Invited  Speakers:

Katharina Gapp

Katharina Gapp is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Neuroscience at ETH Zürich. Trained as a molecular biologist, she has spent 16 years studying how stress shapes biology across generations, with a focus on parental effects and non-genetic information transfer. During her PhD in Isabelle Mansuy’s lab, she identified sperm RNA as a key mediator of stress-induced behavioral and metabolic traits in mice, helping establish the field of RNA‑mediated inheritance. Her work has earned PRIMA and ERC Starting Grants. Her team now investigates nuclear receptors and develops translational tools to target stress‑related dysfunction in gene regulation.

Ina Bergheim

Ina Bergheim is a trained nutritional scientist. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim. After conducting postdoctoral research in the United States, she established the research group "Metabolic Liver Diseases" at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. Since then, her group's research has focused on investigating mechanisms that contribute to the development of metabolic liver diseases and aging liver decline, as well as their nutritional prevention. She first pursued this research as a full professor at Friedrich Schiller University, and since 2016, as Professor of Molecular Nutritional Sciences in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Vienna.

Torsten Plosch 

Dr. Torsten Plösch is an adjunct professor of experimental perinatology at the University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands, where he co-leads the research program Reproductive Origins of Adult Health and Disease. He also serves as head of research lab pediatrics at Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg/Germany, and as treasurer for the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHAD). His research focuses on the influence of the fetal and neonatal environment on the health of the offspring at adult age, specifically, how early environmental factors like nutrition determine the epigenetic make-up of the organism and thus its physiology.

Robert Waterland

Dr. Robert Waterland is a Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and is based in the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas. He holds faculty appointments in the Department of Pediatrics / Nutrition and the Department of Molecular & Human Genetics.

Dr. Waterland received his B.S. in Physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where undergraduate research with Peter Trower led to positions at the University of Pennsylvania, first with Britton Chance (biochemistry/biophysics), then with Albert Stunkard (clinical obesity research). After earning his Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Cornell University (with Cutberto Garza), he conducted postdoctoral research in developmental genetics with Randy Jirtle at Duke University.

Dr. Waterland’s research focuses on understanding how nutrition during critical periods of prenatal and early postnatal development affects gene expression, metabolism, and chronic disease susceptibility in adulthood. His laboratory studies both mouse models and humans to elucidate the mechanisms by which nutrition and other environmental influences during early development affect the establishment and maintenance of epigenetic gene regulation, particularly DNA methylation.

Raffaele Teperino 

I lead the Environmental Epigenetics group at Helmholtz Munich, focusing on the epigenetic inheritance of complex traits. My research has revealed the role of seminal plasma in developmental programming (Sci.Adv.2021) and the transfer of epigenetic material from sperm to oocyte during fertilization (Nature 2024). I also recently discovered that paternal health at conception is a distinct risk factor for childhood obesity and diabetes (Nature 2024).

I earned a PhD in Molecular Endocrinology from the University of Napoli “Federico II”, and conducted postdoctoral research at EPFL Lausanne and Max-Planck Freiburg, specializing in development, epigenetics, and metabolic physiology. I have published 36 scientific papers, many in top-tier journals such as Nature, Cell, and Cell Metabolism, and have received honors from the Marie-Curie Actions, the Italian Association for Cancer Research, and the Minerva Foundation.

Acknowledged by the European Commission as an expert in personalized medicine, my research contributes to advancing knowledge in epigenetic inheritance and metabolic physiology, focusing on translating these insights into treatments for metabolic diseases.

Wim Van der Berghe

Prof. Wim Vanden Berghe obtained his PhD at the University of Ghent (UGent) in 1999 in the Faculty of Science Biochemistry-Biotechnology. After postdoctoral research at various research institutions (University of Montpellier-France, Stellenbosch-SouthAfrica and Oxford-UK), Wim Vanden Berghe was appointed professor of Epigenetics in 2009 at the Cell Death Signaling lab of Epigenbetics (UAntwerpen/UGent, Belgium). With his current research, he is characterizing epigenetic and metabolic plasticity of ferroptosis disease phenotypes (cancer, CVD, obesity, MASLD, autism spectrum disorders, neurodegeneration, sepsis, infectious disease) to promote healthy aging.

