Keynote Speaker

Dr. Lenka Bešše is a cancer biologist and Junior Group Leader at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia. She earned her PhD in Oncology from Masaryk University in 2014 before undertaking postdoctoral research at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, Switzerland. From 2017 to 2023, she served as Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, where she established an independent research program investigating mechanisms of cancer therapy resistance. Her current research focuses on proteostasis, protein homeostasis, and tumor adaptation to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. 

The Plasticity of Proteostasis — How Myeloma Cells Rewire to Survive Proteasome Inhibition

Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell malignancy in which proteasome inhibitors have dramatically improved patient survival. Yet despite remarkable initial responses, resistance inevitably develops. What enables cancer cells to survive a therapy that so profoundly disrupts protein homeostasis? In this talk, I will discuss how studies of proteasome inhibitor resistance have revealed the striking plasticity of the proteostasis network. Rather than relying on a single resistance mechanism, myeloma cells coordinate a rewiring of proteasome function, energy metabolism, redox balance, and protein folding to restore cellular homeostasis under sustained therapeutic stress. Understanding these adaptive processes opens new avenues to overcome drug resistance, while also revealing broader principles of how cells respond to proteotoxic stress — with implications for cellular adaptation and evolution under selective pressure beyond multiple myeloma. 

Decoding the molecular and cellular drivers of long-range neuronal connections

Successful corticogenesis depends on tightly coordinated molecular and cellular programs that guide the formation of neuronal connections. However, the mechanisms that enable neurons to extend and guide axons over long distances remain incompletely understood. Here, we investigate the molecular and cellular principles underlying long-range connections development using human brain organoids. Modelling three neurodevelopmental disorders with long-range connections defects: Coffin-Siris Syndrome (SOX11 heterozygous), Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome (TCF4 heterozygous) and Optiz/BBB-G Syndrome (MID1 knock-out), we identify convergent cellular and molecular phenotypes in neurons uncovering central mechanisms governing neurite outgrowth and guidance. We find that neurons consistently exhibit reduced neurite growth speed and impaired directional persistence, with deficits becoming pronounced over longer distances. Single-cell transcriptomics reveals convergence at more integrative levels, highlighting dysregulation of energy metabolism, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) pathways, and cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions as core features associated with impaired formation of long-range neuronal connections. Combining in silico modeling and live imaging, we demonstrate that modulation of growth cone geometry—specifically, the opening angle—is sufficient to alter neurite trajectory and recapitulate key aspects of impaired neurite growth. Functional manipulation of PUFA metabolism show direct impact in growth cone morphodynamics, linking PUFA metabolism directly to the physical behavior of extending neurites. Together, these findings identify growth cone dynamics, neuron–ECM interactions, and lipid metabolism as interacting drivers of long-range neuronal connection formation. This work provides a framework for understanding how molecular and cellular processes integrate to shape large-scale neuronal wiring. 

Anna Stöckl has been Junior Professor of Neuroethology at Konstanz University since 2023. Her research investigates neural processing in the insect visual system that underlies their natural behaviour. Using pollinating insects as model systems, her group combines neurophysiology, behavioural analysis, neuroanatomy, environmental imaging, and modelling. Her research focuses on vision under changing light conditions, insect-flower interactions and sensorimotor control of movement. She studied Biology at Heidelberg University and Neuroscience at the LMU Munich, earned her PhD at Lund University in Sweden, and held research positions at Aalto University in Finland and the University of Würzburg before establishing her own group.

More than just a pretty flower: how visual patterns guide insect – plant interactions. 

We have all experienced the fascinating range of colourful patterns that flowers display – though while merely pleasing to us, they can be of great importance to animals that visit flowers for their daily food supply. Flower patterns are thought to lead insect pollinators to a plant’s nectary, expressed in the term ‘nectar guides’. I will present recent work on how flower patterns guide the flower interactions of two insect pollinators, the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), and the hummingbird hawkmoths (Macroglossum stellatarum). These two species have very different flower-interaction strategies, as bumblebees land on the flowers and make their way to the nectary on foot, while hawkmoths hover in front of them and search for the nectary with their long proboscis. I will provide insights how this guidance function of flower patterns might have shaped innate preferences of pollinators for flower patterns, and how these laboratory pattern preferences translate to flowers visited by these insects in nature, based on citizen science observation data. The talk will thus highlight our work on sensory-motor control, cognitive strategies, and co-evolutionary hypotheses concerning the role of flower patterns in insect-plant interactions.