We are pleased to announce the 4th European Meeting on Planarian Biology (EMPB2016) that will take place from September 25th to 27th, 2016, at Hotel Eden Roc in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Catalonia. The meeting continues the tradition of the Münster meeting in 2010, the Kyoto meeting in 2011, the Dresden meeting in 2013, and the planarian workshop within the ISFB at Oxford in 2015.

The aim of the meeting is to gather all European laboratories working on planarians to share their recent advances in flatworm biology and regeneration as well as to strengthen the links and foster collaborations between all labs. This meeting should also promote discussions about how to improve and implement community resources that would benefit all the laboratories. In addition, the meeting will be open to all research groups worldwide working on planarian regeneration aiming to continue our efforts to build up a collaborative community. In this sense, we are really pleased to announce that our Invited Keynote Speaker to open the EMPB2016 will be Dr. Peter Reddien, from MIT (USA) whose numerous contributions have improved significantly our understanding on planarian regeneration. In addition, we are also delighted to be able to invite Dr. Norito Shibata from the National Institute of Technology, Tsuyama College (Japan), who has made important contributions to understand the function of planarian stem cells

Finally, we also expect to have some attendants working on parasitic flatworms as exchange of ideas and discussions will benefit both communities.

We will encourage talks by postdocs and graduate students and we will allow plenty of time for discussions. The program includes sessions on stem cells, signaling pathways, patterning and polarity, transcriptomic and genomic approaches, phylogeny and evolution together with poster sessions and a round-table discussion about how to strengthen our community. The final program and sessions will be determined by the abstracts submitted by the participants.

We hope to see you all there!!!

Conference Program

Organization

• Teresa Adell, University of Barcelona, Catalunya.
• Francesc Cebrià, University of Barcelona, Catalunya.
• Jochen Rink, MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany.

Final Program

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25^th

13:00 – 15:30	Registration at Hotel Eden Roc
16:00 – 17:00	Welcome and Opening Session
	Keynote Lecture by Dr Peter Reddien Dpt. of Biology, Whitehead Institute, HHMI Regulation of the fates of specialized neoblasts
17:00 – 18:30	Session I – Growth Control Chair: Alessandra Salvetti
17:00 – 17:20	Óscar Gutiérrez Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute Mechanisms of planarian stem cell regulation during starvation
17:20 – 17:40	Eudald Pascual Dpt. Genetics, Microbiology & Statistics, University of Barcelona Smed-BS is a novel secreted peptide with an essential role in the control of cell number in planarians
17:40 – 18:00	Albert Thommen / Steffen Werner MPI Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics / MPI Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden There and back again—towards a quantitative model of planarian growth and degrowth
18:00 – 18:30	"Explain your Poster" Session
19:30 –	Welcome Cocktail
20:00 –	Dinner (buffet)
21:00 –	Poster session I

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26^th

09:00 – 09:45	Invited Speaker: Norito Shibata National Institute of Technology, Tsuyama College Coordination of expression of genes by PIWI during differentiation of neoblasts
09:45 – 10.25	Session II – Neoblasts I Chair: Luca Gentile
09:45 – 10:05	Sounak Sahu University of Oxford Radiation sensitivity and DNA damage response mechanism in planarian stem cells
10:05 – 10:25	Aziz Aboobaker University of Oxford The planarian ortholog of the tumour suppressor Mll3/4 prevents stem cell hyperplasia and controls differentiation programs
10:25 – 11:10	Coffee Break
11:10 – 12:30	Session III – Neoblasts II Chair: Kerstin Bartscherer
11:10 – 11:30	David Schmidt MPI Molecular Biomedicine, Münster Neoblast maintenance requires Integrator complex-mediated processing of Uridine-rich snRNAs
11:30 – 11:50	Luca Gentile Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Sulzbach/Saar 6/9.2 a potential surface protein marker for planarian pluripotent stem cells
11:50 – 12:10	John M. Allen San Diego State University A screen to identify RING E3 ubiquitin ligases involved in stem cell regulation in vivo
12:10 – 12:30	Stijin Mouton European Research Institut-Biology of Ageing, Groningen DUF2366 a novel gene essential for neoblast functionality
13:00 – 14:30	Lunch
14:30 – 16:10	Session IV – Evolutionary & Phylogenetic Perspective Chair: Emili Saló
14:30 – 14:50	Laia Leria Dpt. Genetics, Microbiology & Statistics, University of Barcelona Why Dugesia flatworms would be Gaudi’s favorite animals
14:50 – 15:10	Lisandra Benítez Dpt. Genetics, Microbiology & Statistics, University of Barcelona Multiple introductions of Girardia in Europe; a molecular evidence
15:10 – 15:30	Miquel Vila-Farré MPI Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden Why some animals regenerate while others cannot: tracing the evolution of regeneration in planarians (Order Tricladida)
15:30 – 15:50	Jakub Wudarski European Research Institut -Biology of Ageing, Groningen Efficient transgenesis in Macrostomum lignano, the flatworm model organism for stem cell research
15:50 – 16:10	Peter D. Olson The Natural History Museum, London Strobilar development in tapeworms involves a novel intercalary process regulated by Wnt and Hedgehog
16:10 – 16:50	Coffee break
16:50 – 18:10	Session V – Signaling in the Nervous System Chair: Karen Smeets
16:50 – 17.10	Christian P. Petersen Northwestern University, Evanston Integrin regulates brain tissue assembly in the planarian regeneration blastema
17:10 – 17:30	Kerstin Bartscherer MPI for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster Integrins are required for blastema organization and restriction of neurogenesis in regenerating planarians
17:30 – 17:50	Bret Pearson Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Nu thoughts on neurogenesis in planarians
17:50 – 18:10	José Ignacio Rojo-Laguna Dpt. Genetics, Microbiology & Statistics, University of Barcelona WNT5-ROR2 and SLIT-ROBO-c signals generate a mutually dependent system to position the CNS along the medio-lateral axis in planarians
18:10 – 19:30	Discussion in Groups
20:00 –	Dinner (buffet)
21:00 –	Poster Session II

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27^th

09:00 – 10:00	Session VI – Omics Chair: Aziz Aboobaker
09:00 – 09:20	Katja Hüttner MPI Molecular Biomedicine, Münster Translational control of regeneration initiation in planarians
09:20 – 09:40	Jordi Solana Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin The histone methyltransferase DOT1L has a conserved stem cell-specific alternative splicing switch in planarians
09:40 – 10:00	Jochen Rink MPI Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden High quality de novo assembly of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea genome using PacBio SMRT sequencing and in vitro long-range linkage
10:00 – 10:30	Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:30	Session VII – Environmental Signals Chair: Marta Riutort
10:30 – 10:50	Jason Pellettieri Keene State College Light-induced depigmentation in planarians—an animal model of acute porphyrias
10.50 – 11:10	Andrea Degl’Innocenti Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pisa Chlorophyll Derivatives Enhance Planarian Vision
11:10 – 11:30	Annelies Wouters Hasselt University Planarian stem cells’ defence to genotoxic exposure depends on the cellular environment and stem cell subtype
11:30 – 13:00	Where do we go & what to improve as a community?
13:00 – 13:15	Closing Remarks and Farewell
13:15 –	Lunch

 

Registration

You can register to the EMBP2016 meeting from this link: meetings/EMPB2016/registration.php
You will find there instructions for the accommodation and the abstract submission of your talk/poster.
We have tried to keep the registration fee as low as possible. The total fee including registration, all meals and accommodation will be 156 euros in a shared room and 196 euros in a single room.

Sponsors

We are grateful to the EMPB2016 sponsors:

 

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