The new cardiobiology

Time (Europe/Berlin)	Session
11:15 – 13:15	Registration and light refreshments
11:45 – 12:45	Industry workshop “Suction-assisted Imaging Window for Stabilized Intravital Imaging of Lung and Heart in a Live Animal” by IVIM Technology (registration required)
13:15 – 13:30	Opening remarks
13:30 – 14:30	Keynote: Cardiovascular diseases and drugs: where are we with hiPSC models? Christine Mummery – Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
14:30 – 17:00	Session 1: Where developmental biology meets cardiovascular engineering (Chair Johannes Backs)
14:30 – 15:00	Genome editing to understand and engineer heart development Alessandro Bertero – University of Turin, Italy
15:00 – 15:15	A modified mRNA encoding Myc and Cyclin T1 improves cardiac function after myocardial injury in the mouse Catherine Wilson – University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
15:15 – 15:45	Coffee break and meet the speakers
15:45 – 16:00	Scaffold moulding for a heterotypic mini-heart Juan Antonio Guadix Dominguez – University of Málaga, Spain
16:00 – 16:30	Genetic and epigenetic regulation of cardiovascular development and disease Gergana Dobreva – Heidelberg University, Germany Not available on demand
16:30 – 16:45	Modeling diastolic dysfunction in a human heart-on-a-chip platform Omar Mourad – University of Toronto, Canada
16:45 – 17:00	Epicardioids as a novel tool to study human heart development and disease Tatjana Dorn – Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Germany
17:00 – 17:30	Cardioids unravel human heart development and disease Sasha Mendjan – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology Vienna, Austria
17:30 – 18:30	Speed networking
18:30 – 20:00	Dinner in Canteen
20:00 – 21:30	After dinner drinks – ATC Foyer

Time (Europe/Berlin)	Session
09:00 – 12:00	Session 2: Where engineering meets cardiovascular regeneration (Chair Jennifer Davis)
09:00 – 09:30	Vascularization strategies for cardiac regeneration Sara Nunes Vasconcelos – Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Canada
09:30 – 10:00	Targeting arrhythmia in hiPSC-CMs and fibrosis in cardiac tissue culture José E. Krieger – University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Brazil
10:00 – 10:15	Species-matched cell therapy augments primary remuscularization to regenerate the chronically infarcted heart Lay Ping Ong – University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Not available on demand
10:15 – 10:30	NAD+ controls circadian rhythmicity during cardiac aging Pieterjan Dierickx – Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and meet the speakers
11:00 – 11:30	Bioprinting cardiac tissue in vitro and in vivo: Where are we at? Daniela Duarte Campos – Heidelberg University, Germany
11:30 – 12:00	Maturing the heart: implications for disease modelling, drug discovery & regenerative medicine Enzo Porrello – Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Melbourne, Australia Not available on demand
12:00 – 13:30	Lunch
12:40 – 13:30	Meet the editors Moderator: Pilar Alcaide Editors: Yevgeniya Nusinovich (Science) & Lise Roth (EMBO Molecular Medicine)
13:30 – 16:00	Session 3: Where cardiomyocyte biology meets immunology (Chair Kristina Haase)
13:30 – 14:00	Genetic engineering for cardiac fibrosis Jennifer Davis – University of Washington Seattle, US
14:00 – 14:15	Characterization of aging-associated immune alterations in post myocardial infarction mouse models Diyaa Ashour – Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Germany
14:15 – 14:30	The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway maintains an immunosuppressive environment essential for neonatal heart regeneration Ning Liu – UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA
14:30 – 15:00	Adaptive immunity in heart disease Pilar Alcaide – Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA
15:00 – 15:30	Coffee break and meet the speakers
15:30 – 15:45	Mitochondrial GRK2 dependent regulation of myocardial cellular and transcriptional composition after ischemic injury Samuel Slone – Duke University, USA
15:45 – 16:00	Border-zone cardiomyocytes and macrophages contribute to ECM remodeling to promote cardiomyocyte invasion during cardiac regeneration Arica Beisaw – Heidelberg University Hospital, German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) Heidelberg/Mannheim, Germany
16:00 – 16:30	Epigenetic therapies for diastolic dysfunction Timothy McKinsey – University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA Not available on demand
16:30 – 17:00	Flash talks
17:00 – 18:30	Poster Session 1 (odd numbers) with beer and snacks
18:30 – 20:00	Dinner in Canteen
20:00 – 22:00	Pub Quiz

Time (Europe/Berlin)	Session
09:00 – 11:30	Session 4: Where cardiomyocyte biology meets vascular biology (Chair Pilar Alcaide)
09:00 – 09:30	Mechanisms and cellular heterogeneity in coronary vessel formation Holger Gerhardt – Max Delbrück Center, Germany
09:30 – 09:45	Uncoupling hypertension from cardiac remodeling Anna Kaganovsky – Technion, Israel
09:45 – 10:00	NNT is required for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction Mark Emile Pepin – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA
10:00 – 10:30	Advancing tissue-specific vascularized in vitro models – a snapshot on human cardiac microvasculature Kristina Haase – EMBL Barcelona, Spain Not available on demand
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and meet the speakers
11:00 – 11:15	Endothelial inactivation of Sox9 protects from aging-induced cardiac fibrosis and heart failure Felix Trogisch – European Center for Angioscience & Heidelberg University, Germany Not available on demand
11:15 – 11:30	Egr1 is a master regulator of regenerative senescence and cardiac repair Lingling Zhang – Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
11:30 – 12:00	Vascular control of short and long distance communication Hellmut Augustin – Heidelberg University & DKFZ Heidelberg, Germany Not available on demand
12:00 – 13:30	Vegetarian lunch
12:40 – 13:30	Closing the gap between academia and industry Moderator: Timothy McKinsey Panel members: Ann-Kristin Müller, Bert Klebl, Giulia Borghetti, Eric N. Olson, Eva van Rooij, Pablo Hofbauer
13:30 – 16:30	Session 5: Where cardiovascular biology meets mechanobiology (Chair Enzo Porrello)
13:30 – 14:00	Jagged1 as an endothelial cell mechanoreceptor Cecilia Sahlgren – Åbo Akademi University and Eindhoven University of Technology, Finland
14:00 – 14:15	Cardiac fibroblasts play an important role in the development of Marfan related cardiomyopathy Jeffrey Aalders – Ghent University, Belgium
14:15 – 14:30	The Melusin cardioprotective chaperone tunes lipid metabolism to promote cardiac resilience to stress Giulia Savorè – University of Torino, Italy
14:30 – 15:00	Endothelial mechanotransduction in vascular development and disease Stephan Huveneers- Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands
15:00 – 15:15	Regulation of ventricular contractility driven atrial ballooning by the alpha actinin family member ACTN4 Dylan Burnette – Vanderbilt University, USA
15:15 – 15:30	Hydroxytyrosol: Shielding vascular grafts against intimal hyperplasia Nadiah Sulaiman – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
15:30 – 16:00	Coffee break and meet the speakers
16:00 – 16:30	Perfusable on-chip vascular network for mechanobiology and developmental biology Ryuji Yokokowa – Kyoto University, Japan
16:30 – 17:00	Flash talks
17:00 – 18:30	Poster Session 2 (even numbers) with beer and snacks
18:30 – 19:00	Networking pre-dinner drinks
19:00 – 21:00	Conference dinner
21:00 – 00:30	Party – ATC Foyer

Time (Europe/Berlin)	Session
09:00 – 13:00	Session 6: Molecular circuits of heart disease (Chair Norbert Frey)
09:00 – 09:30	New concepts to treat arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy Eva van Rooij – Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands Not available on demand
09:30 – 10:00	Epitrancriptomic targets in heart disease Federica Accornero – Brown University, USA Not available on demand
10:00 – 10:15	Cardiac sympathetic neuropathology supports the multicellularity of Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Induja Perumal Vanaja – University of Padua, Italy Not available on demand
10:15 – 10:30	Elucidating the molecular mechanisms and cellular specificity of HDAC inhibitor efficacy in diastolic dysfunction Joshua Travers – University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA
10:30 – 10:45	Re-evaluating the fetal gene program at single-cell resolution in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) Neda Rahmani Mehdiabadi – Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia
10:45 – 11:15	Coffee break and meet the speakers
11:15 – 11:45	Regulation of splicing in cardiomyopathies Lars Steinmetz – EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
11:45 – 12:45	Keynote: Toward the genetic correction of heart and muscle disease Eric N. Olson – UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, USA Not available on demand
12:45 – 13:00	Closing Remarks and Poster Prize Announcements
13:00 – 13:15	Packed Lunch and departure

On-site registration fees include admission, conference materials, meals and coffee breaks. Participants are expected to book and pay their own accommodation and travel expenses.

Virtual registration fees include access to all of the talks (livestreamed and on demand) and facility to submit questions.

