MERLN PhD day 2025​​​​​​​​​​​​

01-Oct-2025 | Maastricht University Aula

About the event

Dear PhD Candidates,

The 2025 edition of the PhD Symposium will happen on October 1st.

The theme of this year is "Combining knowledge and building solutions: an interdisciplinary approach to Regenerative Medicine".

We are preparing an exciting program addressing interesting topics for debate.

We want to celebrate your high-quality research giving you the chance to present during MERLN Institute Annual Conference!!

Keynote speakers

• Elena Della Bella, AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland

• Sebastien Callens, TU/e, Netherlands

Dr Elena Della Bella is a Senior Scientist at the AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland. She is a Medical Biotechnologist by training. After a PhD and a Post Doc at the University of Bologna and Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Italy, Della Bella first joined the AO Research Institute Davos as Post Doc, and she is now Senior Scientist and Deputy Focus Area Leader in the Progenitor Cell Biology group. Her research aims at improving bone health by advancing the study, diagnosis, and treatment of various bone-related conditions. One of the focuses is the regulation of osteogenic and endochondral differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells and to improve current in vitro differentiation models that can be used to refine translational processes. She is also interested in defining the influence of materials, drugs, non-coding RNAs, and metabolic diseases in bone formation and healing processes. Della Bella authored more than 50 papers, two book chapters, and she is involved in students’ training and in several collaborative projects.

Sebastien Callens is Assistant Professor in the Orthopaedic Biomechanics group of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a core member of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems. His research centres around mechanoregeneration of orthopaedic soft tissues, with a current focus on articular cartilage. Sebastien is interested in uncovering how these tissues dynamically self-organize and form highly structured extracellular matrices during growth and under the influence of mechanical and geometrical cues. He aims to unravel how tissue architecture determines tissue function in health and disease, and how we can develop innovative mechano-driven regenerative therapies for durable and functional tissue repair. To do this, the team adopts a multidisciplinary approach, combining microtissue engineering, (micro-)architected biomaterials, computational design and simulation, and quantitiative microscopy. While the primary focus area is on orthopaedic tissues, Sebastien is actively exploring collaborative efforts in other mechanically active living materials. Sebastien's reserach has been recognized and supported through various awards and grants, including the 2023 ON/EORS Orthoregeneration Award, a Rubicon Fellowship (NWO), a MSCA Fellowship (EU), and the 2024 Veni grant (NWO).

Program

The program will be as follows:

4x Scientific Sessions (20 speakers)

2x Poster sessions

2x Keynote Presentations

Location

Aula Maastricht University

Minderbroedersberg 4 - 6

Maastricht, The Netherlands