EMPB2022 - EUROPEAN MEETING on PLANARIAN BIOLOGY

We are genuinely happy to announce that the long-postponed 5^th European Meeting on Planarian Biology is going to take place from October 2^nd to 4^th, 2022, at Hotel Eden Roc in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Catalonia. Though the coronavirus pandemic is not quite over yet, the case numbers and the current pace of vaccinations indicate that safe and unimpeded travel should once again be possible in October.

So, what better way to celebrate the return of normal life in a beautiful place on the shores of the Mediterranean and together with long-missed colleagues and collaborators? Now more than ever, the goal of the meeting is to bring together the European planarian research community to discuss recent advances in flatworm biology, to exchange tips and tricks and to strengthen the links and collaborations between all labs. Talks by postdocs and graduate students will be an integral part of the program (see below), as well as plenty of time for discussion, poster sessions, round-table sessions and simply time for socializing by the sea.

EMPB2022 - EUROPEAN MEETING on PLANARIAN BIOLOGY: Venue at Hotel Eden Roc

Tweet #EMPB2022 We hope to see you all there!!!

News

Updated
“Book of Abstracts”
can now be
downloaded
as a PDF (4.9MB);
click on
the cover image
to get it!

Important:

In this meeting there will be no specific obligations due to CoViD, but there will be preventive measures. Everyone who has symptoms compatible with covid must wear a mask and, if possible, have an antigen test done. We will have so tests and masks avaliable. Thank you so much for your understanding and collaboration on this regard.
In the sessions “‘Explain your poster’”, everyone presenting a poster will have the opportunity to explain her/his poster in 1 minute/1 slide.

Registration

[+]

As always, we have tried to keep the registration fee as low as possible in order to maximize the number of participants. The registration fee covers meeting participation, all meals and accommodation. It will be 174€ x roommate in a shared room. All conference activities will take place at the hotel Eden Roc and the hotel has sufficient capacity to house all participants.

We regret to inform that since August 24^th there are no more single rooms available at the hotel.

The registration deadline for EMPB was September 15^th, 2022. Early registrations are a great help to us, thanks for demonstrating your support!!!

Venue Information

[+]

Registration to the Hotel

[+]

Abstract Submission

[+]

Conference Program

SUNDAY, October 2^nd

13:00 – 15:30	Registration at Hotel Eden Roc
16:00 – 17:00	Welcome and Opening Session
	Keynote Invited Talk by Mansi Srivastava Harvard University, MA, USA Mechanisms of regeneration and their evolution

17:00 – 18:40	Session I – Regeneration and Stem Cells Chair: Francesc Cebrià
17:00 – 17:25	Eugene Berezikov University Medical Center Groningen Analysis of cell hierarchies in the regenerative flatworm Macrostomum lignano using single-cell transcriptomics and stem cell-specific transgenic lines
17:25 – 17:50	Cristina González-Estévez Universitat de Barcelona How to rejuvenate stem cells: the role of autophagy during starvation in regenerative processes
17:50 – 18:15	Simon Kershenbaum University of Oxford Gene conversion may limit the impact of long-term asexuality in planarians
18:15 – 18:40	Jordi Solana Oxford Brookes University Stem cells and regeneration in annelids: the single cell atlas of Pristina leidyi reveals insights into annelid cell types and their differentiation trajectories

18:40 – 19:00	“Explain your Poster” Session I (odd numbers)

19:15 – 20:00	Welcome Cocktail
20:00 – 21:00	Dinner (buffet)

21:00 – 23:00	Poster session I

MONDAY, October 3^rd

09:00 – 09:45	Keynote Invited Talk by Carrie Adler Cornell University, NY, USA Inhibition of ATM kinase rescues planarian regeneration after lethal radiation

09:45 – 10.40	Session II – Regulation of Tissue Dynamics Chair: Cristina González-Estévez
09:45 – 10:10	Uri Weill Max Planck Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences Planarian chimeras as a system to experimentally study the consequences of genetic heterogeneity
10:10 – 10:25	Bret Pearson Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Cell clearance by intestinal phagocytes in the freshwater planarian
10:25 – 10:40	Daniel Moreno Universitat de Barcelona Appearance of senescent cells during planarian regeneration

10:40 – 11:15	Coffee Break

11:15 – 13:00	Session III – Regeneration and Signalling Chair: Teresa Adell
11:15 – 11:40	Karen Smeets Hasselt University Redox signals: positional cues during regeneration? A spatiotemporal characterisation of redox molecules in Schmidtea mediterranea
11:40 – 12:05	Daniel Font Universitat de Barcelona Inhibition of the Hippo pathway in planarians impairs proper tissue renewal through defects in cell cycle, cell polarity and transcriptional deregulation
12:05 – 12:30	Martijn Heleven Hasselt University Monoaminergic neural signaling: the role of riboflavin in planarian sensing
12:30 – 12:45	Azurra Codino Italian Institute of Technology Pharmacological activation of Notch signalling pathway impairs head regeneration and locomotion in the asexual Schmidtea mediterranea
12:45 – 13:00	Pablo Coronel Universitat de Barcelona Genomic analyses reveal FoxG as an upstream regulator of wnt1 required for posterior identity specification in planarians

13:00 – 14:30	Lunch

14:30 – 16:35	Session IV – Lineage Specification Chair: Jordi Solana
14:30 – 14:55	Jason Pellettieri Keene State College Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay controls cell fate specification in S. mediterranea
14:55 – 15:20	Yarden Yesharim Tel Aviv University m6A is required for resolving progenitor identity during planarian stem cell differentiation
15:20 – 15:45	M. Dolores Molina Universitat de Barcelona Smed-cbp-2 and Smed-cbp-3 genes have functionally diverged to regulate planarian survival and stem cell differentiation
15:45 – 16:10	Sophie Peron Oxford Brookes University Molecular regulation of pluripotent stem cells in a highly regenerative planarian
16:10 – 16:35	Elena Emili Oxford Brookes University Organization and development of neuronal cell types in the model Schmidtea mediterranea: a single-cell transcriptomics study

16:35 – 17:00	Coffee break

17:00 – 18:15	Session V – Omics Chair: Omri Wurtzel
17:00 – 17:25	Jakke Neiro University of Oxford Identification of putative enhancer-like elements predicts regulatory networks active in planarian adult stem cells
17:25 – 17:50	Jochen Rink Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences The new chromosome-scale S. mediterranea reference genome assembly and annotations—an update.
17:50 – 18:05	Vinay K. Dubey Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) Smed-ets-1 regulates epidermal lineage landscape in a cell non-autonomous fashion via basement membrane remodelling.

18:05 – 18:30	Omri Wurtzel / Josep F. Abril / Jordi Solana Tel Aviv University / University of Barcelona / Oxford Brookes University Single cell repositories

18:15 – 18:30	“Explain your Poster” Session II (even numbers)

20:00 – 21:00	Dinner (buffet)

21:00 – 23:00	Poster Session II

TUESDAY, October 4^th

09:00 – 10:00	Session VI – Microbiome and Immune Defence Chair: Karen Smeets
09:00 – 09:25	Karolien Bijnens Centre for Environmental Sciences at Hasselt University More than a gut feeling? The composition, diversity and variability of the planarian microbiome
09:25 – 09:50	Claus-D. Kuhn University of Bayreuth The role of piRNAs in planarian stem cells and their potential role in immune defense

09:50 – 10:15	Coffee Break

10:15 – 11:20	Session VII – Evolution and Phylogeny Chair: Klaus Kuhn
10:15 – 10:40	Miquel Vila Farré Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences Why some animals regenerate while others cannot: evolution of regeneration in planarians
10:40 – 11:05	Marta Riutort Universitat de Barcelona Phylotranscriptomics uncovers a complex evolutionary history for the planarian genus Dugesia (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) in the Western Mediterranean
11:05 – 11:20	Martin Sacha First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University Department of Planaria, At Home

11:20 – 12:30	Where do we go & what to improve as a community?
12:30 – 12:40	Closing Remarks and Farewell

13:00 – 14:00	Lunch

All attendees to #EMPB2022 gathering on a rock in front of the Hotel Eden Roc.

Junior Scientist Communication Awards

Best Junior Scientist Talk:
Yarden Yesharim [Tel Aviv University]
“m6A is required for resolving progenitor identity during planarian stem cell differentiation.”
Best Poster Presentation:
Jun-Ru Lee [Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences]
Poster #8 - “The cellular bases of tissue turnover in the planarian epidermis.”
Second Best Poster Presentation:
Maria Rosselló [Universitat de Barcelona]
Poster #14 - “Improving planarian transcriptomic data using Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing techniques.”

You can find the corresponding abstracts in the PDF of the book of abstracts for this meeting.

Organization

Teresa Adell, University of Barcelona, Catalunya.
Jordi Solana, Oxford-Brookes University, UK.
Jochen Rink, MPI-BPC, Goettingen, Germany.
Web and proceedings manager: Josep F Abril, University of Barcelona, Catalunya.