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Program & Speakers > Schedule

Read more about our invited speakers.

Download the most up-to-date program here.

Download the list of poster presentations here.

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Thursday, 25 September 2025

12:30 – 16:30  Registration
08:30 – 13:00 Workshop: Pigment Cell Models: Sensitivity, Innovation, and the Challenges of Cell Culture (Pre-registration needed!)
12:00 – 13:30  ESPCR Board meeting (Room: 01.023-2 "kleiner Seminarraum")
13:30 – 14:30

Welcome Session

Opening Remarks (President of ESPCR, Congress Chair) 

Fritz Anders Medal (Manfred Schartl)
14:30 – 16:00

Session 1: Melanosomes, melanin biochemistry

(Chairs: Graca Raposo, Dvir Gur)

14:30 – 14:50 From melanosome biogenesis to intercellular communication (Educational Talk) Graça Raposo
14:50 – 15:05 Genetic and biochemical regulation of crystal formation in pigment cells (Long Talk) Dvir Gur
15:05 – 15:15

Cytoskeleton-Driven 3D-Polarization of Pigment Organelles for Genome Photo-Protection in Keratinocyte (from abstracts)

Cédric Delevoye
15:15 – 15:25 Investigating the protective role of Melanin in Retinal Pigment Epithelium during Age-Related Macular Degeneration (from abstracts) Mafalda Lopes-da-Silva
15:25 – 15:35 Melanoma-associated melanocortin 1 receptor variants confer redox signaling-dependent protection against oxidative DNA damage (from abstracts) Maria Castejón-Griñan
15:35 – 15:50 Shedding light on the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor roles in pigmentation Pedro Moura-Alves
16:00 – 16:30 Refreshments 
16:30 – 18:15

Session 2: Melanocyte development and differentiation

(Chairs: Kerrie Marie, Miguel Seabra)

16:30 – 16:50 Cross-talk between melanocytes and keratinocytes in the skin (Educational Talk) Duarte Barral
16:50 – 17:05 Embryonic gene module re-expression in melanoma yields insights into a Hdac2-driven mechanism of plastic adaptation (Long Talk) Kerrie Marie
17:05 – 17:15 Role of TMEM138 and the primary cilium in melanogenesis (from abstracts) Brice Magne
17:15 – 17:30 Pigment cell formation from the zebrafish neural crest (from abstracts) Robert Kelsh
17:30 – 17:40 Integrated single cell and bulk RNA transcriptomics identifies novels markers of developing melanocytes from distinct anatomical regions (Long Talk)

Farah Jaber-Hijazi

17:40 – 17:55 Determinants of melanocyte heterogeneity (Long Talk) Richard White
17:55– 18:03 Molecular basis of melanosome transport: how does small GTPase Rab27a rule Spire-type actin nucleators to disperse melanosomes (from abstracts) Alistair Hume
18:10 – 18:20 short break  
18:20 – 19:15 Flash talks session #1 (Poster teasers; Poster #1-#20)  
19:15 – 21:00 Welcome reception,  POSTER SESSION #1   
   
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Friday, 26 September 2025

8:00 – 14:30  Registration
8:30 – 10:30

Session 3: Melanocytic nevi and tumor development

(Chairs: Heather Etchevers, Lukas Sommer)
8:30 – 8:50 Seeds of Cancer: How Malignant Cells and Their Environment Spark Tumor Initiation (Educational Talk) Lukas Sommer
8:55 – 9:10 A mouse MITF suppressor mutation and melanoma (Long Talk) Eirikur Steingrimmson
9:15 – 9:25 Basigin (CD147) emerges as potential quantitative biomarker from comparative proteomic analysis of the surfaceome of human epidermal melanocytes and melanoma cells (from abstracts) Minh Ngoc Nguyen
9:25 – 9:35 The role of RSL24D1 in malignant melanoma (from abstracts) Leonie Stahl
9:35 – 9:50 Monitoring and mitigating cancer cell plasticity to overcome therapy resistance in melanoma (Long Talk) Chris Marine
9:50 – 10:00 Role of NRF2 in melanoma reprogramming (from abstracts) Ravi Babu Kollampally
10:00 – 10:15 Identity crisis: stemness in the human melanocyte lineage (Long Talk) Heather Etchevers
10:30 - 11:00 Refreshments  
     
11:00  - 12:30

Session 4: Albinism, Cutaneous mosaicism and further hereditary pigm. Disorders

(Chairs: Lluis Montoliu)
11:00 – 11:25  Albinism: beyond hypopigmentation (Educational Talk) Lluis Montoliu 
11:25 – 11:42 Albinism, Culture, and Society. An Approach to Albinism from a Social and Interactional Perspective (Long Talk) Jose Antonio Solves Almela
11:42 – 11:52 Establishment of a Human Melanocyte Model Harboring the GNAS R201H Mutation for McCune-Albright Syndrome (from abstracts) Sakai Yuta
11:52 – 12:02 The Role of Adam10 and Notch Signalling in Skin Pigmentation: Insights from Reticulate Acropigmentation of Kitamura (RAK) (from abstracts) Hannah Bourget
12:02 – 12:19 Albinism genetics: not so black and white  (Long Talk) Panos Sergouniotis
12:20 – 12:30 Short break  
12:30 – 13:00 Flash talk session #2: Poster teasers
13:00 – 14:00  Lunch - POSTER SESSION #2 – (Poster teasers; Poster #21-#40)
14:00 – 15:40

