PROGRAM
Olivier Vanakker is a clinical geneticist at Ghent University and Ghent University Hospital. As the principal investigator of the Ghent Ectopic Mineralization Research Group and the coordinator of INTEC, his research focusses on understanding and translating disease mechanisms in rare calcifying diseases to common disorders with calcification as a phenotypic feature.
Magnus Bäck is a professor of Cardiology and Senior Consultant at the Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden and guest professor at the University of Lorraine, Nancy University Hospital, and INSERM U1116, Nancy, France. His work combines clinical cardiology in valvular and coronary disease with translational research with emphasis on calcification in aortic valve stenosis.
Jessica Bertrand is professor for Experimental Orthopaedics at the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
Hervé Kempf is a permanent research scientist at INSERM in 2007 and leads the group ” Pathological Mineralization”, whose goal is to study the molecular mechanisms of articular and vascular pathologic mineralization in the context of aging, genetic deficiencies and pathological conditions.
Dimitri Hemelsoet is a senior clinician at the Department of Neurology of the Ghent University Hospital. His research focusses on rare neurological diseases in adults.
Ofer Sarig is an academic researcher and Manager of the Molecular Dermatology Laboratory from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel.
Flora Szeri is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Enzymology, Research Center for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary. Her lab focuses on understanding the complex molecular mechanisms of ectopic mineralization in rare hereditary and common multifactorial diseases.
Yvonne Nitschke is a research associate at the University Children’s Hospital Münster, Germany. She is leading a team focused on rare pediatric diseases associated with pathological calcification and intimal proliferation.
Vicky MacRae is a cell biologist with over 15 years of experience investigating the cellular mechanisms of calcification. She has over 75 publications including key contributions to the cardiovascular calcification field and was the first to demonstrate a link between osteocytes and vascular calcification and has also published numerous studies centering on mouse models lacking Enpp1.
Daniela Quaglino is a full professor of General Pathology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Her research activity concerns the biology and pathology of the extracellular matrix of soft connective tissues during aging or in acquired as well as in genetic diseases looking for a better comprehension of the pathogenesis of pathologic mineralization in Pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
SOCIAL ACTIVITY
A guided tour around the Ghent city beer brewery Gruut.
And since the proof of the pudding is in the … drinking, a tasting of their products is included.