Dear CMMC Members, dear Colleagues, dear Students
Dear members of the Life Science Community at the UoC
We are delighted to invite you and your group members, along with interested members of the Medical Faculty and Science Faculty, to the CMMC Annual Retreat 2025 at the MTI Lecture Hall Building of the Medical Faculty (Building 44b, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 52, Cologne, Germany).
The CMMC Annual Retreat is scheduled to take place from Wednesday - March 12, 2025, at 10 a.m., to Thursday - March 13, 2025, at around 4 p.m. We are delighted to announce that Prof. Esther von Stebut-Borschitz (Vice Dean - Faculty of Medicine) and Prof. Kopriva (Vice Dean - Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) will open the Annual Retreat 2025 with a welcome address.
As in previous years, the program of the CMMC Annual Retreat 2025 will be organized by members of the CMMC Junior Faculty, and we are very grateful to Alessandro Annibaldi, Johannes Brägelmann, Sebastian Brähler, Elisa Motori and Débora Trentini (from left to right) for their great engagement.
“We are honored and excited to organize this year's Annual Retreat. We look forward to your registration. We especially encourage you to sign up for the Flash Talks and Poster Presentations. The top three Flash Talks and Poster Presentations will receive awards”, comment the scientific organizers.
The program will include short talk sessions from principal investigators, flash talk and poster sessions presented by PhD students or PostDocs, and two CMMC Lectures presented by external speakers. The meeting will be accompanied by an Industrial Exhibition from the following companies: ABclonal • Enzo • INTEGRA • Macherey-Nagel • Merck • New England Biolabs • Proteintech.
On the first day (March 12, 2025) we are pleased to invite you to the CMMC Get-Together after the CMMC Lecture in the foyer of the MTI-Lecture Hall Building.
To participate in the Annual Retreat please register here.
We look forward to welcoming you to this year's CMMC Annual Retreat.
With best regards
Thomas Benzing (Chair of the CMMC) and the CMMC Executive Board Members
Registration
Participation in the CMMC Annual Conference 2025 is free of charge, including catering during the meeting.
Please note that registration is a binding commitment and we kindly ask you to bear this in mind when registering.
Deadline for registration is February 25, 2025
Welcome Ilaria Elia - CMMC Lecture I
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Ilaria Elia (Dept. of Cellular and Molecular Medicine - KU Leuven, Leuven, BE) will be our honorary speaker for the CMMC Lecture I scheduled for March 12, 2025. Her talk is titled “Understanding the metabolic cross-talk between cancer and immune cells in metastatic melanoma.”
Ilaria Elia is an assistant professor at KU Leuven, where she has been leading the Laboratory of Metabolic Regulation of Cell Function since 2021. She earned her Ph.D. under the mentorship of Prof. Sarah-Maria Fendt at VIB (KU Leuven), focusing on the metabolic adaptations of metastatic breast cancer cells during lung colonization. Her research identified the critical role of the amino acid proline and pyruvate-derived alpha-ketoglutarate in supporting metastatic establishment in the lung.
Ilaria pursued postdoctoral training in immunometabolism at Harvard Medical School, collaborating with Drs. Marcia Haigis and Arlene Sharpe. There, she developed a co-culture model that mimics the interactions between tumor and immune cells within the tumor microenvironment, uncovering pivotal mechanisms such as the role of pyruvate anaplerosis in succinate signaling and anti-tumor immunity, as well as the enhancement of immunotherapy through one-carbon metabolism.
Her distinctive skills and research perspective have led to the publication of several key manuscripts on cellular metabolism in cellular behavior (Elia et al., Nature, 2019; Elia et al., Nature Communications, 2017) and anti-tumor immunity (Elia et al., Cell Metabolism, 2022; Rowe, Elia* et al., Cancer Discovery, 2023*). Ilaria´s work has been recognized through substantial research funding and prestigious awards, including the FEBS Excellence Award and the Beug Foundation’s Prize for Metastasis Research.
Since August 2021, Ilaria has been leading her own laboratory of Metabolic Regualtion of Cell Function at KU Leuven. She has presented at international conferences, written review articles, established high-profile collaborations, and secured about 2 million euros in research funding. This support is enabling her to expand the field of cancer immunometabolism by investigating the metabolic profiles of immune and cancer cells in immune-resistant primary tumors and metastasis.
Welcome Christoph Kuppe - CMMC Lecture II
Information will follow soon
March 12, 2025 - Program
9.00 - 10.30 a.m.
Meeting of the CMMC Executive Board
(only for members of the EC Board)
11.00 - 11.15 a.m.
Welcome Address - CMMC Annual Retreat 2025
Esther von Stebut-Borschitz - Vice Dean of Science - Translation - Transfer, Faculty of Medicine
Stanislav Kopriva - Vice-Dean of Research, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Thomas Benzing - Chair - the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne
Brief introduction to the scientific program by the organizers
Alessandro Annibaldi - Johannes Brägelmann - Sebastian Brähler - Elisa Motori - Débora Trentini Schmidt
11.15 - 12.45 p.m.
Short Talk Session I
CMMC Research Area C:
Molecular mechanisms & metabolic control of tissue degeneration & regeneration
Chairs: Elisa Motori and Débora Trentini
11.15 - 11.30 a.m.
