Dear CMMC Members, dear Colleagues, dear Students
Dear members of the Life Science Community at the UoC


This year's CMMC Annual Retreat was a great success! Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of speakers, poster presenters, and attendees, the event was vibrant and highly engaging. The retreat took place at the MTI Lecture Hall Building of the Faculty of Medicine from Tuesday, February 24, 2026, to Wednesday, February 25, 2026. 

As in previous years, the program of the CMMC Annual Retreat 2026 was organized by members of the CMMC Junior Faculty, and we are very grateful to Emma Fenech - Antonia Howaldt - Julian Nüchel - Valentina Piano - Anne Wolf (from left to right) for their great engagement.

We were honored to have Esther von Stebut (Vice Dean of Science and Transfer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne) and Stanislav Kopriva(Vice Dean of Research, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Cologne) open the event.  

Scientific Program Highlights
The retreat featured three Short Talk Sessions with 14 presentations, where CMMC PIs or their representatives shared progress on their research projects. Additionally, two Flash Talk Sessions provided an opportunity for 23 PhD students and PostDocs to introduce their research in a dynamic and engaging manner. These talks served as a perfect introduction to the two Poster Sessions, which featured a total of 95 posters. Poster presenters enthusiastically invited fellow participants to engage in discussions, fostering a lively and insightful scientific exchange. 

The scientific program was further enriched by two CMMC Lectures: Barbara Conradt (UCL London) delivered an inspiring talk on the role of unequal mitochondrial segregation and Mads Gyrd-Hansen (University of Copenhagen) presented an engaging lecture on ubiquitin chains as regulators of immune signalling, cell death and inflammation.

Flash Talk & Poster Award Winners
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Flash Talk Awards and Poster Prizes:

Flash Talk Winners:
  • FT 08: Romy Baier (RG Trentini)
  • FT 59: Franziska Valentina Oehlert (RG Nüchel)
  • FT 67: Katrin Reitmeier (RG Brinkkötter)
f.l.t.r.: E. Fenech, J.Nüchel, V. Piano, K. Reitmeier, F. V. Oehlert, R. Baier, A. Howaldt, A. Wolf
Poster Prize Winners
  • P 17: Lokapriya Dasarathan (RG Hänsel-Hertsch)
  • P 46: Seda Koyuncu (RG Vilchez)
  • P 76: Vandit Shah (RG Schermer)
f.l.t.r.: E. Fenech, J. Nüchel, V. Piano, S. Koyuncu, A. Wolf, A. Howaldt plus L. Dasarathan, V. Shah

A huge thank you to all the Flash Talk Speakers and Poster Presenters for your participation. You all did an outstanding job, making the evaluation process a real challenge!

The retreat was accompanied by an Biotech Exhibition, featuring the following companies: 10x Genomis • MedChemExpress • Merck • Novogene • Olink • peptides&elephants • Proteintech • QIAGEN • Singleron • Standard BioTools.

We sincerely appreciate everyone who contributed to making this event a success and look forward to welcoming you again at next year’s CMMC Annual Retreat 2027!

Impressions - CMMC Annual Retreat 2026

Photocredits by Dieter Jacobi

We gratefully acknowledge the support by our Biotech Partners

10x Genomis • MedChemExpress • Merck • Novogene • Olink • peptides&elephants • Proteintech • QIAGEN • Singleron • Standard BioTools

The sponsoring (€ 450,- per company) is used for event related expenses; e.g. travel of the keynote speakers, conference handouts and event management.

Program

The program is updated regularly.

Speakers Key Note Lectures

Speakers Short Talk Sessions

Please note

We traditionally photograph the Annual Retreat for print and online media. If you do not wish to be photographed, please speak directly to the photographer on site. Thank you! 

Biotech Exhibition

We gratefully acknowledge the support by our Biotech Partners

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