
James F. Martin
Texas Heart Institute
USA
EMBL Conference
This conference will take place at EMBL Heidelberg, with the option to attend virtually.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of human mortality, and despite an active research community many of the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Open questions surround molecular triggers, the relationship of GxE, impact of epigenetics, the role of sex, inflammation and microbiome, as well as metabolism and multi-organ links in cardiovascular disease. Advanced molecular and human-mimicking tissue engineering techniques are revolutionizing the way we approach cardiovascular discovery research. These developments led to the inaugural “The new cardiobiology” meeting at EMBL in 2024.
In light of further technical advances in the field, the conference will repeat in 2026 and seek to unite speakers across cardiac and vascular biology, tissue engineering as well as systems biology to continue studying cardiovascular disease.
Texas Heart Institute
USA
Technical University of Munich
Germany
Humanitas University
Italy
Amsterdam UMC
The Netherlands
Goethe University
Germany
National University of Singapore
Singapore
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
Australia
University of Pennsylvania
USA
Aarhus University
Denmark
RWTH Aachen University
Germany
Imperial College London
UK
University of Toronto
Canada
EMBL-EBI Hinxton
UK
Maastricht University Medical Center
The Netherlands
Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research
Spain
Weizmann Institute of Science
Israel
Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research
Spain
Weizmann Institute of Science
Israel
Pharmacology and Toxicology University Medical Center Göttingen
Germany
Heidelberg University
Germany
National University of Singapore
Singapore
EMBL Barcelona
Spain
University of Toronto
Canada
Are you on social media? Post using #EMBLCardioBiology and don’t forget to tag @EMBLEvents
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Session |
---|---|
12:00 – 14:15 | Registration and light refreshments |
14:15 – 14:30 | Opening remarks |
14:30 – 18:30 | Session 1: Modeling the cardiovascular system Chair: to be confirmed |
14:30 – 15:00 | Pacemaking the heart Harsha Devalla – Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands |
15:00 – 15:30 | Heart on a chip disease models Milica Radisic – University of Toronto, Canada |
15:30 – 15:45 | Selected short talk #1 |
15:45 – 16:00 | Selected short talk #2 |
16:00 – 16:30 | Coffee break and meet the speakers |
16:30 – 17:00 | Generation of cardiopedia: a perturbation-function-biology catalogue of cardiac biology James Hudson – QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Australia |
17:00 – 17:15 | Selected short talk#3 |
17:15 – 17:30 | Selected short talk#4 |
17:30 – 18:30 | Keynote lecture: Advancing epicardioids for modeling cardiac development, disease and regeneration Alessandra Moretti – Technical University of Munich, Germany |
18:30 – 19:30 | Speed networking |
19:30 – 21:00 | Dinner in Canteen |
21:00 – 22:30 | After dinner drinks – ATC Foyer |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Session |
---|---|
09:00 – 13:15 | Session 2: Cardiovascular Regeneration Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Unraveling cardiac repair mechanisms Eldad Tzahor – Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
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 | Cardiac repair mechanisms: insights from opto- and chemogenetic approaches Florian Anton Weinberger – Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research, Spain |
11:00 – 11:30 | Patches for heart regeneration Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmerman – University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany |
11:30 – 11:45 | Selected short talk #7 |
11:45 – 13:15 | Lunch and meet the editors |
13:15 – 14:45 | Session 3: Metabolic control of cardiovascular function Chair: to be confirmed |
13:15 – 13:45 | Epigenetic mechanisms regulating myocardial function Gianluigi Condorelli – Humanitas University, Italy |
13:45 – 14:15 | Arterial fibroblast fate and function in vascular disease Judith Sluimer – Maastricht University Medical Center, The Netherlands |
14:15 – 14:30 | Selected short talk #8 |
14:30 – 14:45 | Selected short talk #9 |
14:45 – 15:15 | Flash talk session 1 |
15:15 – 15:45 | Coffee break and meet the speakers |
15:45 – 17:45 | Poster Session 1 (odd numbers) |
17:45 – 19:15 | Dinner in Canteen |
19:15 – 21:15 | Flash talks |
17:00 – 18:30 | After dinner drinks in ATC Rooftop lounge |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Session |
---|---|
09:00 – 13:45 | Session 4: Cardiovascular Communication I Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Deciphering cardiac cell-cell communication in health and disease Michela Noseda – Imperial College London, United Kingdom |
09:30 – 10:00 | Regulation of cardiomyocyte maturation and cardiac regeneration Miguel Torres – Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research, Spain |
10:00 – 10:15 | Selected short talk #10 |
10:15 – 10:30 | Selected short talk #11 |
10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break and meet the speakers |
11:00 – 11:30 | Endothelial inflammation: consequences for cellular metabolism Joanna Kalucka – Aarhus University, Denmark |
11:30 – 12:00 | Egr1 is a master regulator of regenerative sOrganoid communications Dan Huh – University of Pennsylvania, USA |