On-site Academia	€350
On-site PhD Student	€250
On-site Industry	€750
On-site Journal Editors*	€200
Virtual Academia	€150
Virtual PhD Student	€100
Virtual Industry	€250

* Editors from scientific journals are allowed to attend at a reduced rate, but asked to contribute to the conference in return by taking part in ‘meet the editors’ sessions or other planned activities within the programme.

A letter to support your visa application will be issued, on request, once payment of the registration fee is confirmed. We recommend that you book your visa appointment as soon as possible, to avoid any delay with your visa application.

Accredited journalists may be eligible to register for complimentary press registration. Registrants may be required to provide accreditation or equivalent proof of press membership after registration. Please contact Catherine Casas-Saavedra for more information. Please note that we do not offer complimentary registrations for editors of scientific journals.

Confirmation and payment

Registration will be on a first come, first served basis. Your place can only be confirmed after payment of the registration fee. If you are added to our waiting list, please consider taking advantage of our offerings to participate virtually.

On-site participants: Types of payments accepted are international bank transfers and credit card payments. 

Virtual participants: We are only able to accept card payments. In exceptional cases we can accept bank transfers. Please contact Catherine Casas-Saavedra for details.

Abstract submission

Only participants registering to attend the on-site event are eligible to submit an abstract. Abstracts will not be accepted from virtual participants.

After registration you can submit your abstract via a separate link that will be provided in the email confirmation. Alternatively, you can access the link on the confirmation page directly after registering. The same login credentials are used for both processes.

Please note:

Abstract body: The limit of 2000 characters refers to manually typed text and excludes spaces. If an error occurs try using a different web browser (preferably Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox).

If you copy-paste the text into the form, hidden formatting might still be included which may cause the text to exceed the 2,000 character limit resulting in an error message. We recommend you clear all formatting before pasting in the text.

If you have special symbols in your text, make sure you are using Unicode characters, otherwise these will not be recognised.

Title: The title should not exceed 20 words. Only the first word of the title should start with a capital letter and the rest should be lowercase.

Authors and affiliations: Please fill in the author’s details as requested in the online form. The compulsory fields are: First Name, Last Name, Organisation Name (Affiliation or Company), Country and Email.

Kindly mark only one author in the role of First Author and please don’t forget to indicate who will be the Presenter.

Please enter your co-authors correctly via the system by adding accounts together with their organisation/institute. Do not copy-paste them into the body of the abstract text, as they will not be indexed in the abstract book.

Presentation types: When submitting your abstract, you can apply for an oral or poster presentation. A selection process will take place with the results announced 2-3 weeks after the abstract submission deadline.

For detailed instructions on how to submit a conference abstract, follow the instructions provided in this video.

Please check our FAQs pages for further information on how to submit an abstract.

Financial assistance

Limited financial assistance is provided by the EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme and EMBO in the form of registration fee waivers, travel grants, and childcare grants.

Your place in the meeting is only confirmed by paying the registration fee, which is mandatory even when receiving a fee waiver.

Registration fee waiver

The fee waiver will cover the registration sum that you have paid to attend the course or conference.

Travel grant

The travel grant will cover the cost of travel to an on-site event (airfare, train, bus, taxi, accommodation, visa, and/or registration fees*) and is provided up to specified caps which are normally as follows:

–up to €400 for participants travelling to an EMBL Conference or EMBO|EMBL Symposium from within Europe.

–up to €1000 for participants travelling to an EMBL Conference or EMBO|EMBL Symposium from outside Europe.

–up to €500 for any participant travelling to an EMBO Workshop.

–up to €1000 for any participant working in Chile, India, Singapore or Taiwan travelling to an EMBO Workshop.

–up to €700 for any participant working in Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey travelling to an EMBO Workshop.

*Registration fees are only covered for EMBO Workshops

For DFG Grants, participants must travel in economy class, no business’ travel will be covered, and the hotel accommodation should not exceed 95 EUR per night.

The organisers may reduce the grant cap to accommodate more participants. Recipients will be notified of their travel cap amount when they are informed of the outcome of their application. Original receipts must be provided with your signature for all costs incurred within two months of completion of travel.

Childcare grant

There is the possibility to apply for a childcare grant to offset child care costs incurred by participants, speakers, and organisers when attending a conference.

Eligible costs include (but are not limited to) fees for a baby-sitter or child-care facility, and travel costs for a caregiver. Please note that priority will be given to early stage researchers. In order to apply for this grant, you must be registered by the abstract submission deadline. There is a limited amount of funding available for the childcare grants and funds will be distributed amongst eligible applicants.