Omry Koren

Prof. Omry Koren is a Full Professor at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University. A leading expert in the human microbiome, his research focuses on the complex interactions between microbiota and the host endocrine system, behavior, and development in both health and disease. He earned his PhD and MSc in Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology from Tel-Aviv University and completed postdoctoral training at Cornell University. Prof. Koren is a highly influential figure in his field, having been recognized as one of the world's most highly cited researchers (top 1%) annually since 2018. He has secured prestigious funding, including an ERC Consolidator Grant for his work on the microbiome and aggression, and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes.

Nicola Segata

Nicola Segata, Ph.D., is Professor and Principal Investigator in the CIBIO Department at the University of Trento (Italy). His lab comprises more than 30 researchers and employs experimental metagenomic tools and novel computational approaches to study the diversity of the microbiome across conditions and populations and its role in human diseases. The projects in his lab bring together computer scientists, microbiologists, statisticians, and clinicians and are focused on profiling microbiomes with strain-level resolution and on the meta-analysis of very large sets of metagenomes with novel computational tools. The lab aims at further understanding the human microbiome and translating the new knowledge into clinically relevant tools.

Nissan Yissachar 

Prof. Nissan Yissachar is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, studying host–microbiome interactions and their regulation of immune function in health and disease. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Bar-Ilan University (Prof.Benny Motro), followed by postdoctoral training at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Prof. Nir Friedman z”l) and Harvard Medical School (Profs. Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist). His lab developed an ex vivo gut organ culture system revealing a key role for the enteric nervous system in microbiota–immune crosstalk, providing insights into neuro-immune-microbiota mechanisms in inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer.

Lior Lobel 

Dr. Lior Lobel is a Senior Lecturer at Bar‑Ilan University’s Faculty of Life Sciences, where he leads a research group investigating diet–microbiome–host interactions. His work uncovers how bacterial metabolism and post‑translational modifications shape immunity, metabolism, and disease, with a particular focus on sulfur‑amino‑acid–driven mechanisms influencing chronic kidney disease and colorectal cancer. Dr. Lobel’s research integrates proteomics, microbial physiology, and host–pathogen biology to reveal molecular pathways that can be harnessed for therapeutic strategies. He has published influential studies on gut microbial proteomes and Listeria virulence regulation, contributing broadly to microbiome‑centered biomedical science.

Liza Konnikova

Dr. Konnikova's team focuses on the development of early life immunity particularly at barrier sites such as the GI tract and the maternal-fetal interface with a particular focus on T cell biology. Using multi-omic approaches, the group investigates how mucosal homeostasis is developed and what contributes to pathogenesis of diverse diseases such as sepsis, preterm labor, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), very early onset (VEO) and pediatric IBD. The Konnikova lab is further interested in how the microbiome and the associated metabolome regulate immune development and homeostasis at barrier sites. Her group is also interested in how early life events alter circulating immune cells. To this end, in collaboration with the NOuRISH team they are enrolling infants in a longitudinal study of peripheral blood development.

Baukje de Roos

Baukje de Roos is a nutrition scientist having >25 years of experience in the delivery of dietary intervention studies, unravelling mechanisms through which foods and diets affect health and disease. She implements novel precision and personalised nutrition approaches to improve population and individual health, as well as identifying responders and non-responders to interventions. She is the chair of the Management Board of NuGO (Nutrigenomics Organisation, https://www.nugo.org/), a global association of >30 Universities, research institutes and companies which, in its 20-year history, has helped to shape the nutrition research area with the emergence of sophisticated omics technologies and the development of concepts associated with personalised nutrition.

Carla Ferreri

Carla Ferreri is a distinguished researcher and innovator with over 40 years of expertise in the fields of free radicals, aging, and degenerative diseases. Following her initial academic position in Organic Chemistry at the University of Naples, she joined the National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna, where she concluded her career as Research Director in 2024. She pioneered a multidisciplinary approach to oxidative stress, inflammation, nutrition, and membrane lipidomics, with specific applications in cancer, obesity, and autism.

Dr Ferreri successfully bridged the gap between molecular research and medical diagnostics by co-founding the CNR spin-off, Lipinutragen. In this role, she directed clinical studies on red blood cell membrane lipidome profiles in both health and disease and led the project to automate membrane lipidome analysis, achieving ISO 15189 certification for medical laboratory standards. Her decorated career is highlighted by the 2010 ITWIIN Award for Best Italian Female Innovator and the 2022 Capo d'Orlando International Award. She has authored over 240 international publications and three books, and holds four patents.