12:00 – 12:15 | Selected short talk #12 |
12:15 – 12:30 | Selected short talk #13 |
12:30 – 13:15 | Lunch |
13:15 – 14:00 | Career workshop: Close the gap between academia and clinical application |
14:00 – 14:15 | Selected short talk #14 |
14:15 – 14:30 | Selected short talk #15 |
14:30 – 15:00 | Flash talk session 2 |
Free evening |
Time (Europe/Berlin) | Session |
---|---|
09:00 – 13:45 | Session 5: Cardiovascular Communication II Chair: to be confirmed |
09:00 – 09:30 | Heart-kidney crosstalk Rafael Kramann – RWTH Aachen University, Germany |
09:30 – 10:00 | Vascular development and its impact on cardiac function Karina Yaniv – Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
10:00 – 10:15 | Selected short talk #16 |
10:15 – 10:30 | Selected short talk #17 |
10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break and meet the speakers |
11:00 – 11:30 | Clonal hematopoiesis in cardiovascular communications Stefanie Dimmeler – Goethe University, Germany |
11:30 – 11:45 | Selected short talk #18 |
11:45 – 12:00 | Selected short talk #19 |
12:00 – 12:15 | Selected short talk #20 |
12:15 – 13:00 | Lunch |
13:00 – 13:45 | Career workshop: Close the gap between academia and clinical application |
13:45 – 14:15 | Knowledge-based machine learning to extract disease mechanisms from spatial multi-omics Julio Saez-Rodriguez – EMBL-EBI Hinxton, United Kingdom |
14:15 – 14:45 | Epigenetics of cardiometabolic disease Roger Foo – National University of Singapore, Singapore |
14:45 – 15:00 | Selected short talk #21 |
15:00 – 15:15 | Selected short talk #22 |
15:15 – 16:15 | Keynote lecture: From regenerative biology to clinical application James F. Martin – Texas Heart Institute, USA |
16:15 – 16:45 | Coffee break and meet the speakers |
16:45 – 18:45 | Poster Session 2 (even numbers) |
18:45 – 20:45 | Conference dinner in the canteen |
20:45 – 00:00 | Party |
Your registration for the on-site event includes:
Accommodation and travel are not included in the fees — participants are expected to book and pay their own expenses.
On-site Academia | €450 |
On-site PhD Student | €350 |
On-site Industry | €770 |
On-site Journal Editors* | €300 |
*Editors from scientific journals are allowed to attend onsite 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.
Your virtual registration for the event includes:
Virtual Academia | €200 |
Virtual PhD Student | €150 |
Virtual Industry | €275 |
Note: 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 Catherine Casas-Saavedra for more information.
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 events@embl.de 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 and participate in the poster sessions. Unfortunately, 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.
Abstract body: the limit of 2,000 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).
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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 3 weeks (21 days) 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.
The fee waiver will cover the registration sum that you have paid to attend the conference.
The travel grant will cover the cost of travel to an on-site event (airfare, train, bus, taxi, accommodation, and visa) and is provided up to specified caps which are normally as follows:
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 babysitter or childcare 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.
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.
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 registration fee waivers and travel grants during the motivation letter or 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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If you are travelling to Heidelberg via aeroplane, train, car, or long-distance bus, you can find useful information here.
Accommodation is not included in the conference registration fee.
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The hotels below have rooms on hold for participants until 25 January 2026, in some cases at special rates. Please email the hotel directly, quoting the booking code NCB26-01 to confirm the exact price of the room.
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Here you will find useful information for when you are onsite at the event.
All meals and coffee breaks are included in the registration fee. Our catering staff will prepare a variety of vegetarian meals, meat and fish dishes, soups, pasta, fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as a variety of desserts.
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The Heidelberg University Hospital or ‘Universitätsklinikum‘ has a 24 hour accident and emergency facility and is at ‘Im Neuenheimer Feld 672’. It is a 8 km or a 20 minute taxi ride away from EMBL. In a medical emergency, the ambulance service generally transports patients to this hospital.
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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 on sponsoring possibilities.
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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.
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Date: 16 - 19 Feb 2026
Location: EMBL Heidelberg and Virtual
Venue: EMBL Advanced Training Centre
Deadline(s):
Abstract submission: 15 Oct 2025
Registration (On-site): 5 Jan 2026
Registration (Virtual): 9 Feb 2026
Organisers:
Contact: Catherine Casas-Saavedra