MERLN PhD day 2025​​​​​​​​​​​​

01-Oct-2025 | Maastricht University Aula

8:00 - 8:30 | Registration​​​​​​​​

8:30 - 8:45 | Welcome and introduction by MERLNs Scientific Director Lorenzo Moroni

8.45 – 10.27 | Session 1 : Cell biology and cell therapy

Chairs: Virginia Cora, João Ribeiro

8:45 – 9:15 | Keynote Speaker - Elena Della Bella

"In vitro osteogenesis of human mesenchymal stromal cells: contribution of glucocorticoids and role of miRNA"

9:15 – 9:27 | Niels van Ingen

9:27 – 9:39 | Madina Sangen

9:39 – 9:51 | Sveva Fagiolino

9:51 – 10:03 | Lotte Smeets

10:03 – 10:15 | Margot Warin

10:15 – 10:27 | Filippo Bonelli

10:30 - 10:40 | Rapidfire Session 1

Speakers : Zhengdong Gao, Beatrice Francesca Massel, Tim ten Brink, Hongjuan Weng, Yue Wang

10:40 - 11:10 | Poster session + Coffee break

11:10 - 12:10 | Session 2 : Organ-on-chip and microfluidics

Chairs: Jonathan Briones, Esra Güben Kaçmaz

11:10 – 11:22 | Anna Peeters

11:22 – 11:34 | Elisabetta Avizzano

11:34 – 11:46 | Marie Loly

11:50 - 12:00 | Rapidfire Session 2

Speakers : Cristian Balducci, João Ribeiro, Krithi Vishnu Balaji, Aleksandra Predeina, Yağmur Doğay, Annemarie de Vries

12:00 – 14:00 | Lunch

12:10 – 12:20 | Sponsor session: Miltenyi

12:20 – 12:30 | Sponsor session: Sarstedt

12:30 – 12:35 | Sponsor session: PHC

12:35 – 12:40 | Sponsor session: Vizgen

12:40 – 12:45 | Sponsor session: Promega

12:45 – 14:00 | Poster session

14:00 - 15:30 | Session 3 : Biofabrication and biomaterials

Chairs: Pierpaolo Fucile, David Dimech

14:00 – 14:30 | Keynote Speaker - Sebastien Callens

"Engineering structure in orthopaedic tissues"

14:30 – 14:42 | Niccolò Bianco

14:42 – 14:54 | Maria Kalogeropoulou

14:54 – 15:06 | Vivek Cherian David

15:06 – 15:18 | Sophia Dalfino

15:18 – 15:30 | Fatma Cayir Gunes

15:30 - 16:00 | Coffee break

16:00 - 17:00 | Session 4 : In vitro and in silico models

Chairs: Leyla Noroozbabaee, Qiang Wang

16:00 – 16:12 | Matilde Marradi

16:12 – 16:24 | Alix Lemaitre

16:24 – 16:36 | Leila Ashtar

16:36 – 16:48 | Maria Papageorgiou

16:48 – 17:00 | Maryam Parvizifard

17:15 - 18:00 | Closing ceremony

18:00 – 19:00 | Borrel