Max Delbrück Center Bioengineering Symposium

Name: Max Delbrück Center Bioengineering Symposium
Start: 2026-07-06T07:00:00
End: 2026-07-06T16:00:00

6. Juli 2026, 09:00 Uhr - 6. Juli 2026, 18:00 Uhr

The Max Delbrück Center Bioengineering Symposium will take place on July 6, 2026, at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin.

Co-organized with Springer Nature, this full-day symposium will bring together leading international researchers in bioengineering to integrate quantitative biology and artificial intelligence to design and engineer molecular, cellular, and tissue systems that can decode, predict, and ultimately control health and disease trajectories.

Agenda

Registration		8:15 – 9:00 a.m.
Morning welcome		9:00 a.m.
Maike Sander (Max Delbrück Center)		9:00 - 9:20 a.m.

Matthias Lütolf (Institute of Human Biology (IHB) / Roche) Organoids reimagined: Engineering a path to translation		9:20 - 10:00 a.m.
Kelly R. Stevens (University of Washington) Bioprinting human liver		10:05 – 10:40 a.m.

Coffee Break		10:40 – 11:00 a.m.

Morning Session Organoids and organ-on-chip Moderated by Aline Luckgen (Nature Communications) and Sadra Bakhshandeh (Nature Reviews Bioengineering)		11:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.

Aleksandr Ovsianikov (TU Wien) From High Resolution 3D Printing to High Definition Bioprinting using fs Lasers		11:00 – 11:20 a.m.
Peter Loskill (University of Tübingen) Recapitulating Complex Immunocompetent Tissues using Organ-on-chip and Organoid Technologies		11:20 – 11:40 a.m.
Ulrike Nuber ( TU Darmstadt) Engineering human liver tissue: modular design and vascularization		11:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Johanna Bolander (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité) Healing Constellations: Decoding and Rebuilding Regenerative Networks on Chip		12:00 – 12:20 p.m.
Sina Bartfeld (TU Berlin) Infection, innate immune signalling and cancer in the gut - organoids as models		12:20 – 12:40 p.m.

Group Picture		12:40 – 12:50 a.m.
Lunch		12:50 – 1:50 p.m.

Afternoon Session 1: Tissue and Cell Engineering Moderated by Christine Horejs (Nature Reviews Bioengineering) and Vesna Todorović (Nature Cardiovascular Research)		1:50 – 3:10 p.m.

Susan Thomas (Georgia Institute of Technology) Migration conditions T cell immune fitness		1:50 – 2:10 p.m.
Li Tang (EPFL) Multidimensional Immunoengineering to Advance Cancer Immunotherapy: The Journey from Bench to Bedside and Back		2:10 – 2:30 p.m.
Yu Shrike Zhang (Harvard Medical School) Engineering 3D-Printed Constructs through Shrinking and Expansion		2:30 – 2:50 p.m.
Jakob Metzger (Max Delbrück Center) Engineering Brain Organoids for Disease Phenotyping and Screening		2:50 – 3:10 p.m.

Coffee Break		3:10 – 3:30 p.m.

Afternoon Session 2: Programming and Reprogramming Living Systems Moderated by Alessandra Griffo (Nature Biomedical Engineering)		3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Francesca Ceroni (Imperial College London) Synthetic biology tools for improved mammalian cell engineering		3:30 – 3:50 p.m.
Birgit Sawitzki (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité) Engineering Immune Niches: Challenges in Infection, Autoimmunity and Cancer		3:50 – 4:10 p.m.
Simon Haas (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité & Max Delbrück Center) Directing stem cell fate, modelling disease, and assessing personalized drug responses in native human bone marrow		4:10 – 4:30 p.m.

Early Evening Poster Session with Drinks and Snacks		4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
Closing and announcing poster award winners Maike Sander (Max Delbrück Center)		5:45– 6:00 p.m.

Reception		6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Please find further details below.

We hope you will mark your calendar and join us for what promises to be an exciting and stimulating day of science.

Registration and Abstract Submission

Registration is open!

Registration Fees
Participants: 50 €

Registration Deadline: July 3, 2026
Abstract Deadline: June 12, 2026

The Abstract Submission is already closed. If you missed the deadline but still want to submit please contact Bioengineering@mdc-berlin.de .

The registration fee includes coffee breaks, a lunch buffet, and a dinner buffet. The costs for accommodation and travel to the venue are not included and must be arranged independently.

Childcare: We also offer free childcare for participants. If you require this service, please indicate this during registration.

Speakers and Program

The program will feature invited talks and discussions on:

- Tissue engineering, organoids, and organ-on-chip systems
- Biofabrication and regenerative approaches
- Immune engineering
- Synthetic biology and AI-enabled design

A poster session for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers will take place in the early evening, providing an opportunity for trainees to present their work and engage with international experts in the field.

SPEAKERS

We are delighted to welcome as confirmed speakers of the symposium:

Sina Bartfeld (TU Berlin)
Johanna Bolander (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité)
Francesca Ceroni (Imperial College London)
Simon Haas (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité & Max Delbrück Center)
Peter Loskill (University of Tübingen)
Matthias Lütolf (Roche / EPFL /Institute of Human Biology (IHB))
Jakob Metzger (Max Delbrück Center)
Ulrike Nuber (Technical University of Darmstadt)
Aleksandr Ovsianikov (TU Wien)
Birgit Sawitzki (Berlin Institute of Health at Charité)
Kelly R. Stevens (University of Washington)
Li Tang (EPFL)
Susan Thomas (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Yu Shrike Zhang (Harvard Medical School)