Upcoming ITCs

Chaired by Jan-Erik Siemens, Heidelberg, Germany and James Poulet, Berlin, Germany

Temperature profoundly affects every aspect of life, from enzymatic reactions to physiological processes and behaviour. Brief hot or cold changes in temperature can evoke powerful sensations ranging from pleasurable warmth, to aversive cold, and imprint long lasting memories. Long-term changes in environmental temperature require adaptation among all species, prompting adjustments in behaviour and core physiological parameters in order to survive. The thermal environment thereby acts as a regulator of functions essential for survival, including our metabolism, circadian rhythms, cardiac function, and behaviour. However, a holistic understanding of the link between thermal sensation, thermal adaption/acclimation, and core physiology – systems thermobiology – is missing.

This conference attempts to bridge this fundamental knowledge gap and aims to bring together scientists who study different levels and aspects of temperature – and in particular how temperature interacts with the nervous system – in humans and model organisms. Due to seminars and discussions on core body temperature, energy metabolism, sensation, plasticity, adaptation (acclimation), and behaviour, we believe that this ITC will foster new concepts and research directions that address the complex and diverse functions of biological thermal systems.

Invited Speakers:

• Ackerley, Rochelle (Marseille, France)
• Barth, Alison L. (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
• Cannon, Barbara (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Carcea, Ioana (Newark, NJ, USA)
• Chen, Xiaoke (Stanford, CA, USA)
• Crucianelli, Laura (London, United Kingdom)
• Fenselau, Henning (Cologne, Germany)
• Filingeri, Davide (Southampton, United Kingdom)
• Gallio, Marco (Evanston, IL, USA)
• Garrity, Paul (Waltham, MA, USA)
• Gracheva, Elena (New Haven, CT, USA)
• Haesemeyer, Martin (Columbus, OH, USA)
• Haggard, Patrick (London, United Kingdom)
• Hrvatin, Siniša (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Kim, Sung-Yon (Seoul, South Korea)
• Julius, David (San Francisco, CA, USA)
• Lemon, Christian H. (Norman, OK, USA)
• Lewin, Gary R. (Berlin, Germany)
• Machado, Natalia (Boston, MA, USA)
• Marder, Eva (Waltham, MA, USA)
• Matarazzo, Valéry (Marseille, France)
• Ryan, Tomás (Dublin, Ireland)
• Schreiber, Susanne (Berlin, Germany)
• Seebacher, Frank (Sydney, NSW, Australia)
• Shen, Wei (Shanghei, China)
• Tattersall, Glenn J. (St. Catharines, ON, Canada)
• Tupone, Domenico (Bologna, Italy)
• Vestergaard, Mikkel (Berlin, Germany)
• De La Iglesia, Felix Viana (Santiago de Compostella, Spain)
• Vincis, Roberto (Tallahassee, FL, USA)
• Voets, Thomas (Leuven, Belgium)
• von Breukelen, Frank (Las Vegas, NV, USA)
• Wang, Hong (Nanshan, Shenzhen, China)
• Whitmire, Clarissa (St. Lucia, QLD, Australia)
• Wisden, William (London, United Kingdom)
• Wittbrodt, Jochen (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Zampieri, Niccolò (Berlin, Germany)
• Zimmermann, Katharina (Erlangen, Germany)

Chaired by Alexander Stark, Vienna, Austria and Michael M. Bronstein, Vienna, Austria

Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods promise to revolutionize the way research in biological and biomedical sciences is done. We are already witnessing unprecedented progress in diverse fields including protein prediction and design, gene-expression analyses, image processing, drug design, and many others. Breakthroughs are likely to come from synergies between new experimental wet-lab technologies and new machine learning approaches, each designed for optimal mutual fit.

The conference aims to bring together internationally leading experts in biological and biomedical research and machine learning / artificial intelligence that might otherwise rarely meet. We hope to explore synergies between the fields and novel approaches on the wet-lab and dry-lab sides that optimally utilize their combined potential towards achieving future breakthroughs.

