About

Welcome letter

Dear ÖGMBT Members,
dear Colleagues,

we are thrilled to announce that the 17th ÖGMBT Annual Meeting will take place in Innsbruck at the Centre for Chemistry and Biomedicine (CCB) from September 24-26, 2025. We warmly welcome you to an engaging and thought-provoking meeting under the theme:

"From Molecules to Organisms – Interactions and Interventions"

This year’s meeting is designed to bridge the gap between fundamental life sciences, translational research, and applied fields. It will provide a dynamic and interactive platform to showcase cutting-edge research, featuring presentations from leading scientists, lively discussions, and extensive networking opportunities.

Among the key themes explored will be:

From Cells to Organisms: Understanding Biological Interactions
Discover how biological mechanisms function across organelles, cells, tissues, and organisms, adapting through development, health, and disease. Topics include stem cells, cell cycle, cancer biology, and cell death.

Bridging Knowledge for Scientific Progress
Explore how interdisciplinary collaboration and advanced techniques, such as machine learning, protein and cell dynamics, and cell adhesion mechanics, drive scientific innovation.

Translating Basic Research into Innovation
Learn how discoveries in RNA regulation, lipids, and natural products fuel advancements in drug development, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.

Environmental and Health Interactions
Examine how chemical exposures, microbiomes, and climate impact health, with discussions on toxicology, risk assessment, infection, immunity, and antimicrobial resistance.

Metabolic and Neurological Health Across the Lifespan
Investigate how aging, metabolism, mental health, and exercise shape biological processes, with insights into neurological and metabolic disorders and psychiatric conditions.

What Can You Expect from the Meeting?
We are honored to welcome renowned international scientists who will present their latest discoveries and engage in stimulating discussions with attendees.

A highlight of the ÖGMBT Annual Meeting is the Life Sciences Research Awards Austria and the PhD Life Sciences Awards Austria, recognizing outstanding contributions from Austria’s young researchers. We look forward to their inspiring presentations.

Childcare services will be available to support participants with families.

We anticipate an exciting exchange of ideas, interdisciplinary collaborations, and meaningful discussions—connecting scientists across disciplines and career stages to push the frontiers of life science.

We look forward to welcoming you to Innsbruck!

Johanna Gostner
Ludger Hengst
Lukas A. Huber

Scientific/Organizing Committee

Plenary & invited speakers

Plenary Georg Kustatscher University of Edinburgh, UK	Plenary Anne Simonsen Oslo University Hospital, NO
Plenary Veronika Sexl University of Innsbruck, AT	Plenary TBA
S1: Neural circuits in health and disease Katharina Schmack Francis Crick Institute & UCL, UK	S2: Environment and microbiology Astrid Collingro University of Vienna, AT
S3: The multifaceted world of lipids Valerie O'Donnell Cardiff University, UK	S4: Aging, mental health, exercise and metabolism André Rendeiro CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine, AT
S5: Infection and immunity Christoph Bock CeMM & Medical University of Vienna, AT	S6: Mechanical aspects of cell adhesion and migration Elisabetta Ada Cavalcanti-Adam University of Bayreuth, DE
S7: Organelle and membrane biology Abdou Rashid Thiam ENS-PSL, FR	S8: Advances in toxicology and risk assessment Philip Marx-Stölting German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, DE
S9: RNA in gene regulation Maria Hondele University of Basel, CH	S10: Unveiling protein and cell dynamics Verena Ruprecht University of Innsbruck, AT
S11: Stem cells, cell cycle and cancer TBA	S12: Natural products in life science research Jonathan Lindsey North Carolina State University, US
S13: Cell death in health and disease Katia Cosentino University of Osnabrück, DE	S 14: Machine learning and complex cellular systems Johanna Klughammer Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, DE

Expand your horizon

The ÖGMBT Annual Meeting is one of the most significant scientific events in Austria in the molecular biosciences. Topic wise it is a very broad event, including medical aspects of the life sciences, applied aspects and a diverse set of basic research. It is a good mix of invited international talks and talks by students (all in English), a company trade show including exhibitors quiz and many networking activities.

It is a true melting pot bringing together top experts for exchange, showcasing the work of early career researchers, helps the attending students get a notion of the field and allows everyone a look beyond the horizon of their own specialization and shows what is happening in Austria in the field of life sciences.

Who should attend?

 Bachelor/Master students

• NEW: Free online registration for Bachelor and Master students who are ÖGMBT members
• Get an overview of the Austrian life sciences community and first hand insights about career opportunities
• Meet representatives from academia & industry and start your network
• Find your next exciting project or internship and connect with peers from related life sciences fields
• Participate at exclusive career-related workshop
• Learn about the most recent research in Austria and trending scientific topics
• Listen to winners of the Life Sciences Awards Austria 2025

PhDs/Postdocs

• Meet key players from academia & industry and get invaluable personal contacts for your career
• Find your next position or collaborators from related life sciences fields
• Submit an abstract for the possibility for a short talk or poster presentation including a chance to win best posters or best talk prizes
• Listen to sessions organized by PhD students and YLSA volunteers
• Learn about the most recent research in Austria and trending scientific topics
• Listen to winners of the Life Sciences Awards Austria 2025

Group Leaders/Professors

• Establish new research collaborations with new group leaders and industrial partnerships
• Update your insights on current research trends in Austria and cutting-edge technologies used in different life sciences disciplines
• Find your next interns, PhD students or Postdocs among the meeting’s attendees

Industry

• Find new costumers for your products & services and strengthen your market position
• Make high-quality contacts with stakeholders in academia yielding new paths of cooperation
• Contribute to the scientific program as speaker by submitting abstracts describing your recent research
• Present your company as exhibitor and take part in the exhibitor quiz
• Support the ÖGMBT by being sponsor

Join the ÖGMBT

Become an ÖGMBT-member and take advantage of lower registration fees. Click HERE for information on ÖGMBT membership benefits and subscribe for membership online before registering for the Annual Meeting.

