Otto Loewi Research Day

Otto Loewi Research Center
Science Day 2026

Thursday, February 5th 2026

Hörsaal MC4, Medical University of Graz

Neue Stiftingtalstraße 6 | 8010 Graz

Der Otto Loewi Science Day dient als Plattform für den intensiven Austausch von Forschungsergebnissen, die Diskussion von Ideen und die Möglichkeit, neue Kooperationen zu initiieren. Von inspirierenden Forschungspräsentationen bis hin zu informellen Networking-Gelegenheiten – die Veranstaltung bietet ein vielfältiges Programm, um die Zusammenarbeit zwischen den verschiedenen Fachbereichen zu fördern.

Program

Welcome from

9:00Univ.-Prof. Dr. med.univ. Akos Heinemann
Vice Rector of Research Univ.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. rer. nat. Tobias Madl
Head of the Otto Loewi Research Center

Session 1 Cancer and fibrosis

9:20Tobias Madl: Targeting “undruggable” transcription factors
9:40Elisabeth Fließer: The role of endothelial cells in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis
10:00Armin Zebisch: RAS-signaling in myeloid leukemogenesis
10:20

4-minutes Flash Talks 

  • Thomas Bauer: Eggs-posed: Tumors on a Plastic Diet
  • Oliver Kindler: The Unwilling Presenter - educating cancer cells in-vivo
  • Bernhard Reiter: Immunophenotyping of Pulmonary Hypertension associated with Chronic Lung Disease
  • Katharina Schindlmaier: Partial Gluconeogenesis: Macrophages’ Plan B in the TME 
  • Alyssa Schnabl: Replicative stress as a source of metabolite antigens in pediatric leukemia
10:40Coffee break | Networking

Session 2 Structural biology and translational medicine

11:10Sonja Lackner: At the Crossroads of Nutrition, (Immune-) Metabolism and Psychiatry
11:30Marco Eigenfeld: From youth to senescence: Molecular and physiological insights from age-separated yeast
11:50Pedro Sánchez Murcia: Revealing the molecular basis of the pathophysiology of active defective human lysosomal hydrolases
12:10

4-minutes Flash Talks

  • Denys Balandin: Regulation of TCF/LEF transcriptional activity in Wnt signaling
  • Kaj Dingenotto: Influence of nutrition and inflammatory food intake during pregnancy on circulating human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) composition 
  • Spase Stojanov: Magnetic nanoparticles as delivery system for vaginal probiotics 
  • Stefan Wolf: Immune Cell Infiltration in Lipedema 
  • Diana Zakharchuk: Controlled degradation of nanorobots via computationally engineered biocatalysts
12:30Lunch

Session 3 Metabolism

13:30Andrijana Kirsch: Effect of incretin receptor agonism on endothelial metabolism
13:50Florian Reichmann: Environmental modulation of gut-brain axis signaling in an animal model of ulcerative colitis
14:10Paul Vesely: Metabolism of Lung Regeneration
14:30

4-minutes Flash Talks 

  • Elena Maria Grao-Cruces: High-density lipoprotein (HDL) lipid remodelling: which are the implications for cardiovascular health? 
  • Natalia Krajic: The crosstalk between incretins, endothelial cells and adipocytes in cardiometabolic disease 
  • Angela Mathew: Age-Based Separation of Komagataella phaffii Cells for Evaluating Enhanced Protein Synthesis
  • Anna Rieder: Bile acids and GLP-1 as novel modulators of fetal mesenchymal stem cell function: Implications for adipogenesis 
  • Lamija Zijadic: ApoA-I mimetic nanodiscs preferentially associate with high-density lipoprotein and enhance its functionality in human plasma
14:50Coffee break | Networking

Session 4 Inflammation and cardiovascular research

15:20Stefano Angiari: Identification of a novel circulating biomarker of inflammation
15:40Anirudh Muralikrishnan: Effect of Incretins on peripheral T-cells – investigating the immune cellular effects of incretin therapy
16:00Susanne Sattler: Autoimmune mechanisms in heart disease: Old suspects and new culprits
16:20

4-minutes Flash Talks 

Johannes Lorenz Berg: The MMP14-endostatin-Notch3 axis in vascular remodeling

Izabela Borek: CtsC as a therapeutic target in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Theresa Gogg: Disease-Driven Alterations of Circadian Clock Proteins in Leukocytes from COPD Patients

Ayu Hutami Syarif: Compartmentalized immune responses in COPD lungs

Saba Mahboubi: Metabolic regulation of Th9 cells

16:40

Plenary lecture 

Prof. Sebastian Preissl, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Graz 
Dissecting cell-type-specific gene regulation through single-cell multiomics

17:30

Meeting closure and prize announcement

 

Dinner and social hours

The meeting has been registered for DFP (Continuing Medical ­Education) points for medical doctors. Attendance to the meeting will be recognized with 8 DFP points. Furthermore, CPD points will be allocated for the event. Please get in touch with Geraldine Zenz geraldine.zenz(at)medunigraz.at to receive the necessary form.

Stefano Angiari,  PhD
T: +43 316 385 71172