CRISPRMED26 Speakers, Chairs and Panelists (early confirmation)

Scientific Conference, April 14-16, 2026 | Satellite Meetings, April 13, 2026 | Virtual Event, April 13, 2026

-------------------------------------------------

Scientific Conference, April 14-16, 2026

Keynote Speakers

• Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, Director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET), Director of the Medical Center’s Cancer Cell Therapy Initiative in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA.
• Paula Rio, PhD, Head of the Bone Marrow Failure Unit at CIEMAT/CIBERER/IIS-FJD at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain.

---

• Alessia Cavazza, Ass. Prof., Group Leader, Infection, Immunity & Inflammation Department at University College London's Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, England.
• Anastasia Conti, Postdoc, Project Leader, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-TIGET), Milan, Italy.
• André Cohnen, VP and Head of Genomic Medicine, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Germany.
• Andrew Sewell, Distinguished Research Prof. & Welcome Trust Senior Investigator, Cardiff University School of Medicine, UK.
• Ayal Hendel, Principal Investigator and Group Leader, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
• Cecilia Jimenez-Mallebrera, PhD and Research Director, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu. Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona and CIBERER, Spain.
• Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera, PhD, Eisen and Chang Career Development Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Intramural Faculty, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research; HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellow, USA.
• Jakob Nilsson, Prof., PhD, Danish Cancer Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Karim Benabdel Lah El Khlanji, Senior Scientist, GENyO Pfizer-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucia Center for Genomics and Oncological Research in Granada, Spain, GeneHumdi Action Chair.
• Laura Torella, Postdoc, AstraZeneca, Sweden.
• Manuel A.F.V. Gonçalves, Dr., Group Leader, Genome Editing, Department of Cell and Chemical biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands.
• Marcello Maresca, Senior Director, Genome Engineering Team, AstraZeneca, Sweden.
• Novo Nordisk, speaker tbd.
• Özcan Met, PhD, Ass. Prof., Head of Cell Therapy Unit at the National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT-DK) at Herlev University Hospital and DTU HealthTech, Denmark.
• Patrick Pausch, PhD, Research Prof. and Group Leader, , VU LSC-EMBL Partnership Institute for Genome Editing Technologies, Vilnius, Lithuania.
• Randall Platt, Ass. Prof., Group Leader, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
• Sean Semple, Dr., Vice President of Preclinical Research, Acuitas Therapeutics, Canada.

Speakers to be added weekly...

Satellite Meetings, April 13, 2026

• EU Regulatory Requirements (chairs)
  • Attila Sebe, MD, Ph.D., Clinical Assessor, Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, Division of Haematology, Cell and Gene Therapy, Germany
  • Lotte Dahl Nissen, Non-clinical Assessor, Danish Medicines Agency (DKMA), Denmark.
• CRISPR Screening and Gene/Cell Therapy Centers Forum (chairs)
  • Pia Johansson, Director and Scientific Coordinator of the Cell and Gene Therapy Core, Lund University, Sweden.
  • Rodrigo Leite de Oliveira, PharmD PhD, Ass. Professor, Head of CRISPR Center, Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands.

• GenHumDi COST

• IP Landscape and FTO

CRISPRMED26 Scientific Committee

• Özcan Met, PhD, Ass. Prof. and Head of Cell Therapy Unit and DTU HealthTech, CCIT-DK / DTU, Denmark
• Jakob Nilsson, Prof. and Groupleader (DK Functional Genomics Screening Unit), Danish Cancer Institute, Denmark
• Cecilia Jimenez-Mallebrera, PhD and Research Director, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu. Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona and CIBERER, Spain
• Laura Torella, Postdoc, AZ, Sweden
• Alessia Cavazza, Ass. Prof. and Groupleader, Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Diseases in Children, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK