Confirmed Speakers

A series of international plenary and workshop presentations from leaders in the field has been organised and every workshop will include at least 4 presentations selected from abstracts submitted. In addition, MBE will host the Final of the Dick Heinegård Young Investigator Award where the most promising young matrix biologists from across Europe will present their findings in a special conference session with the winner being judged by an international panel of experts.

A list of plenary and workshop speakers with their talk titles can be found below:

Judi Allen (University of Manchester, UK) - 'Regulation of Matrix by Type 2 cytokines: Learning from Helminths'

Tom Barker (University of Virginia, USA) - 'Post-translational modifications of Fibronectin as therapeutic targets for Fibrosis?'

Maria Dolores Martin Bermudo (Sevilla, Spain) - 'Cellular contractility controlled by cell-ECM interactions sculpt organs and tissues'

Andy Blanchard (GSK Stevenage, UK) - 'Translating research to therapies for lung fibrosis '

Ray Boot-Handford (University of Manchester, UK) (BSMB Fell-Muir Award) - 'Gene cloning to clinical trials - the trials and tribulations of a life with collagen'

Mike Briggs (University of Newcastle, UK) - 'New therapeutic targets in genetic skeletal diseases'

Laurent Duca (Reims, France) - 'Elastin modification during vascular aging and pathophysiological consequences'

Janine Erler (BRIC Copenhagen, Denmark) - 'ECM remodelling during cancer progression'

Reinhard Fässler (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany) - 'The Kindlin Universe'

Farshid Guilak (Washington University St. Louis, USA) - 'Engineering new biologic therapies for arthritis'

Erhard Hohenester (Imperial College London, UK) - 'Biosynthesis and function of (honorary) glycosaminoglycans: insights from structural studies'

Karl Kadler (University of Manchester, UK) - 'On the existence of a circadian matrix that is mechanoprotective and able to respond quickly to injury'

Nikos Karamanos (University of Patras, Greece) - 'ERs as regulators of ECM: from epigenetics to breast cancer cell behaviour'

Wei Kong (University of Peking, China) - Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein Interactome in Vascular Homeostasis '

Christa Maes (KU Leuven, Belgium) - 'Osteolineage Cells'

Joanne Murphy-Ullrich (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA) - 'The ER stress and calcium regulatory protein calreticulin in fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy'

Alberto Passi (University of Insubria, Italy) - 'Epigenetic control of hyaluronan synthesis'

Taina Pihlajaniemi (University of Oulu, Finland) - 'Collagen XVIII and its contributions to development of tissues and tumourigenesis'

Liliana Schaefer (Goethe University, Germany) - 'Small leucine-rich proteoglycans in inflammation: two sides of the coin'

Martin Schwartz (University of Manchester, UK/Yale University, USA) - 'Modulation of mechanotransduction responses by extracellular matrix'

Gerjo van Osch (Erasmus MC, Netherlands) - 'Adult human Mesenchymal Stem Cells; heterogeneity and cartilage matrix engineering capacity'

Rebecca Wells (University of Penn State, USA) - 'The effect of a complex matrix on the mechanics of liver fibrosis'

Kazuhiro Yagita (University of Kyoto, Japan) - 'Regulation and mis-regulation of cellular differentiation-coupled circadian clock functionality in mammals'

Dimitrios Zeugolis (NUI Galway, Ireland) - 'Extracellular matrix rich supramolecular assemblies in regenerative medicine'