
Arthur Arnold
University of California, Los Angeles
USA
EMBO | EMBL Symposium
This conference will take place at EMBL Heidelberg, with the option to attend virtually.
Sex differences range from distinct dimorphisms in appearance and physiology to behaviour variations across males and females of the same species. These differences are numerous and varied and are often driven by combinations of genetic, hormonal and environmental factors.
These differences also appear in manifestations of infectious disease, ageing and age-related diseases (cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases). Response to treatments can also vary drastically between females and males. Despite these widespread differences between sexes observed across species, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood and the topic has been vastly understudied.
This symposium will highlight topics including sex hormone regulation of health and immunity, genetic differences leading to disease, and mosaicism. We will convene leading scientists from various global regions to delve into topics like the molecular underpinnings of sexual dimorphisms, how sex hormones regulate sexually distinct phenotypes, and the role of sex differences in the context of metabolism, infections, cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases.
We aim to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue by bringing together researchers employing both traditional animal models and innovative approaches (organoids, biomaterials, 3D cultures, advanced bioinformatics analysis).
University of California, Los Angeles
USA
Institut Pasteur
France
University of California, San Diego
USA
University of New South Wales
Australia
University College London
The Francis Crick institute
UK
Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (INFINITy)
France
EMBL Barcelona
Spain
Institute of Biology Valrose – iBV
France
Weizmann Institute of Science
Israel
University of California, Los Angeles
USA
University of British Columbia
Canada
Institute of Biology Valrose – iBV
France
University of Eastern Finland
Finland
The Francis Crick Institute
UK
Chinese Academy of Science
China
McMaster University
Canada
University of California, San Diego
USA
EMBL Barcelona
Spain
EMBL Heidelberg
Germany
The Francis Crick Institute
UK
Are you on social media? Post using #EESSexDifferences and don’t forget to tag @EMBLEvents.
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Speaker |
---|---|
12:30 – 13:30 | Registration and light refreshments |
13:30 – 13:45 | Opening remarks |
13:45 – 14:45 | Keynote lecture title to be confirmed Arthur Arnold – University of California, USA |
14:45 – 18:15 | Session 1: Development and Evolution of Sex Differences Chair: to be confirmed |
14:45 – 15:15 | Talk title to be confirmed Margarida Cardoso-Moreira – The Francis Crick institute, UK |
15:15 – 15:30 | Selected short talk #1 |
15:30- 15:45 | Selected short talk #2 |
15:45 – 16:15 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
16:15 – 16:45 | Invited speaker #2 to be confirmed |
16:45 – 17:00 | Selected short talk#3 |
17:00 – 17:15 | Selected short talk#4 |
17:15 – 18:15 | Poster sneak peek |
18:15 – 19:45 | Dinner in Canteen |
19:45 – 21:15 | After dinner drinks |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Speaker |
---|---|
09:00 – 12:00 | Session 2: Sex Differences in Organ Function and Physiology Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Talk title to be confirmed Elizabeth Rideout – University of British Columbia, Canada |
09:30 – 09:45 | Selected short talk #5 |
09:45 – 10:00 | Selected short talk #6 |
10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
10:30 – 11:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Xiaohong Xu – Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai |
10:45 – 11:15 | Selected short talk #7 |
11:15 – 11:30 | Selected short talk #8 |
11:30 – 12:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Meital Oren-Suissa – Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
12:45 – 13:30 | Lunch and Meet the Editors |
13:30 – 16:30 | Session 3: Sex-biased Plasticity and Ageing Chair: to be confirmed |
13:30 – 14:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Andreas Schedl – Côte d’Azur University, France |
14:00 – 14:15 | Selected short talk #9 |
14:15 – 14:30 | Selected short talk #10 |
14:30 – 15:00 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
15:00 – 15:30 | Talk title to be confirmed Arantza Barrios – University College London, UK |
15:30 – 15:45 | Selected short talk #11 |
15:45 – 16:00 | Selected short talk #12 |
16:00 – 16:30 | Flash talk session 1 |
16:30 – 18:00 | Poster Session 1 (odd numbers) |
18:00 – 21:00 | Evening activity: details to be confirmed |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Speaker |
---|---|
09:00 – 12:00 | Session 4: Sex Differences in Gene-Environment Interactions Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Talk title to be confirmed Jean-Charles Guéry – Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (INFINITY), France |
09:30 – 09:45 | Selected short talk #13 |
09:45 – 10:00 | Selected short talk #14 |
10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
10:30 – 11:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Taru Tukiainen – The Francis Crick Institute, UK |
10:45 – 11:15 | Selected short talk #15 |
11:15 – 11:30 | Selected short talk #16 |
11:30 – 12:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Karen Reue – University of California,USA |
12:00 – 13:30 | Lunch |
13:30 – 16:30 | Session 5: Systems and engineering approaches to sex differences Chair: to be confirmed |
13:30 – 14:00 | Talk title to be confirmed Boyang Zhang – McMaster University, Canada |
13:45 – 14:15 | Selected short talk #17 |
14:15 – 14:30 | Selected short talk #18 |
14:30 – 15:00 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
15:00 – 15:30 | Talk title to be confirmed Sara Ballouz – University of New South Wales, Australia |
15:30 – 15:45 | Selected short talk #19 |
15:45 – 16:15 | Talk title to be confirmed Kristina Haase – EMBL Barcelona, Spain |
16:15 – 16:30 | Selected short talk #20 |
16:30 – 17:00 | Flash talk session 2 |
17:00 – 18:30 | Poster Session 2 (even numbers) |
18:30 – 20:30 | Dinner in EMBL Canteen |
20:30 – 00:00 | Party |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Speaker |
---|---|
09:00 – 12:45 | Session 6: Sex Differences in Disease Susceptibilty, Progression and Responses to Treatment Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Talk title to be confirmed James Turner – The Francis Crick Institute, UK |
09:30 – 09:45 | Selected short talk #21 |
09:45 – 10:00 | Selected short talk #22 |
10:00 – 10:30 | Talk title to be confirmed Brian Aguado – University of California, USA |
10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee Break and Meet the speakers |
11:00 – 12:00 | Keynote lecture title to be confirmed Yasmin Belkaid – Institut Pasteur, France |
12:00 – 12:15 | Selected short talk #22 |
12:15 – 12:30 | Selected short talk #23 |
12:30 – 12:45 | Closing Remarks and Poster Prize Announcements |
12:45 – 13:00 | Packed lunch and departure |
On-site registration fees include:
Accommodation and travel are not included in the fees. Participants are expected to book and pay their own expenses.
On-site Academia | €750 |
On-site PhD Student | €650 |
On-site Industry | €950 |
On-site Journal Editors* | €300 |
* 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.
Virtual registration fees include:
Virtual Academia | €240 |
Virtual PhD Student | €190 |
Virtual Industry | €290 |
Accredited journalists may be eligible to register for complimentary on-site or virtual press registration. Registrants may be required to provide accreditation or equivalent proof of press membership after registration. Please contact Lucía Minutta for more information. Please note that we do not offer complimentary registrations for editors of scientific journals.
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 Lucía Minutta for details.
If you are no longer able to take part in the conference, please inform your conference contact responsible for this event. Your registration and the submitted abstract will be deleted.
Please also check our Terms and Conditions for the cancellation policy.
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.
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Kindly mark only one author in the role of First Author and please don’t forget to indicate who will be the Presenter.
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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.
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.
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The travel grant will cover the cost of travel to an on-site event (airfare, train, bus, taxi, accommodation, visa) 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.
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. Scanned copies cannot be accepted.
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.
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.
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 for registration fee waivers and travel grants 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.
Childcare grants will be allocated in the same timeframe (6-8 weeks before the event start date). Please note that priority will be given to early-stage researchers.
Costs will be reimbursed after the meeting only once a reimbursement form and original receipts (from travel costs) have been received.
View our list of external funding opportunities or refer to the FAQ page.
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As further changes in our events are possible, you should book flights, trains and hotels with flexible options and favourable cancellation conditions.
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A list of hotels with rooms on hold will be announced here closer to the time. Please email the hotel directly, quoting the booking code EES26-01 to confirm the exact price of the room.
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Bus stops for this conference and departure times will be available closer to the date.
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Here you will find useful information for when you are onsite at the event.
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Sponsorship opportunities
We offer a variety of event sponsoring possibilities, with the flexibility to select a set sponsorship package or combine individual sponsorship options to suit your event budget. Discounts are available for companies sponsoring multiple events at EMBL Heidelberg. View other conferences, or contact sponsorship@embl.de for further information.
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EMBL wishes to warn sponsors of EMBL conferences and courses of fraudulent schemes purporting to offer sponsorship opportunities on behalf of EMBL or affiliated with EMBL officials. One current scam campaign of which we are aware is conducted using the name ‘Judy Eastman’ (judy@gopcontact.a2hosted.com) and entails approaches to sponsors offering sponsorship opportunities on EMBL’s behalf. Please be kindly advised that all relevant communication regarding sponsorship of EMBL conferences, symposia and courses is handled by EMBL directly and is sent from an official EMBL account. EMBL does not work with any external providers on sponsorship acquisition.
Please also note that:
Suspicious communications purportedly from, for or on behalf of EMBL should be reported to EMBL at the following email address sponsorship@embl.de.
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Date: 27 - 30 Apr 2026
Location: EMBL Heidelberg and Virtual
Venue: EMBL Advanced Training Centre
Deadline(s):
Abstract submission: 19 Jan 2026
Registration (On-site): 16 Mar 2026
Registration (Virtual): 23 Apr 2026
Organisers:
Contact: Lucia Minutta