Speakers

Harriet Allan

is a British Heart Foundation Immediate Fellow working at Queen Mary University of London. The focus of her research is exploring mitochondrial dynamics in megakaryocytes and platelets to understand the significance in determining platelet lifespan.

Session 2 – Keynote Lecture 4 – Mitochondrial dynamics in platelets and megakaryocytes

Alice Assinger

is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Her research focuses on platelet-immune system interactions and the roles of distinct platelet subsets in and beyond haemostasis, integrating both basic and clinical studies.

Session 5 – Keynote Lecture 8 – Platelet Dysfunction: Understanding and Detecting Defects

Alessandra Balduini

is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pavia, Italy, is an expert in hematology with a focus on hematopoietic stem cell biology, megakaryocyte and platelet-related disorders. After serving as a staff physician at the IRCCS San Matteo Foundation and completing a Visiting Professorship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she established a cross-institutional research program spanning the University of Pavia and Tufts University, USA.

Her work integrates biology and bioengineering to study hematopoiesis and the bone marrow microenvironment, particularly the regulation of platelet production. Her group developed a 3D silk-based model of human bone marrow, later optimized to produce functional platelets ex vivo. This model has become a valuable tool for studying platelet production mechanisms and drug efficacy. Recently, her team advanced the field further by creating a silk bioink to replicate the viscosity of native bone marrow.

Opening Session – Keynote Lecture 1 – Replicating Bone Marrow Niche Architecture to Support Megakaryocyte Function and Platelet Production

Wolfgang Bergmeier

is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and a Member of the Blood Research Center at the University of North Carolina. His research aims at a better understanding of the signaling mechanisms regulating megakaryocyte (MK) and platelet function in health and disease, with a particular focus on G protein signaling in integrin affinity regulation.

Opening Session – Keynote Lecture 2- Platelet adhesion: new insights into integrin affinity regulation

Kathleen Freson

is Professor at KU Leuven in the department of Cardiovascular Sciences and director of the Centre for Molecular and Vascular Biology. She studied bioscience engineering with as specialty cell and gene technology. She is director of the doctoral school for the faculty of medicine at KULeuven. Her research is focused on omics and functional genetics studies to unravel bleeding and platelet disorders but also has an interest in the parallel between neurological disorders and platelet dysfunction. She chairs the Subcommittees of the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis and is member of the ClinGen working group for Thrombosis and Hemostasis and the ASH Subcommittee on Precision Medicine.

Session 5 – Keynote Lecture 7 – Unlocking platelet biology using patient-based omics studies

Florian Gaertner

leads a research group at ICON-LMU and the Dept. of Cardiology at LMU Klinikum, Munich. His research focus is on blood cell migration in cardiovascular disease and immunity.

Session 4 – Keynote Lecture 6 – Cell motility in megakaryocytes and platelets

Harald Schulze

is a biochemist by training. After his PhD at the Medical School Hannover, Germany, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He became a junior group leader at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany, before he moved to Würzburg where he is now professor for Experimental Hemostaseology. His research is focused on defects in platelet production or function, both in inherited human bleeding disorders as in acquired defects as in patients with sepsis or COVID-19.

Session 3 – Keynote Lecture 5 – Platelet subpopulations, immunothrombosis and thrombo-inflammation
– how can we determine platelet function(s) at the interface of hemostasis and inflammation

Yotis Senis

is an Inserm Director of Research at the Cardiovascular and Nutrition Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University, France. In his research, he takes a multidisciplinary approach investigating the regulation of platelet production and function by protein-tyrosine phosphatases, with the overall objective of developing novel platelet therapeutics.

Session 1 – Keynote Lecture 3 – Defining and harnessing the MK/platelet checkpoint