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Biozentrum Discovery Seminars

Biozentrum Discovery (BZD) is a seminar series, which alternates between talks by renowned guest speakers and seminars given by graduate students and postdocs from the Biozentrum.

The seminars usually take place on Fridays at 11:15 - 12:15

October 24, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
"Evading ageing: metabolic and proteostatic adaptations in oocytes"

Guest speaker: Dr. Elvan Böke
Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain
Host: Fiona Doetsch

Böke and her team have made advances in understanding how oocytes, or immature egg cells, maintain pristine conditions over many decades in order to give rise to the next generation. 

October 31, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Dr. Caitie McCafferty (group Ben Engel)

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Dr. Manos Kyriakakis (group Anne Spang) 

November 14, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Alex Dunn
Stanford University
Host: Alex Schier

The generation and detection of mechanical force is a central aspect of cell and developmental biology. The goal is to understand how cells generate, detect, and respond to tension at the molecular level. 

November 21, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Dr. Fengjie Wu (group Sebastian Hiller) 

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Dr. Stefan Imseng (CEO, Aukera Therapeutics)

Flash Talk 
Stella Stefanova (FACS Facility)

December 5, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
"Nuclear pores as guardians of the genome"

Guest speaker: Prof. Martin Beck
Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt a. Main, Germany
Hosts: Rod Lim / Birthe Fahrenkrog 

The Beck lab studies how molecular modules act in concert to generate complex cellular functions.

December 12, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Dr. Raul Ortiz (group Peter Scheiffele)

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Dr. Meric Ataman (group Mihaela Zavolan) 

December 30, 2025 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Dr. Sedat Dilbaz (group Christoph Handschin)

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NN

POSTPONED TBD (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Klaus-Robert Müller
Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Host: Attila Becskei

Klaus-Robert Müller is most noted for his work in machine learning and brain-computer interfaces. His team works on a diverse set of areas in methodology and application, including Explainable AI, Modeling many-body problems and Brain-Body Monitoring.

February 13, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus
Host: Anne Spang

Lippincott-Schwartz lab wants to understand how the different cells comprising an organ operate individually and interdependently to allow an organ to develop, remodel, heal and compute. 

March 6, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Suliana Manley
EPFL, Lausanne
Host: Anissa Kempf

Manley's research goal is to reveal the biophysical principles underlying the dynamic organization of cellular organelles and protein assemblies. 

April 10, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Dr. Silvia Fre
Institut Curie, Paris
Host: David Brückner

The main focus of Fre's research is understanding how tissue-specific stem cells engage in differentiation while retaining self-renewal potential and plasticity.

May 29, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Dr. Tâm Mignot
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Marseille
Host: Christoph Dehio

Using interdisciplinary approaches, his group studies the spatio-temporal organization of the Myxococcus lifecycle.

September 4, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Naama Barkai
Weizman Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Host: Alex Schier

Her work on deciphering mechanisms of control in complex biological systems combining experimental work with mathematical modelling shaped the field of systems biology.

September 18, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Roy Parker
University of Colorado Boulder
Host: Maria Hondele

The Parker lab focuses on understanding the expression, location, and function of eukaryotic RNAs and their connection to human disease.

October 9, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Prof. Darren Gilmour
University of Zurich
Host: Alex Schier

The Gilmour lab takes an integrative, multi-scale approach to study how dynamic cell behaviours, like motility, regulate the assembly and disassembly of organs. 

October 30, 2026 (lecture hall U1.131)
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Guest speaker: Dr. Marta Zlatic
University of Cambridge, UK
Host: Alex Schier

The Zlatic lab aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations.