Recap PhD Day 2026

On 14 September, MERLN hosted its fifth PhD Day. This year’s symposium opened with an inspiring keynote talk by Barend Mons, Professor Emeritus at Leiden University and Founding Director of LIFES Institute, who shared his insights on the importance of FAIR principles in research.

After the keynote talk we moved into Oral Session One featuring Annemarie de Vries, Fatma Çayir Güneş, Lotte Smeets, Beatrice Francesca Massel, and Pauline Balder. We closed the morning with a speedy Rapid-Fire Session featuring Alix Lemaitre, Tessa Antonisse, Lisa Montali, Lisa Mayrginther, Rimsha Saif, Simon Griesen, Helena Faria, Georgia Aello Garantoudi, Kanade Kaneko, and Baishali Ghibhela.

In the afternoon, we started with a Poster Session and Sponsor Presentations, followed by a debate titled “Adrift or Full Sail: The Future of Regenerative Medicine”, featuring two driven teams: Team 1 (Matthew Baker, Ivo Beeren, PhD, and Sharon Scardellato) and Team 2 (Berta Cillero Pastor, Helen Kearney, and Ebrahim Yarali).

We closed the day with Oral Session Two, featuring Gabriella Rios, Leila Ashtar, Niccolò Bianco, Joao Da Silva Ribeiro, Thibault Sampon, and Niels van Ingen.

Many thanks to our sponsors Miltenyi Biotec, Promega Benelux, 10x Genomics, Bio-Connect BV, Cell Signaling Technology Benelux, Corning Life Sciences, QIAGEN, Merck Group, Greiner Bio-One International, and Proteintech Genomics for supporting this event!

Photography by Rebeca Rivero Jochems and Federico Farina