Consequences of age-related G-quadruplex formation for the fidelity of mammalian transcription
Beyer, Andreas1 | Hänsel-Hertsch, Robert2 - C 02
CECAD1 | CMMC2
11.30 - 11.45 a.m.
Cellular and molecular crosstalk in skin wound resolution
Eming, Sabine | Fabri, Mario - C 04
Department of Dermatology and Venereology
11.45 - 12.00 p.m.
Understanding the role of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in differentiation, development, and disease
Gehring, Niels - C 05
Institute for Genetics, Department of Biology
12.00 - 12.15 p.m.
The quality control Ubiquitin ligase CHIP: a key regulator of Insulin signaling, healthy aging & neuroprotection
Hoppe, Thorsten - C 07
Institute for Genetics and CECAD
12.15 - 12.30 p.m.
Title to announced
Speaker: Pending
12.30 - 12.45 p.m.
Two are not enough: Extra base pairs in nucleic acids and their application
Stephanie Kath-Schorr - assoc. RG 42 (RA A)
Institute of Organic Chemistry
12.45 - 2.00 p.m.
Lunch Break
2.00 - 3.00 p.m.
Flash Talk Session I
Chairs: Débora Trentini Schmidt and Alessandro Annibaldi
P 01 - P 19: pending - flash talk presentations of posters with odd numbers
Core Facilities: Pending 2 x 5 min. Microscopy / TEH
3.15 - 5.00 p.m.
Poster Session I with Coffee and Cake
5.00 - 5.45 p.m.
CMMC Lecture I
Understanding the metabolic cross-talk between cancer and immune cells in metastatic melanoma
Ilaria Elia, KU Leuven, Leuven, BE
Chair: Elisa Motori
at 6.00 p.m.
CMMC Get-Together at the venue
March 13, 2025 - Program
9.00 - 10.45 a.m.
Short Talk Session II & CMMC Progress Report/General Assembly
CMMC Research Areas B:
Principles of immunity, inflammation and infection
Chairs: Johannes Brägelmann and Christina Ising
9.00 - 9.15 a.m.
The hidden cost of hosting a microbiome
Cabreiro, Filipe | Corrado, Mauro | Solagna, Francesca - B 02
CECAD Cologne
9.15 - 9.30 a.m.
Cell death and Immunity
Kashkar, Hamid - B 06
Institute for Molecular Immunology
9.30 - 9.45 a.m.
Antibodies and the challenge of viral diversity
Florian Klein - assoc. RG 10
Institute of Virology
9.45 - 10.00 a.m.
Deciphering innate immune responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination
Rybniker, Jan | Theobald, Sebastian - B 10
Department I of Internal Medicine
10.00 - 10.15 a.m.
Heme biogenesis flux regulates switch between inflammation and ferroptosis
Trifunovic, Aleksandra B 11
Institute for Mitochondrial Diseases and Ageing and CECAD Cologne
10.15 - 10.45 a.m.
CMMC Report - General Assembly incl. Core Facilities
Thomas Benzing - Chair of the CMMC
10.45 - 11.00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.45 a.m.
CMMC Key Note Lecture II
Title to be announced
Christoph Kuppe, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, DE
Chair: Elisa Motori
11.45 - 12.45 p.m.
Flash Talk Session II
Chair: Alessandro Annibaldi and Débora Trentini
P 02 - 22: Flash Talks presentation of posters with even numbers
12.45 - 1.00 p.m.
CMMC Information
1.00 - 2.45 p.m.
Poster Session II with Fingerfood
2.45 - 3.45 p.m.
Short Talk Session II
CMMC Research Area A:
Mechanisms of tumor development: intrinsic and extrinsic control of cell proliferation and tissue invasion
Chairs: Sebastian Brähler and N.N.
2.45 - 3.00 p.m.
Role of synaptic hijacking in SCLC brain metastatic growth
Bergami, Matteo1 | Motori, Elisa2 - A 02
CECAD1 and Institute for Genetics/CMMC2
3.00 - 3.15 p.m.
Ubiquilins expose an actionable target in cancer therapy
Jachimowicz, Ron - assoc. RG 36
Department I of Internal Medicine & MPI of Ageing
3.15 - 3.30 p.m.
Title pending
Niemann, Catherin - assoc. RG 14
CMMC and Institute for Biochemistry
3.30 - 3.45 p.m.
Essential role of macrophage-derived LYN tyrosine kinase in tumor support
Nguyen, Phuong-Hien1| Renata Stripecke1 | Alessandro Annibaldi2- A 09
Deptartment I for Internal Medicine1 and CMMC2
3.45 - 4.00 p.m.
Final Discussion - Awarding the flash talk & poster prizes
Venue
MTI - Lecture Hall of the Medical Faculty (Biochemistry)
Joseph-Stelzmann Str. 52 (Building 44b)
50937 Cologne
We gratefully acknowledge the support by our industrial partners
ABclonal • Enzo • INTEGRA • Macherey Nagel • Merck • New England Biolabs • Proteintech
The sponsoring (€ 450,- per company) is used for event related expenses; e.g. travel of the keynote speakers, conference handouts and event management.
