Pre-Congress Symposia
The Organising Commitee is delighted to announce a number of Pre-Congress Symposia on Wednesday (10 September 2025) and Thursday (11 September 2025).
The meetings are FREE to attend, but you need to be registered for IUPS 2025.
To attend the Pre-Congress Symposia you are required to register for the conference.
Please refer to the interactive programme for detailed information.
Pre-Symposium of the Young Physiologists (10 September 2025)
Thank you for the enormous interest you have shown in the Young Physiologists Symposium! Unfortunately, we have to inform you that this pre-symposium is no longer available for booking.
You will find the detailed programme hereunder (will be updated continuously).
We, the Young Physiologists of the German Physiological Society, invite you to our workshop, where we will explore a broad spectrum of the latest methods in physiology – both inside and outside the laboratory. Topics will include omics technologies, fluorescent biosensors, data analysis based on machine learning and AI-based literature research.
Having early-career researchers in mind, we will present cutting-edge methods that are – or can be – applied across different fields of physiology, connecting physiologists with different scientific interests. Besides introducing these approaches, we will also discuss their potential, limitations and challenges, and highlight novel physiological insights gained through their application.
Whether you are curious about new techniques or looking to strengthen your foundation, this workshop is an excellent opportunity to broaden your experimental and methodical horizon, exchange ideas, foster collaboration, and expand your network in the field of physiology. No matter if you are undergraduate, MD/PhD student, postdoc, or have already established your own group, everyone is welcome.
Please note that – due to the enormous interest in our symposium – we had to update the schedule, style, and location of our symposium, in order to meet the expectations of as many participants as possible.
1. The symposium will be held at Kap Europa, Frankfurt, which is also the location of the main congress of the IUPS. Kap Europa can conveniently accommodate all registered participants.
2. Own to the large number of participants, we had to replace the speed dating sessions with the speakers with an extended questions and discussions time in the plenum. Furthermore, the speakers can be approached during the social events.
3. The networking event will also be at Kap Europa. Some drinks and a few bites will be provided. Afterwards, we are happy to accompany people to conclude the night at local pubs in Frankfurt.
We are looking forward to meeting all of you during the event!
For further information please contact us at the following e-mail address: Yp.iups2025@gmail.com
On this link you will find a summary of the programme including the current list of speakers.
Programme:
Until 13:00 Arrival & Registration
13:00 – 13:10 Welcome & Introduction
| 13:10 – 13:55 | Beyond Traditional Search: AI in Literature Reviews – Hype or Game-Changer? | Heike da Silva Cardoso, Augsburg & Ennio Idrobo-Ávila, Augsburg |
| 13:55 – 14:40 | Transcriptomic cell type mapping of muscle and brain inflammation | Prof. Dr. Lucas Schirmer, Mannheim |
| 14:40 – 15:10 | Coffee Break | |
| 15:10 – 15:15 | Group picture (in lecture hall) | |
| 15:15 – 16:00 | Metabolomics; understanding what it can and cannot tell you | Dr. Jennifer Kirwan, Berlin |
| 16:00 – 16:45 | Genetically-encoded sensors for probing neuromodulators in action | Prof. Dr. Tommaso Patriarchi, Zurich |
| 16:45 – 17:15 | Break – Grab a drink | |
| 17:15 – 18:00 | Interpretable machine learning for neural system identification | Dr. Steffen Schneider, Munich |
| 18:00 – 18:15 | Dynamic interaction with the group at large (let us surprise you) | |
| 18:15 – 18:50 | Pitch Session (lecture hall, selected from participants submissions) | |
| 18:50 – 19:50 | Organised Networking at congress venue, drinks and some small bites will be provided | |
| 19:50 – 20:00 | Group Picture, Prizes |
20:00 Pub Crawl
The Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings (11 September 2025)
You will find the detailed programme of each meeting hereunder (will be updated continuously).
Ion Channels and Cardiac (Patho-)Physiology
Joint Symposium of the Special Interest Groups on Cardiac Physiology and Ion Channels
9:00 – 9:30 David Beech (Leeds)
PIEZO mechanosensing in cardiovascular health and disease
9:30 – 10:00 Constanze Schmidt (Heidelberg)
Effects of ion channel remodelling in the human heart
10:00 – 10:30 Bo Bentzen (Copenhagen)
Pharmacological inhibition of SK channels in atrial fibrillation
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee Break
10:45 – 11:15 Pasi Tavi (U of Eastern Finland)
Modeling hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with iPSC-derived cardiac tissues
11:15 – 11:45 Serena Zacchigna (Trieste)
The role of mechanical stress in the heart, from cardiac regeneration to cancer therapy
11:45 – 12:15 Thomas Braun (Bad Nauheim)
Reprogramming hearts for regeneration
Symposium of the Special Interest Groups on Comparative Physiology
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome
9:15 – 09:30 Allyson Hindle (University of Nevada)
Hypoxia and inflammatory responses in deep-diving seals
09:30 – 09:45 Amélie Crespel (University of Turku)
Cross-generational response to hypoxia: how fish adjust their metabolism
09:45-10:00 Philip Matthews (University of British Columbia)
Dragonfly respiratory physiology across their water-to-air transition
10:00 – 10:15 Joachim Fandrey (University of Duisburg-Essen)
How do cells sense hypoxia?
10:15 – 10:30 Cormac Taylor (University College Dublin)
Regulation of inflammation by hypoxia
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 11:15 Neoma T. Boardman (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
Mitochondrial morphological changes during stress
11:15 – 11:30 Damien Roussel (University of Lyon)
Skeletal muscle bioenergetics: a comparative allometric study of mitochondrial coupling efficiency between birds and mammals
11:30 – 11:45 Ranim Saleem (McMaster University)
Convergent evolution of mitochondrial physiology in the world’s highest dwelling mammals
11:45 – 12:00 Christian Damsgaard (Aarhus University)
Neural anoxia tolerance from a bird’s eye perspective
12:00 – 12:15 Conclusion
Symposium of the Special Interest Groups on Renal Physiology
9:00 – 9:02 Introduction
Emerging technologies in renal physiology and disease: Spatial transcriptomics and imaging.
9:02 – 9:24 Christian Krebs (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany)
Spatial transcriptomics in the kidney.
9:24 – 9:46 Alf Honigmann (Technical University Dresden, Germany)
Live-cell super-resolution microscopy of tight junction formation.
9:46 – 10:08 Ina Maria Schiessl (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
Intravital 2-photon imaging in kidney.
10:08 – 10:30 Charlotte Mehlin Sørensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging of the renal vasculature.
10:30-10:45 Break
Epithelial Transport and Kidney disease
10:45 – 11:07 Jan Loffing (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Effects of calcineurin inhibition on tubular transport and kidney function.
11:07 – 11:29 Annelie Falkevall (Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
Lipotoxicity in diabetic kidney disease.
11:29 – 11:51 Bjoern Buchholz (University Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany)
Modulation of cyst growth in polycystic kidney disease.
11:51 – 12:13 Volker H. Haase (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA)
Oxygen sensing and mitochondrial metabolism in kidney.
12:13 – 12:15 Concluding remarks
Symposium of the Skeletal Muscle Special Interest Group
9:00 Welcome
9:00 – 9:30 Steen Larsen (Copenhagen University, Denmark)
Lifestyle Interventions: Impact on whole body metabolism and mitochondrial function
9:30 – 10:00 Nicolas Place (Lausanne University, Switzerland)
From Neural to Intramuscular Mechanisms: A Translational Approach to Exercise Responses
10:00 – 10:30 Erin Seifert (Thomas Jefferson University, USA)
Ca2+ phenotypes in skeletal myopathies revealed in a model of mitochondrial myopathy.
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45 – 11:00 Baptiste Jude (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden)
When signaling is intact but glucose uptake fails in skeletal muscle: the role of capillary rarefaction in chronic inflammation
11:00 – 11:15 Karolina Wikaryjczyk (University of Liverpool, UK)
State-of-the-art fluorescent assessment of mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide as the mediator of rapid skeletal muscle loss under microgravity and during ageing on earth
11:15 – 11:45 Karsten Hiller (Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany)
Beyond the whole cell: Metabolic profiling of functional mitochondria
11:45 – 12:15 Abigail Mackey (Copenhagen University, Denmark)
Maintaining muscle fibre junctions in humans
Symposium of the Respiratory Physiology Special Interest Group
9:00-9:05 Introduction
9:05 – 9:35 Ben Wielockx (Technical University Dresden)
Oxygen Sensing in Health and Disease: what did we learn by now?
9:35 – 10:05 Johannes Schödel (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen)
Touching base with HIF
10:05 – 10:25 Carina Osterhof (University of Fribourg)
Comparative aspects of cellular oxygen sensing using the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis
10:25-10:45 Coffee Break
10:45 – 11:05 Yoshiyuki Henning (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Targeting hypoxia-inducible factors to improve retinal metabolism
11:05 – 11:35 Matthias Leisegang (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Long non-coding RNA HIF1α-AS1 controls gene expression through RNA-DNA triplex formation
11:35 – 12:05 Zhihong Yang (University of Fribourg)
Mitochondrial arginase-II in organ inflammaging
12:05 – 12:15 Conclusion
Symposium of the Scandinavian Physiological Society Vascular Special Interest Group
Session 1-Vascular Inflammation (9:00-10:30)
9:00 – 9:30 Jaap van Buul (Amsterdam UMC)
Vascular Immunology: the endothelial cell as immune modulator
9:30 – 10:00 Sophie Saxton (University of Manchester)
Targeting inflammation of adipose tissue to improve vascular function
10:00 – 10:30 Thomas Jepps (University of Copenhagen)
Benefits of the anti-inflammatory drug, colchicine, in hypertension
10:30-11:00 Break
Session 2: What is EDH? (11:00-12:15)
11:00 – 11:20 Cris Garland (Oxford University)
Title: Vasomotion, Vasospasm and EDH
11:20 – 11:40 Ingrid Fleming (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Cytochrome P450–derived PUFA mediators – more than endothelium-derived hyperpolarization
11:40 – 12:00 Ulf Simonsen (University of Aarhus)
Exploring candidates for Endothelium-derived hyperpolarization – role for other gases and peptides?
12:00 – 12:15 Joint panel discussion with Chris Garland, Ingrid Fleming and Ulf Simmonsen on EDH. Q&A`s from the audience.
Symposium of the Neuroscience Special Interest Group
09:00 Welcome
09:10 – 09:50 Maria Lindskog, Associate Professor , Dep Medical Cell Biology Uppsala University
Tuning and mistuning of synapses in anxiety and depression
09:50 – 10:30 Florence Kermen, Associate Professor, Departement of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen
Interplay between the dorsal raphe nucleus, stress and anxiety in zebrafish
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:40 Corette Wierenga, Professor, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour
Radboud University
Is formation of inhibitory synapses regulated by neuromodulators?
11:40 – 12:20 Zhe Jin, Departement of Medical cell Biology, Uppsala University
Metabolic hormones modulates GABAergic inhibition in the hippocampus and amygdala