Application

On-site participants

You may apply for financial assistance when submitting your abstract. In your application you will be asked to answer questions regarding why your lab cannot fund your attendance and how your attendance will make a difference to your career. Application for financial support will not affect the outcome of your registration application.

Virtual participants

If you are attending virtually, you can apply for financial assistance in the submission portal by the abstract deadline. Read the instructions on how to apply for financial assistance. Only submissions for financial assistance will be accepted. Presentation abstracts cannot be submitted here and will be declined. 

In your application you will be asked to summarise your current work,  answer questions regarding why your lab cannot fund your attendance, and how your attendance will make a difference to your career. Application for financial support will not affect the outcome of your registration application.

Selection

The scientific organisers will select the recipients of all financial assistance during the abstract selection process. Results will be announced approximately 6 – 8 weeks before the event start date, however for some events this may be delayed. Selection results do not impact your admission to the meeting. Selection is based on scientific merit, your current work or study location, the reasons for needing financial support, and the impact this event will have on your career.

Reimbursement

Costs will be reimbursed after the meeting only once a reimbursement form and original receipts (from travel costs) have been received.

Further details

View our list of external funding opportunities and information on attending a conference as an event reporter.

For further information about financial assistance please refer to the FAQ page.

Accommodation is not included in the conference registration fee.

The hotels below have rooms on hold for participants until Tuesday, 23 January, in some cases at special rates. Please email the hotel directly, quoting the booking code NCB24-01 to confirm the exact price of the room.

Hotel Anlage	Hotel ibis Heidelberg	Premier Inn Heidelberg City
B&B Hotel	Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg City Centre	ISG Hotel
Exzellenz Hotel	Meininger Heidelberg	Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Heidelberg
Hotel Holländer Hof	Hotel Monpti

Conference shuttle buses

Conference shuttle buses are free of charge for participants, and depart from designated bus stops near the hotels to EMBL and back, mornings and evenings.

The bus stops for this conference are:

• Staycity Aparthotel (Speyerer Str. 7)
• Kurfürsten-Anlage (Opposite Main Train Station)
• Premier Inn (Kurfürsten-Anlage 23)
• Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg City Center (Bergheimer Str. 63)
• Neckarmünzplatz (Heidelberg Tourist Information)
• Peterskirche (Bus stop)
• ISG Hotel (Im Eichwald 19)

View Conference shuttle bus stops and hotels in a larger map. Please note that not every bus stop will be used for every event.

Further details

Address: EMBL, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. For further information on getting to EMBL Heidelberg visit Public Transportation to the Venue. For information about accommodation and local transportation please refer to the FAQ page.

Catering

All meals and coffee breaks are included in the registration fee. Our catering staff will prepare a wide variety of vegetarian meals, meat and fish dishes, soups, pasta, fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as a variety of desserts.

Please wear your badge at all times when serving yourself.

No food or drinks are allowed in the auditorium.

Charging lockers

There are lockers available next to the stairs leading down into the Auditorium. You will find some of those equipped with sockets to charge your smartphone/tablet etc.

Electricity and charging station

In most places the electricity is 220 volts AC (50 cycles). An adaptor and a plug that fits the German socket may be needed for your appliances/laptop (i.e. American, Japanese, etc.). A USB charging station for electronic devices is available at the registration desk.

EMBL merchandise

If you are interested in purchasing an EMBL souvenir (products presented in the glass display in the registration area), please ask at the registration desk for more information.

Health and safety notes

Please read EMBL’s COVID-19 safety policy for on-site events.
Do not smoke in any EMBL building.
Eating and drinking is prohibited in the Auditorium and all laboratories.
Do not enter any restricted areas or the laboratories unless instructed to do so.

If first aid is required …

• The first aid room is located next to the ATC Registration Desk (room 10- 205).
• Dial the Emergency number 222 from any EMBL internal phone only.
• Where is the accident? What happened? How many injured?
• Emergency number 06221-387 7821 from mobile phones.
• Please report all accidents to the conference officer at the registration desk.

In case of fire …

• Press the nearest fire alarm button or the Emergency number 222 from any internal phone.
• A loud fire alarm will go off if an evacuation is required. On hearing the alarm leave the building immediately following the escape route and fire wardens and head to one of the meeting points
• Do not use the lifts.

Beyond first aid…

Please remember to bring your own medication, if needed, to the conference. Note that the next pharmacy is a 4-minute drive from the EMBL, but for many medications you will be required to see a doctor to get a prescription.