Invited Speakers:

• Aerts, Stein (Leuven, Belgium)
• Avsec, Ziga (London, United Kingdom)
• Chatterjee, Pranam D. (Durham, NC, USA)
• Chin, Jason (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
• de Boer, Carl (Vancuver, BC, Canada)
• Durdu, Sevi (Basel, Switzerland)
• Gambetta, Maria Cristina (Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Hernández-Lobato, José Miguel (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
• Hsu, Patrick D. (Palo Alto, CA, USA)
• Hyman, Tony (Dresden, Germany)
• Jaakkola, Tommi S. (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Jordan, Michael I. (Berkeley, CA, USA)
• Koo, Peter (Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA)
• Kreshuk, Anna (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Kundaje, Anshul (Palo Alto, CA, USA)
• Lander, Eric S. (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Lim, Wendell (San Francisco, CA, USA)
• Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer (Ashburn, VA, USA)
• Lotfollahi, Mo (Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom)
• Luukkonen, Sohvi (Linz, Austria)
• Mirdita, Milot (Seoul, South Korea)
• Mostafavi, Sara (Seattle, WA, USA)
• Noé, Frank (Berlin, Germany)
• Pe'er, Dana (New York, NY, USA)
• Rückert, Daniel (München, Germany)
• Saka, Sinem K. (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Schreiber, Jacob (Worchester, MA, USA)
• Schwaller, Philippe (Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Stegle, Oliver (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Theis, Fabian (Neuherberg, Germany)
• Toth-Petroczy, Agnes (Desden, Germany)
• Treutlein, Barbara (Basel, Switzerland)
• Uhler, Caroline (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Wählby, Carolina (Uppsala, Sweden)
• Weissman, Jonathan (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Zeng, Hongkui (Seattle, WA)
• Zitnik, Marinka (Boston, MA, USA)
• Zhang, Yang (Singapore, Singapore)
   

Chaired by Nathalie Q. Balaban, Jerusalem, Israel and Deborah T. Hung, Cambridge, MA, USA

Antibiotics rank among the greatest life-saving discoveries, saving more lives than perhaps any other medical intervention in history. This fact makes their increasing failure one of the most alarming developments. Indeed, the failure of antibiotic treatments and the emergence of antibiotic resistance worldwide calls for action. Central to combatting this disturbing trend is the need for a fundamental understanding of the basic biological principles underlying the factors that contribute to antibiotic inefficacy and the evolution of resistance. The study of the failure of antibiotic treatments both in the clinic and the laboratory can reveal fundamental aspects of microorganism physiology and infection biology, and in turn, provide new avenues of research for finding better treatments.

The conference will convene leading experts spanning the broad interdisciplinary aspects of antibiotic failure, from health policy and infectious diseases to microbial physiology, metabolism, evolutionary biology, systems biology and biophysics. The objective is to foster a comprehensive, integrated discussion, that spans basic molecular mechanisms to population dynamics, on the effectiveness of antibiotic treatments, pinpoint the causes of their failures, and identify significant gaps in our understanding. Our goal is also, through the focus on combating antibiotic resistance, to gain a deeper basic science understanding of the physiology of microorganisms. This interdisciplinary effort is essential for mapping existing knowledge, identifying emerging concepts and technologies, and charting a way forward to not only preserve and restore our antibiotic arsenal, but also to develop even more effective strategies and therapies.

Invited Speakers:

• Bree B. Aldridge (Boston, MA, USA)
• Dan I. Andersson (Uppsala, Sweden)
• Roi Avraham (Rehovot, Israel)
• Fernando Baquero (Madrid, Spain)
• Sebastian Bonhoeffer (Zurich, Switzerland)
• Eric D. Brown (Hamilton, ON, Canada)
• Sir Stewart T. Cole (Oxford, United Kingdom)
• Jean-Marc Ghigo (Paris, France)
• Yonatan Grad (Boston, MA, USA)
• Wolf-Dietrich Hardt (Zurich, Switzerland)
• Susanne Häußler (Braunschweig, Germany)
• Matthias Heinemann (Groningen, The Netherlands)
• Sophie Helaine (Boston, MA, USA)
• Scott J. Hultgren (St. Louis, MO, USA)
• Ralph Isberg (Boston, MA, USA)
• Roy Kishony (Haifa, Israel)
• Bruce R. Levin (Atlanta, GA, USA)
• John McKinney (Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Dianne K. Newman (Pasadena, CA, USA)
• Csaba Pál (Szeged, Hungary)
• Kevin Pethe (Singapore, Singapore)
• Saeed Tavazoie (New York, NY, USA)
• Nassos Typas (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Jörg Vogel (Würzburg, Germany)
• Annelies Zinkernagel (Zurich, Switzerland)

Chaired by Arne Skerra, Freising, Germany and Hendrik Dietz, Garching, Germany

More information will follow soon