Session 5: Vitiligo, hair graying, further acq. pigment. Disorders

(Chairs: Meri Tulic, Mauro Picardo)

14:00 – 14:20 Metabolic alteration in Vitiligo (Educational Talk) Mauro Picardo
14:20 – 14:35 New aspects of vitiligo: Trained immunity and immune-biological changes during therapy (Long Talk) Rosalie Luiten
14:35 – 14:45 Transcriptomic profiling of minimally invasive 1 mm skin punch biopsies identifies early disease activity beyond visible depigmentation in vitiligo (from abstracts) Danique Berrevoet
14:45 – 14:55 Dissecting the cellular and immune landscape of vitiligo using single-cell transcriptomic analysis (from abstracts) Hyun Jeong Ju
15:00 – 15:15 Vitiligo as an emerging topic for Health Services Research in Germany – current status and future directions (Long Talk) Markus Böhm
15:15 – 15:25 Non-invasive Imaging Findings in Vitiligo (from abstracts) Alessia Paganelli
15:25 – 15:40 Early Repigmentation Approach for Stopping the Evolution of vitiligo: A prospective multicentric translational study (Long Talk) Meri Tulic
15:40 – 16:00 Refreshments  
16:00  - 16:30

Session 6: Transcriptional and posttranscript. Regulation, (epi-)genetics

(Chairs: Panagiotis Karras, Marie-Dominique Galibert)
16:00 – 16:20 From Gene Expression to Epigenetics: Regulatory Mechanisms Fueling Melanoma Pathogenesis   (Educational Talk) Marie-Dominique Galibert

16:20 – 16:35

Dissecting intratumor heterogeneity in melanoma metastasis (Long Talk) Panagiotis Karras
16:35 – 16:45 Epigenetic control of bivalent genes during normal and oncogenic melanocyte differentiation (from abstracts) Zelu Huang
16:45 – 16:55 SOX21 – a transcription factor preventing melanoma (from abstracts) Nicole Rachinger
16:55 – 17:10 All that Remains: Melanoma Residual Disease and Disease Recurrence (Long Talk) Liz Patton
17:10 – 17:20 Enhancer reprogramming by AP-1 shapes mesenchymal phenotype in melanoma (from abstracts) Zubeir El Ahmad
17:20 – 17:35 LncRNAs in melanoma therapy resistance (Long Talk) Eleonora Leucci
17:45 – 18:45 ESPCR General Assembly (Room: 01.023-1 "großer Seminarraum")  
19:30 

Award Dinner 

   
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Saturday, 27 September 2025

8:00 – 9:30  Registration
9:00 – 10:45

Session 7: Melanoma metastasis

(Chairs: Luisa Lanfrancone, Colin Goding)
9:00 – 9:20 Phenotype-switching and Melanoma metastasis (Educational Talk) Colin Goding
9:20 – 9:35 Targeting metabolic liabilities  in cancer metastasis (Long Talk) Alpaslan Tasdogan
9:35 – 9:45 Unveiling the role of lipid metabolism in controlling cellular plasticity in metastatic melanoma (from abstracts)

Lisa Mary

9:45 – 9:55 The effects of extracellular acidosis on tumor cell plasticity in human melanoma (from abstracts) Chafia Chiheb
10:00 – 10:15 MyD88 plays a crucial role in promoting the dissemination of melanoma cells (Long Talk) Luisa Lanfrancone
10:15 – 10:25 Investigating epithelial to mesenchymal transition heterogeneity in primary and metastatic uveal melanoma samples (from abstracts) Nathalie Longakit
10:25 – 10:40 Melanosomes role in melanoma immunity Carmit Levy
10:45 – 11:15 Refreshments  
11:15  - 12:50

Session 8: Therapeutic options for pigment cell disease

(Chairs: Carola Berking, Corinne Bertolotto)
11:15 – 11:35 Melanoma Therapy: Chances and Challenges (Educational Talk) Carola Berking
11:35 – 11:50 Synergistic effects of thiopurines and immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma therapy (Long Talk) Daniela de Zio
11:50 – 12:00 RECQL4 overexpression as a driver of immune suppression and immunotherapy resistance in melanoma (from abstracts) Egea-Rodriguez S
12:00 – 12:10 Alginate based 3D cell culture as a useful tool in Melanoma (from abstracts) Carolin Eckert
12:10 – 12:20 RNA-based therapy to reach unmet needs in melanoma: ASOs against the driver gene TERT (from abstracts) Nina Tardif
12:20 – 12:35 The molecular mechanisms involved in uveal melanoma (Long Talk) Corinne Bertolotto
12:50 – 13:20 Key Note Speech Marisol Soengas
13:20 – 13:30

Concluding Remarks 

(President of ESPCR, Congress Chair ESPCR 2025, Congress Chair 2027)

 
13:30 End of ESPCR 2025 annual meeting  
     

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