SPEAKERS

Professor annemieke Aartsma-Rus

Professor, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Annemieke Aartsma-Rus is a professor of translational genetics at the Leiden University Medical Center. She is one of the pioneers of antisense oligonucleotide mediated exon skipping therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

dr jeffrey bajramovic

Director 3Rs Centre Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Jeffrey Bajramovic is a cellular immunologist by training, with a profound interest in neurobiology, virology and in vitro/animal-free technology (3Rs). During his career he has obtained broad research experience in different (inter)national environments. Currently, he is the director of the 3Rs Centre Utrecht (3RCU) that aims to facilitate researchers in their efforts to replace and reduce the use of animals in biomedical research, as well as to refine the procedures for animal use. While he is driven by a moral imperative to reduce the reliance of biomedical research on animals, his methods are scientific.

Professor gregor bucher

Head of Department, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany

Gregor Bucher did his PhD at the LMU Munich (2002) before he established his group at the University of Göttingen (2004). After a Heisenberg professorship (2013) he became professor at the University of Göttingen (2017). He led two DFG funded collaborative research projects and served as elected DFG panel member.

Professor Susana chuva de sousa lopes

Professor & Group Leader, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

SM Chuva de Sousa Lopes is professor at the Department of Anatomy, Leiden University Medical Center and visiting professor at Department of Reproductive Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium. Her research focuses on technologies for human reproduction and in vitro gametogenesis. She is involved in the European guidelines for female fertility preservation.

Judy hallet

Associate Research Scientist, Purdue University, Indiana, USA

Judy Hallett is the Core Director at the Transgenic and Genome Editing Facility at Purdue University in the US. With degrees in Physics and Reproductive Physiology from McGill University and training in transgenic technology at the University of Queensland, she has over 27 years of experience in genome engineering of mice and rats and a 36-year long passion for assisted reproductive technology

Dr Kirk Leech

Executive Director, European Animal Research Association, Camden, UK

EMBO Policy Lecture

Kirk has been Executive Director of the European Animal Research Association since its creation, growing it into a global organisation with members on five continents. Previously he worked in government affairs for the ABPI, as a strategic communications consultant in Washington DC, and for a tribal rights organisation in India.

Dr Liangxue Lai

Professor, Guangzhou Insitutes Of Biomedicine And Health, Cas, Guangzhou, China

Dr Liangxue Lai has been conducting research in stem cells, transgenic large animals, and animal cloning. He has published over 200 papers in SCI journals including high profile ones such as Science, and Cell et. al. As of now, his team has produced more than 100 kinds of genetically modified large animals including pigs, dogs and rabbits with important applications in biomedicine and agriculture

Dr Ahmed mahfouz

Associate Professor, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Ahmed Mahfouz is an Associate Professor at the Department of Human Genetics at the Leiden University Medical Center and an affiliated faculty at TU Delft. His lab focuses on developing machine learning methods to decode the genetic basis of cellular behavior and disease by focusing on context-specific regulation of genomic functions.

Dr Andrew mcmahon

Merkin Research Professor, California Institute of Technology, California, USA

I have a long standing interest in developing and applying genetic tools to the study of mammalian development. Cell interactions and transcriptional programs have been a central focus. Most recently, our target has centered on the human kidney and the generation of functional human kidney cell types.

Dr Stephan Riesenberg

Group Leader, Max Planck Institute For Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Stephan Riesenberg is a biochemist, genome engineer, and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He focuses his research on advancing CRISPR-based genome editing and controlling DNA repair for precise genetic modification. Riesenberg trained in Nobel Prize–winning laboratories and develops technologies for biomedical research and evolutionary genetics.

Dr amr Salem - ISTT Young investigator award

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Dr. Salem obtained a PhD in Molecular Biologie/Neurobiology in 2019 at the University of Science and Technology (USTC) in China. After completion of his thesis work, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Joseph M Miano for a postdoc in Vascular/Molecular Biology at the Vascular Biology Center of Augusta University (USA). He worked in three broad areas related to mouse modeling in the field of field of vascular pathobiology. Read more here.

Professor william skarnes

Professor, The Jackson Laboratory For Genomic Medicine, Connecticut, USA

Bill received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Toronto where he pioneered gene-trapping technology in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. He has devoted much of his career to the generation of large-scale public genetic resources in mouse and human stem cells.

Professor karen steel

Professor Of Sensory Function, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom

Karen trained in mouse genetics for her PhD at University College London followed by research posts in Munich, the MRC Institute of Hearing Research in Nottingham, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and currently is Professor of Sensory Function at King’s College London. She uses genetics as a tool to understand deafness.

dr roman stilling

Chief Scientific Officer, Tierversuche verstehen, Muenster, Germany

Roman studied life sciences at the University of Münster and at the IMPRS Neurosciences in Göttingen. After receiving his PhD in 2013 he worked as a PostDoc at the APC Microbiome Institute in Cork, Ireland. Since September 2016 Dr. Roman Stilling is scientific officer for the information initiative „Tierversuche verstehen“, which is coordinated by the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany

Professor kris vleminckx

Group Leader, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

Kris Vleminckx is full professor at Ghent University (Belgium) and member of the RARE-MED consortium and Cancer Research Institute Ghent. His lab uses CRISPR-mediated modeling of rare diseases and human cancer, focusing on rare (pediatric) cancers, in the aquatic vertebrate Xenopus tropicalis.

Professor thomas wishart

Head Of Neuroscience, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Tom’s research explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the stability of the nervous system in health and disease. With a focus on translational approaches he is known for his collaborative work across disciplines and his efforts to connect basic science with therapeutic development. Former Deputy Director (responsible for all Translation and Commercialisation activity – DD T&C) and Academic lead for Proteomics and Metabolomics at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh (until Oct 2024) and remains Head of the Academic Led Livestock Models of Neurological Disorders grouping (ALLMoND, 2017-Present). He is now Neuroscience lead (Oct 2024-Present) and Interim Director of the John Van Geest Research Centre (JvGRC) at the School of Science and Technology (SST) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU).

dr andrew wood

Group Leader, Institute Of Genetics And Cancer / University Of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Andrew is a genetic technologist with expertise in genome editing and targeted protein degradation. He currently leads a UK initiative to advance the use of degron tagging in transgenic mouse models within the MRC National Mouse Genetics Network