Ensure in advance that your medical insurance will cover you during your visit in the event that you do need to see a doctor while in Heidelberg. In any case, the EMBL Course and Conference Office will assist you to get to the pharmacy and a doctor of your choice if necessary.

Internet

Wi-Fi is available on campus using the EMBL-Events network and the event specific password, which will be provided on site. The eduroam network (secure, worldwide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community) is also available.

Lost and found

‘’Lost and Found’’ items are kept at the registration desk until the end of the conference.

Luggage

There are lockers available on-site to store your luggage, which require a 2 EURO coin to operate. There is another luggage room on level E0, which is free to use but remains unlocked during the conference.

Childcare

For more information please contact: CRC1550, Heidelberg University.

Nursing room

There is a nursing room available in the ATC Rooftop Lounge on level A29.

Photography

During the conference, an EMBL Photographer may be taking photos. If you would not like to appear in these, please inform the photographer or a member of the Course and Conference Office.

Printing

We can help to print your boarding pass/train ticket. Please send it to events@embl.de and collect your print-outs at the registration desk.

Room for prayer, yoga and meditation

There is a room for prayer, meditation and yoga located on level E0 behind the Auditorium. Please be respectful of others using the room.

Sightseeing

A variety of activities in Heidelberg can be found on the website of Heidelberg Marketing.

Travel to and from the venue

During the event, we provide conference shuttle buses to and from EMBL. In addition, there is the public bus 39A that serves the EMBL campus and taxis can be easily booked at any time. Information on the conference shuttle buses can be found on the individual event website and more detailed information on travelling to EMBL can be found on our Travel Information page.

Useful German expressions

Hello	Hallo
Goodbye	Auf Wiedersehen (formal) Tschüss (informal)
Good morning	Guten Morgen
Good afternoon	Guten Tag
Good evening	Guten Abend
Good night	Gute Nacht
I’m sorry	Es tut mir leid
Excuse me…	Entschuldigen Sie
How are you?	Wie gehts?
I’m fine thanks. And you?	Mir geht es gut , danke. Und Dir/Ihnen?
What is your name	Wie heißen Sie? (formal) Wie heißt du? (informal)
My name is..	Ich heiße..
Do you speak English	Sprechen Sie englisch?
I don’t understand	Ich verstehe nicht
Please speak more slowly	Können Sie bitte langsamer sprechen
Thank you	Dankeschön
Where is the toilet?	Wo ist die Toilette?
Please call me a taxi	Bitte rufen Sie mir ein Taxi
How do I get to….?	Wie komme ich zum/zur…..?
A beer/two beers please	Ein Bier/zwei Bier bitte
A glass of red/white wine please	Ein Glas Rot/Weisswein bitte
The menu, please	Die Speisekarte, bitte
Is there a local speciality?	Gibt es eine Spezialität aus dieser Gegend?
I’m vegetarian	Ich bin Vegetarier
It was delicious	Es war hervorragend
The bill, please	Die Rechnung, bitte
I have a headache	Ich habe Kopfschmerzen
I have a sore throat	Ich habe Halsschmerzen
My stomach hurts	Ich habe Magenschmerzen
I’m allergic to	Ich bin allergisch gegen
I need a doctor who speaks English	Ich brauche einen Arzt, der englisch spricht.

What’s included?

• Access to all the livestreamed talks
• Video library of the recorded talks* during and after the event
• Facility to submit questions

* Talks will only be recorded upon speaker’s consent

Please note that only on-site participants are able to submit abstracts and participate in the poster sessions.

Event platform

We are using an event platform for this conference. More information about the platform will be shared ahead of the conference.

Guidelines

• Do not broadcast the conference to unregistered participants.
• You are encouraged to tweet and post about the event. Tweet unless the speaker specifically says otherwise, but be mindful of unpublished data. 
• Please do not capture, transmit or redistribute data presented at the meeting.

Additional information can be found in our Code of Conduct.

Health and well-being

It is important to stay healthy and move around, especially when you are attending an event virtually. We have put together a few coffee break stretches and yoga videos in the conference platform for you to enjoy during the event.

How to ask questions

Please use the Q&A function in the event platform.

If you have any other questions, you can go to the Help Desk in the event platform. Click on ‘more’ on the top menu and click Help Desk. 

Time zone

The programme is planned based on the Europe/Berlin time zone, unless otherwise stated. Please take your time zone into consideration when planning your attendance.

Please find additional information including FAQs, terms and conditions, COVID-19 safety policy and travelling to EMBL on our Information for participants page.

COVID-19 information for on-site events at EMBL Heidelberg can be found in our COVID-19 FAQs.