Conference Program 2026

Update (2026/04/26): Recordings of presentations have been uploaded to the Beyond Sciences Initiative YouTube account and are now available for viewing! To access these recordings, please click on any of the entries in the tables below.

Day 1: Friday, February 20th, 2026

Scientific Session 1

Time (EST)TopicSpeaker
07:00 - 07:15 AMWelcome
07:15 - 07:50 AMKeynote: The liver stage of malaria: essential for parasite success, exploitable as its Achilles heelMaria Mota, PhD
GIMM - Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Portugal
07:55 - 08:10 AMDeletion of natterin impairs NLRP3 inflammasome activation and host defense against Salmonella typhimurium in zebrafishFelipe Pinto
CeTICs/FAPESP, Butantan Institute, Brazil
08:15 - 08:30 AMCD4+ T cells license Kupffer cells to produce IL-27 and reverse CD8+ T cell dysfunction induced by hepatocellular primingValentina Venzin, PhD
Pasteur Institute, France
08:35 - 08:50 AMThe association between submicroscopic Plasmodium infections and gut microbiota among children in Ahanta West, GhanaEmmanuel Amewu
School of Medical Sciences, KNUST, Ghana
08:55 - 09:10 AMMucosal immunization induces linked local and systemic humoral responses Emily Siniscalco
Yale University, U.S.A.

Scientific Session 2

Time (EST)TopicSpeaker
09:15 - 09:50 AMKeynote: Trimming down the suppressor capacity of regulatory T cellsPaula Licona-Limón, PhD
UNAM, Mexico
09:55 - 10:10 AMNon-specific cytotoxicity of memory CD8 T cells drives excessive damage in old tissuesIrina Shchukina, PhD
Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.A.
10:15 - 10:30 AMTrim33 regulates TH9 differentiation and in vivo functionJavier Orozco-Cordoba
Institute of Cellular Physiology, UNAM, Mexico
10:35 - 10:50 AMCharacterization of Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) neuroinfection in central nervous system (CNS) human cell models and IFNAR -/- miceDébora Silva Pinto
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
10:55 - 11:10 AMInfection-induced elevation of gut glycosaminoglycans fosters microbiota expansion in Drosophila melanogasterAranzazu Arias-Rojas, PhD
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, U.S.A.
11:15 - 11:30 AMA biphasic dried blood matrix platform for rapid, extraction-free detection of DNA and RNA pathogens from whole bloodJongwon Lim, PhD
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
11:35 - 11:50 AMA complete map of specificity encoding enables reprogramming of a dynamic protein interactionTaraneh Zarin, PhD
Center for Genomic Regulation, Spain
11:55 - 12:30 PMKeynote: Accelerating antibiotic discovery with AICésar de la Fuente, PhD
University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
12:30 - 12:45 PMHotDoc: Scaling up of a nanoformulation loaded with bioactive compounds for skin aging preventionRui Farinha
University of Porto, Portugal

Day 2: Saturday, February 21st, 2026

Scientific Session 3

Time (EST)TopicSpeaker
07:05 - 07:15 AMWelcome
07:15 - 07:50 AMKeynote: Fates of self-reactive B cells revealed by lineage tracingCarola Vinuesa, PhD
Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom
07:55 - 08:10 AMEarly-life stromal niches orchestrate B lymphopoiesis at the brain's borders Alec Walker, PhD
Harvard Medical School, U.S.A.
08:15 - 08:30 AMUsing a rabbit model to unravel the link between EBV infection and vitamin D in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosisAtia Rasheed
UAE University, U.A.E.
08:35 - 08:50 AMThe potential of HOTTIP SNPs as noninvasive diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers for HCC metastasis and siRNAs as promising avenue for targeted-therapyMona ElSisi
Ain Shams University, Egypt
08:55 - 09:10 AMAI-assisted MRI-based classification of brain tumors for improved clinical diagnosisAsad Channa
Quaid-e-Awam University, Pakistan

Scientific Session 4

Time (EST)TopicSpeaker
09:15 - 09:50 AMKeynote: Virus infection to cancer: The interferon paradoxDavid Brooks, PhD
University of Toronto, Canada
09:55 - 10:10 AMPeripheral and tumor immune signatures predict response to immunotherapy in advanced HER2-negative breast cancerSabrina Dhooge
CIBICI, National University of Córdoba, Argentina
10:15 - 10:30 AMMATH-only proteins (MOPs): Emerging immunoregulators in inflammation-related diseasesMohadeseh Ahmadvand
York University - MHRC, UHN - Krembil Research Institute, Canada
10:35 - 10:50 AMLoss of MYSM1 deubiquitinase catalytic activity protects against MYC-driven lymphoma Anastasia Nijnik, PhD
McGill University, Canada
10:55 - 11:10 AMBone marrow dormant tumor cells maintain reactive memory CD8 T cells Fernando Flores-Guzman, PhD
University of Colorado, U.S.A.
11:15 - 11:30 AMFAM72A potentiates APOBEC3B-driven cytidine deamination and mutagenic repair to promote colorectal tumorigenesisYan Gao, PhD
University of Toronto, Canada
11:35 - 11:50 AMRegulatory T cells guard against thermogenic dysfunction in brown adipose tissue Nathan Zammit, PhD
Harvard Medical School, GentiBio, U.S.A.
11:55 - 12:30 PMKeynote: Designing a universal vaccine through integrated organ immunityBali Pulendran, PhD
Institute for Immunity, Transplantation & Infection, Stanford University, U.S.A.
12:30 - 12:45 PMHotDoc: Safeguarding cancer care during crises: Lessons from the Institute of Cancer and CrisisChristos Tsagkaris
University of Zurich, University Children's Hospital, Switzerland

Registrants join from all over the world! Check out where participants have tuned in from during last year’s conference (highlighted in red):

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