumni award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2015, and the Diamond award from the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in 2017. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the founder of six start-up companies: (1) PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company on NASDAQ (sticker: PHAS)  that is taking drug delivery technology that he developed into clinical trials; (2) Sentilus, a clinical diagnostics company that was acquired by Immucor in 2014; (3) BioStealth, a spinoff of Sentilus; (4) GatewayBio, that is commercializing a next-generation PEGylation technology for biologics; (5) Isolere Bio that is developing a non-chromatographic technology for purification of biologics; and (6) inSoma Bio that is developing a recombinant protein matrix for tissue reconstruction.

I studied Food Science and Biotechnology at the BOKU in Vienna and specialized in Immunology and Immunotherapy. To broaden my knowledge in cancer biology and murine cancer models I joined the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics of the Veterinary Medicine of Vienna in 2007. Under the supervision of Mathias Müller and Veronika Sexl I performed my PhD theses analyzing the role of Tyk2 in immune cells and tumor surveillance. In various publications we were able to decipher kinase-dependent and -independent functions of Tyk2. In 2012 I joined Veronika Sexl´s lab analyzing the role of the cells cycle kinase Cdk6 in lymphoid malignancy and it´s kinase-dependent and -independent functions in hematopoietic and leukemic stem cells. Since 2015 I am the Head of the Mouse Facility at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the VetMed and actively support all collaboration projects and students.