The GeneCellNano 5th Annual Meeting 23.-24.4.2026
The 5th Annual Meeting of the GeneCellNano Flagship will take place on 23.-24.4.2026 in Helsinki Congress Paasitorni.
You are warmly welcome and we hope to see many of you there! Last year’s meeting gathered over 120 participants from our five academic host institutions as well as industrial collaborators. Registration for Flagship members is now open; for anyone else who would like to attend, please contact our coordinators, Erika Gurzeler or Susanna Kaisto.
Thursday, April 23
Gene Therapy
9:00-9:15 Opening – Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, Director of GeneCellNano Flagship
9:15-10:00 Invited speaker: Thierry VandenDriessche (Free University of Brussels): Turbo-charging gene therapy
10:00 – 10:45 Coffee break and company booths
10:45-11:05 Johanna Laakkonen (University of Eastern Finland): Venous Malformations: Building the Foundations for Precision Therapy
11:05-11:25 Tiina Nieminen (University of Eastern Finland): Regulatable Riboswitch Vectors for AAV Gene Therapy
11:25-11:45 Peppi Karppinen (University of Oulu): HIF-P4H-2 inhibiting single domain antibody for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity
11:45-11:55 Sponsored talk: Ciara Finucane (EMIT Imaging): Cryo-Fluorescence Tomography: Transformative 3D Imaging for Gene & Cell Therapy
12:00-13:00 Lunch and company booths
New Technologies/Cell Therapy
13:00-13:45 Invited speaker: Andres Merits (University of Tartu): Alphavirus RNA Replicase: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Platforms
13:45-14:05 Heikki Saari (FRCBS): Platelets as a biological, light activatable drug delivery platform
14:05-14:45 Coffee break and company booths
14:45-15:05 Tatu Lajunen (University of Eastern Finland): Building the pre-clinical path for BNCT: MRI methods and future plans
15:05-15:25 Carmine D’Amico (Aalto University): Bridging Structural Design and Translation in Hybrid mRNA Origami
15:25-15:35 Sponsored talk: Miltenyi Biotec
16:00-18:00 Poster session, Wine and snacks, Company booths
19:00- 21:00 Dinner
Friday, April 24
Nanotechnology
8:30-9:15 Invited speaker: Stefaan DeSmedt (Ghent University): Intracellular delivery of biotherapeutics: exploring innovative materials and new physical methods
9:15-9:35 Jooseppi Puranen (University of Eastern Finland): Targeted delivery of nanomedicines to retina and optic nerve
9:35-10:15 Coffee and company booths
10:15-10:35 Eva Bozo and Veronika Skocková (University of Oulu): Fusion of Extracellular Vesicles and Lipid Nanoparticles for Feasible Cargo Loading
10:35-10:55 Seppo Vainio (University of Oulu): Evidence for routing of orally applied biological nanocarrier via the gut to skin for molecular diagnostic
10:55-11:15 Astrid Subrizi (University of Eastern Finland) and Valerio Izzi (University of Oulu): LLM-guided aptamer optimization
11:15-11:25 Sponsored talk: Birta Lif Fjölnisdóttir (Cytiva):Innovation starts early: Turning process development choices into GMP excellence
12:00-13:00 Lunch and company booths
GeneCellNano Business Opportunities
13:00-13:20 Jim Lund (CCRM Nordics): Building Regenerative Medicine Ecosystems in the Nordics
13:20-13:50 Lennart Lindfors (AstraZeneca): Big Molecules and Small Particles
13:50-14:20 Jean Duvall (ReproNovo): Lessons from Financing a Biotech
14:20-14:30 Closing words – Seppo Ylä-Herttuala
14:35-15:00 Coffee and departure
