The scientific program of the conference spans three full days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, offering a wide range of inspirational opportunities. You will be captivated by a groundbreaking symposium on AI, enlightened by renowned guest speakers, and engaged in a diverse array of stimulating workshops. Additionally, you will have the chance to hear compelling research presentations by fellow students. Additionally, the scientific program provides excellent networking opportunities, including a tour of the Leiden Bio Science Park, visits to various LUMC departments, and a Career & Internship Fair.
Speakers
Five distinguished guest lecturers will be at LIMSC, to ignite inspiration within you. These internationally renowned scholars will delve into their groundbreaking research and share their wealth of knowledge and experiences. Stay tuned to our social media channels and website for updates on the esteemed guest speakers joining LIMSC 2025!
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Professor Andries van der Meer
Professor of Microphysiological Systems at the University of Twente
Prof. Dr. Andries van der Meer is Full Professor of Microphysiological Systems at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. Van der Meer is the president of the European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS). He also served as chair of the Focus Group on Standardization for Organ-on-Chip of the European standardization body CEN CENELEC. He is a leading international proponent of standards-driven innovation in the field of organs-on-chips.
Before joining the University of Twente in 2015, Dr. Van der Meer worked as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. He has a PhD (University of Twente, 2010), and a MSc in Biology (University of Groningen, 2005).
Organs-on-chips are advanced tissue culture models that can mimic organ-level functionality in a controlled, dynamic microsystem. They differ from other cell culture models in that they use microenvironment engineering to capture increasingly complex physiological functions. In the past years it has been shown that organs-on-chips can provide accurate and relevant data for preclinical studies, thereby potentially reducing the time and cost of drug development and clinical trials. Moreover, with their unique combination of person-specific human cells and high-level tissue function, organs-on-chips challenge the strong reliance on animal models in life sciences.
In this talk, Prof. Van der Meer of the University of Twente will provide examples of how organs-on-chips can be used to study drugs, taken from his group’s work on vessels-on-chips, heart-on-chip and retina-on-chip. Moreover, he will address the central challenge in the field: how far can we push the realism of organ-on-chip models and how will we maximize their impact?
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Professor Dame Molly Stevens
Professor of Bionanoscience at the University of Oxford
Professor Dame Molly Stevens DBE FRS FREng is the John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at the University of Oxford and a part-time professor at Imperial College London and the Karolinska Institute. Molly’s multidisciplinary research balances the investigation of fundamental science with the development of technology to address some of the major healthcare challenges. She is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of several companies in the diagnostics, advanced therapeutics, and regenerative medicine fields. Her work has been instrumental in elucidating bio-material interfaces. She has created a broad portfolio of designer biomaterials for applications in disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Her substantial body of work influences research groups around the world and she has been multiple times listed as Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field research.
Molly holds numerous leadership positions, Deputy Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, Deputy Director of the UK Quantum Biomedical Sensing Research Hub, and Scientist Trustee of the National Gallery. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA), an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she was recognised with the 2023 Novo Nordisk Prize and the 2024 Royal Society Armourers and Brasiers Company Prize, amongst many other accolades.