Program
Tuesday, March 10th 2026
12:00 Registration opens |
14:00 Welcome Note: Salim Seyfried (GfE president, Potsdam) |
14:15 Keynote Lecture 1: Thomas Bosch (Kiel) Title to be announced |
15:00 Session 1: Fertilization and early development I, Chair: Katja Röper & Takashi Hiiragi |
Hold or release the message: Translational control in early embryos |
Gene-environment interactions in stem cells and development |
Supracellular actomyosin assemblies as coordinators of morphogenesis at the tissue-scale |
The physical biology of time and tempo in embryonic pattern formation |
PGR underlies the lineage-specific gamete fusion mechanism of brown algae |
16:35 Coffee Break |
17:05 Session 2: Fertilization and early development II, Chair: Aydan Bulut-Karslıoğlu & Felix Gunawan |
Mechanics of blastocyst morphogenesis |
Embryo size control |
Elevated temperature fatally disrupts the interaction between microtubules and F-actin in the syncytial Drosophila embryo |
Physical confinement shapes the morphogenetic landscape in gastruloids, generating distinct emergent patterns |
Sensitive tuning of cell fate specification by SOX17 dose during early human development |
18:40 Poster flash talks |
19:00 Food, Drinks & Poster Session I |
Wednesday, March 11th 2026
09:00 Keynote Lecture 2: Isabel Fariñas (Valencia) YAP/TAZ are required for stem cell quiescence in the adult brain |
09:45 Session 3: Forces define form - mechanobiology I, Chair: Dorothee Bornhorst-Ohmstede & Jérôme Solon |
The missing mechanical link: how composite interfaces govern cell morphogenesis, immune migration, and stem cell fate. |
The outsiders: growth control at the organ surface |
10:35 Coffee Break |
11:05 Session 4: Forces define form - mechanobiology II, Chair: Dorothee Bornhorst-Ohmstede & Jérôme Solon |
Closing the gap: Mechanosensing and tissue mechanics during epithelial sealing |
Rhythmic contraction waves trigger the Yap-dependent mechanoregulatory loop fueling gastrulation movements in medaka |
Tissue stiffness gates apical constriction during Xenopus neural tube closure |
Basement membrane integrity governs tissue morphogenesis and biomechanical stabilization of developing cardiac valves |
12:15 - Verena Kaul Mechanical coupling of endoderm and mesoderm dictates mode of mesoderm internalization in Chironomus riparius |
12:30 Lunch Break |
13:35 GfE /DSDB /SEBD Member Councils |
14:35 Session 5: Emergence and maintenance of patterns, Chair: Kerstin Feistel & Wolfgang Driever |
How big is big enough? Unravelling the developmental control of tissue growth in the fly abdomen |
Title to be announced |
Transcriptional repression of auxin signaling by SMXL5 ensures robust phloem cell fate specification |
From human genetics to developmental mechanisms: Functional analysis of bicuspid aortic valve genes in zebrafish |
Carboxypeptidase D, a novel player involved in VEGFC processing and lymphatic development |
16:10 Coffee Break |
16:40 Session 6: Genetic and epigenetic control of development, Chair: Luca Braccioli & Vincent Christoffels |
Detection of histone modifications and full-length transcriptome in single cells identifies sequential epigenetic perceptiveness to lineage commitment. |
Gaining mechanistic insights into long-range gene regulation through synthetic biology approaches |
A dual role for CTCF in development |
Deciphering the cis-regulatory code of developmental signaling centers with rare-cell type genomics and deep learning |
Sox3 acts as a transcriptional repressor of FoxA maintaining the conserved ectoderm/endoderm boundary in the sea anemone. |
Actin capping protein CAPZB plays a critical role in cardiac development and congenital heart defects |
18:30 Poster flash talks |
18:40 Food, Drinks & Poster Session II |
Thursday, March 12th 2026
09:00 Helmholtz Society-sponsored Keynote Lecture 3: Frank Bradke (Bonn) Mechanisms of axon growth and regeneration |
| 09:45 Session 7: Quantifying and modeling development, Chair: Ina Sonnen & Katja Rust |
Building towards understanding: leveraging stem-cell-based models to elucidate principles of development |
Principles of 3D tissue assembly derived from regenerative axolotl cells |
10:25 - Christian Schröter Species-specific developmental speed is associated with differences in glycogen metabolism |
| 10:40 Coffee Break |
| 11:15 Session 8: Evolutionary adaptations /Evo - Devo, Chair: Ulrich Technau & Sofia Araujo |
Oh my what big (and new) eyes you have! |
Title to be announced |
Heart evolution and development |
The primary cilium governs programmed cell death via its proteasome-regulating function |
More than meets the eye: Light-modulated stem cells in the camera-type eye of an annelid model for adult brain plasticity |
| 12:50 Lunch Break |
13:45 Mentoring session :
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| 14:30 Session 9: Organogenesis and tissue development , Chair: Elke Ober & Andreas Kispert |
Local repair, systemic rules: coordinating growth during regeneration |
A conserved BABY BOOM motif prevents asexual embryogenesis |
Centrosome loss in embryonic development disrupts axonal pathfinding and muscle integrity. |
15:35 José A. Campos-Ortega Award Lecture: Noelia Antón Bolaños (Utrecht) [shared prize-winner with Lauren Saunders (Heidelberg)] |
| 16:00 CoffeeBreak |
| 16:30 PhD Award of the GfE : Poster Awards |
16:45 Klaus Sander Award Laudatio Andreas Wodarz (Köln) |
16:55 Klaus Sander Award Lecture: Elisabeth Knust (Dresden) From phenotypes to function - or - the privilege to do curiosity-driven research |
| 17:40 Quick Break |
| 17:50 PhD Award 2025 Lecture |
18:05 Hilde Mangold Award Lecture: Maik Bischoff (Münster) |
| 19:15 Networking Event & Party |
Friday, March 13th 2026
09:30 International Society for Developmental Biology - Cells & Development Lecture: Hans Clevers (Utrecht) Organoids model human disease: 3D and 2D |
10:15 Helmholtz Society-sponsored Session 10: Stem cells and organoids, Chair: Annette Hammes-Lewin & Eloisa Herrera |
Skin regeneration and disease: lessons from spiny mice and human in vitro models |
Exploring the role of protein metabolism in developmental tempo |
Competition phenomena during planarian tissue turnover- a new bag of worms |
11:30 Coffee Break |
12:00 Session 11: Regeneration and disease models, Chair: Jeroen Bakkers & Nadia Mercader |
Bone formation and fracture healing; new approaches to improve the regeneration of aging bones |
Unraveling the genetics of spinal cord regeneration in a high-throughput injury |
Endothelial-cardiomyocyte crosstalk via Endothelin-1 signaling drives chamber-specific mouse cardiomyocyte polyploidy during postnatal heart development |
The role of mitochondrial fission during myoblast fusion and tissue regeneration |
Comparison of cardiac regeneration capacity between Zebrafish and Medaka reveals significant regenerative response in both teleost species |
Fibrin defines tissue stiffness and biomechanical signalling in regenerating zebrafish hearts as revealed by high-resolution stiffness mapping |
13:40 Farewell |
