WCMM Research Day 2026
Program
08:30-09:00 Registration & Welcome Coffee
09:00-09:10 Introduction to the day | Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, Director
09:10-09:55 Keynote Speaker | Prof Carolina Wählby, Uppsala University
Title: "Bridging biology and computer science with pretty pictures
- or what happened failing to get in to arts school?
09:55-11:00 Table Discussions
11:00-12:00 Short Talks - Session 1: “Advancing Patient Care & Outcomes”
- Chun-Chi Chang | From Hormones to Host Defense:
Immune Adaptation Following Androgen Deprivation Therapy
- Maria Markus | FDG-PET/CT-based treatment response predicts
recurrence and overall survival in locally advanced cervical cancer
- Malavika Sreekumar Nair | Epigenetic adjuvants for in vivo dendritic
cell reprogramming
- Steffen Haupeltshofer | Uncovering Pericyte-Macrophage
Crosstalk in Ischemic Stroke
12:00-13:00 Lunch | Stamstället
13:00-13:35 Short Talks | Session 2: “Taking a New Approach”
- Léa Chicoisne | Development of a systems-level immune profiling
protocol for the menstrual blood
- Wesley Sturgess | Mapping the Proteomic Landscape of
RNA-Induced Endosomal Damage
- Anna Castellet | Hormonal effects on the female immune system
during IVF and menstrual cycle
- Indra Putra Wendi | Utilizing polydopamine-functionalized
electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone) membrane to model upper
airway epithelium at airliquid interface
13:35-14:10 Short Talks | Session 2: “Our Body Under Stress”
- Zhimeng Fan | ECM remodelling overrides stiffness mediated
dormancy checkpoint in breast cancer cells
- Milica Dimitrijevic | Transposable Elements as Regulators of Gene
Expression During Embryonic Development in Giant Newt Genomes
- Anindita Ray | Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease:
Single-cell RNA-seq analysis of Immune Responses Post-Myocardial
Infarction
- Konstantinos Kokkoros | Modelling immunosenescence with direct
reprogramming of fibroblasts to antigen presenting cells
14:10-15:00 LU Infrastructure | What is Available to Me as a Researcher?
- Markus Heidenblad, Director Centre for Research Infrastructure
in Health and Sciences (CRI) | The new infrastructure organization
- Sebastian Wasserstrom, Head of Unit & Ritha Gidlöf, Lund
University Bioimaging Centre (LBIC)
- Sophie Hellstrand, Coordinator SciLifeLab Lund
15:00-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:00 Short Talks | Session 3: “Taking a New Approach”
- Tianze Cao | Sex hormones and metabolic features impact the
immune serum proteome of females with polycystic ovary syndrome
- Elia Pennati | A vascularized, mechanically active bone
marrow-on-chip platform as a complex model of human bone
marrow niches
16:00-16:45 Keynote Speaker | Prof Cristina Lo Celso, Imperial College London
Title: Intravital microscopy of healthy and malignant haematopoiesis
in the bone marrow microenvironment
16:45-17:00 Closing Remarks & Best Talk Award Ceremony
Lisa Rydén & Kristian Pietras, Co-directors
18:00-20:00 Evening Event | Hornsbergssalen, Kulturen
March 26, 2026
Belfragesalen, BMC, D15
Table Discussions
Life-Career Balance
Join this workshop to hear tips and advice about how to juggle the challenges of finding the balance between research or clinical work and maintaining a healthy personal life!
- Kristian Pietras – WCMM Lund co-director. Professor and research team manager at Experimental oncology. The overarching aim of his work is to generate basic knowledge about the interdependent way cells within a tumor relate to each other and produce information that will be immediately useful for the design of clinical practice.
- Camilla Vazquez Echegaray – Cancerfonden Postdoctoral fellow at Pereira lab. Camilla’s research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of cellular identity by direct cell reprogramming.
- Elin Trägårdh – Head of dept and professor at Clinical Physiology and nuclear medicine, Skåne University Hospital in Malmö and Associate senior lecturer at WCMM Lund. Her research focuses on optimising the use of nuclear medicine to increase sensitivity and specificity for disease diagnostic and improve patient outcomes.
- Johan Dahl – Psycologist at Occupational Health Services, Lund University
Innovation and Startup Support
In this workshop you will be able to learn how to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial success, with practical guidance on career pivots and startup fundamentals!
- Christine Dahlman Jacobsen – Project lead at Smile Venture Hub. Her role is to help bridge the gap between labs at Lund University and the commercial world at Medicon Village, ensuring that great science has the best possible chance of reaching patients and the market.
- Francesco Bez – Innovation manager at Medicon Village. Francesco holds a PhD in neuroscience and biomedicine and previously worked in several life-science companies based at Medicon Village, including roles in research, management, and commercial functions. His work centers on innovation support, funding access, talent development, and cross-sector collaboration for life-science companies and researchers at Medicon Village and across the Greater Copenhagen life-science ecosystem.
Postdoc to PI
Sometimes it is difficult to navigate the way to progress in academia, join this discussion to get tips and advice to learn what boxes need to be checked and what to prioritise if you are thinking on starting your own lab!
- Jacob Vogel – Associate senior lecturer and research team manager at neurodegenerative research at the department of Clinical sciences, Malmö. Also, a DDLS fellow at Lund University. His research focus is on aging and neurodegenerative disease research, where we take advantage of large data resources to model disease progression and discover contributions to disease pathogenesis.
- Karin Tran Lundmark – Associate professor and a WCMM clinical researcher at Vessel Wall Biology, Lund University. Her research focuses on pulmonary hypertension and cardiovascular development and disease applying advanced imaging and data analysis.
- Kees-Jan Pronk – Associate professor and Lund WCMM clinical researcher at hematopoietic and immune development. His research focuses on improving treatment efficacy and related complications in pediatric acute leukemia.
Publishing
Publishing in academia has a pivotal role to spread findings. Join this workshop to discuss publishing ethics, discuss about the peer reviewing process or preprint repositories in Life Science.
- Sofie Mohlin – Associate professor at Molecular physiology, Lund and a member of the Stem Cell Center. Her research focuses on understanding neural crest development and tumor initiation. Sofie has recently received an international JEDI award by The Life Science Editors Foundation (LSEF).
- Nicholas Leigh – Assistant Lecturer, WCMM fellow and research team manager at regenerative immunology, at Lund university. His research focuses on understanding how the immune system promotes and permits complex regeneration using salamander as a model system.