We care for kids at the Annual Meeting

We provide childcare for the duration of the annual meeting that parents can attend the annual conference undisturbed. For this purpose, we ask interested parties to provide us with details of their requirements via a form in the registration system. This form will be available after paying the conference fee. Find more details here.

Language

The scientific program of the 17^th ÖGMBT Annual Meeting is held in English.

Warning: Participant contact details scam

You may have rceived an e-mail offering to sell participant contact information. ÖGMBT does not share or sell such information with other organizations.

Organizers

The ÖGMBT Office (Austrian Association of Molecular Life Sciences and Biotechnology) is fully in charge of organizing the Annual Meeting. This guarantees continuity and a high standard of organization.

For any further information or inquiries related to the 17th ÖGMBT Annual Meeting feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Chairs

Christoph Bock, CeMM & Medical University of Vienna, AT

Christoph Bock is a principal investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, professor of medical informatics and head of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at the Medical University of Vienna. His research combines experimental biology (high-throughput sequencing, epigenetics, CRISPR screening, bioengineering) with computational methods (bioinformatics, machine learning, artificial intelligence) – for cancer, immunology, and precision medicine. Before coming to Vienna in 2012, he was a postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (2008-2011) and a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (2004-2008). Christoph Bock is also scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility of CeMM and MedUni Vienna, member of the Human Cell Atlas Organizing Committee, fellow of the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), and elected board member of the Young Academy in the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has received important research awards, including an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2021-2026), the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society (2009), the Overton Prize of the International Society for Computational Biology (2017), and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2022).

E. Ada Cavalcanti-Adam, University of Bayreuth, DE

No Biosketch submitted.

Astrid Collingro, University of Vienna, AT

Astrid Collingro is a senior scientist at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna. She studied microbiology at the Technical University of Munich and earned her PhD from the University of Vienna in 2004.

Astrid’s research focuses on obligate intracellular bacteria, with a particular emphasis on chlamydial symbionts of protists. She investigates the diversity and evolution within the chlamydial phylum to better understand what distinguishes symbionts of protists from human pathogens. One of her main goals is to expand the number of available isolates to further explore the wide range of chlamydiae-host interactions.

Following a research stay at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Astrid developed a strong interest in marine hosts such as corals, sponges, and algae, and the role chlamydiae play in their microbiomes. Currently, she is examining the environmental prevalence of chlamydiae and their influence on microbial eukaryotic hosts and, by extension, on microbial communities and the ecological processes they underpin.

Maria Hondele, University of Basel, CH

Maria Hondele is a tenure-track assistant professor of Biochemistry at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland since 2020. Her lab investigates cellular self-assembly processes and the formation, regulation, and function of membraneless organelles, especially those associated with RNA processing. 

Dr. Hondele studied biochemistry at the University of Regensburg and trained at the University of Massachusetts on a Fulbright scholarship. She completed her PhD in chromatin biology at EMBL Heidelberg and the University of Munich with Prof. Andreas Ladurner, and conducted her postdoctoral research in RNA and condensate biology at ETH Zurich in the laboratory of Prof. Karsten Weis. 

Jonathan Lindsey, North Carolina State University, US

Jonathan S. Lindsey (b. 1956) grew up in Indiana, did his undergraduate studies at Indiana University in Bloomington (1974–1978), and graduate and postdoctoral studies (1978–1984) at The Rockefeller University with Prof. David C. Mauzerall.  He was on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University for 12 years before joining North Carolina State University in 1996.  His interests concern the science and creation of tetrapyrrole macrocycles (porphyrins, chlorins, bacteriochlorins) and their roles in photosynthesis-like phenomena.  A continual focus over the years has concerned synthetic methodology in the tetrapyrrole arena, which has in recent years been directed to gain access to natural members including chlorophylls and open-chain derivatives, the phyllobilins.  To advance the photosciences, he also has developed the PhotochemCAD program and spectral databases.

André Rendeiro, CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine, AT

I am a Principal Investigator at CeMM - the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a Research Group Leader at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine at the University of Vienna, leading a research group on computational and molecular methods to study human aging and pathology.

My group develops computational methods for the analysis of spatial data (spatial transcriptomics, highly multiplexed imaging), and its integration with various modalities of molecular and clinical data of individuals along their lifespan. I am particularly interested in the organization of cells at the micro-anatomical level and understanding how this changes during the lifespan of individuals and at the onset of disease.

https://rendeiro.group/

Verena Ruprecht, University Innsbruck, AT

No Biosketch submitted.

Katharina Schmack, Francis Crick Institute, GB

No Biosketch submitted.

Anne Simonsen, Oslo University Hospital, NO

Professor Anne Simonsen leads the Autophagy research group at the Inst for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, and is the co-director of the Centre of Excellence CanCell (Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming) at the University of Oslo, Norway. She received her PhD in 1996 and during her postdoc, she identified the FYVE domain as a specific PtdIns(3)P binding domain and EEA1 as a PtdIns(3)P and RAB5 effector protein important for endosome fusion.  She started her laboratory at the University of Oslo in 2009 where she became a full professor in 2011. The main objective of the Simonsen laboratory is to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved in selective types of autophagy and their role in normal health and disease. Specific focus areas include characterization of the role of hypoxia-induced mitophagy in cancer development and protein aggregate clearance in neurodegenerative disease. Her lab also has a continued interest in ALFY and other BEACH-domain-containing proteins. They use mammalian cell lines, various in vitro approaches, and zebrafish for their discoveries. She has authored more than 120 papers and has an H-index of 66. She is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and an elected member of EMBO.