Frontiers in Stem Cell Innovation 2026

The Frontiers in Stem Cell Innovation Conference will be bringing together leading academic and industry expertise in stem cell research to explore the breakthrough technologies and translational developments that are transforming drug discovery and therapeutic development.

The Conference will showcase cutting-edge advances in stem cell production, differentiation, and disease modelling applications across multiple therapeutic areas.

Conference Agenda

Day 1: Thursday 5th February

Time: 16.30 - 18.30

Venue: Hinxton Hall Conference Centre, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1RQ. Map

The opening session will kick off immediately after the WORD+ 2026 (World Organoid and Organ-on-a-chip Research Day)event.

16.30 Keynote address: Drug Repurposing in Retinoblastoma: Leveraging Primary Tumour Samples and Patient-Specific Retinal Organoids to Elucidate Tumour Pathogenesis and Inform Targeted Therapeutic Strategies

Majlinda Lako Professor of Stem Cell Science, Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University

17.00 Panel session

Chaired by Lyle Armstrong Professor of Cellular Reprogramming, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University

18.00 Networking drinks reception.

Day 2: Friday 6th February

Time: 9.00 - 15.00

Venue: The Cambridge Building, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, CB22 3AT Map

Session 1: Stem cell technologies in disease modelling and target validation

9.05 Keynote address: Stem Cells and Making Medicines

Fiona Ducotterd, Professor of Neuroscience. Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, University College London. Chief Scientific Officer of the Alzheimer's Research UK UCL Drug Discovery Institute (UDDI)

9.35 Employing iPSC derived neurons in Neurodegeneration drug discovery

Fiona Menzies, Associate Vice President at Eli Lilly and Company

9.55 Migration: of cells, scientists, sectors

Davide Danovi, Co-founder of Migration Biotherapeutics Ltd, Visiting Senior Lecturer at King's College London and the University of Cambridge

10.15 Modelling Age-Related Macular Degeneration using iPSCs to understand disease mechanisms and support diagnosis and treatment

Marzena Kurzawa-Akanbi, Lecturer in Regenerative Medicine, Newcastle University

10.35 Human translatable cellular models in pre-clinical research

Bilada Bilican, Senior Director of Applied Stem Cell Sciences, Translational Genomics, Centre for Genomics Research, AstraZeneca

10.55 – 11.25 Refreshment Break

11.25 Panel session: Next-Generation Stem Cell Technologies: Translational Challenges and Opportunities in Pharma & Biotech

Chaired by Peter Rugg-Gunn, Group Leader, Epigenetics Programme, The Babraham Institute

12.25 – 13.25 Lunch

13.25 Session 2: Innovating with Stem Cells: Current Use and Future Directions

13.30 Talk Title to be Confirmed

Peter Rugg-Gunn, Group Leader, Epigenetics Programme, The Babraham Institute

13.50 Non-cell-autonomous mechanisms of cell reprogramming: harnessing damage-sending inflammatory signalling to modulate cell plasticity

Maria A Christophorou, Tenure-track Group Leader, Epigenetics Programme, The Babraham Institute

14.10 Applications of iPSC derived models in drug discovery

Matteo Martufi, Associate Director and Group leader of the GSK UK Stem Cell group, Target Discovery, GSK

14.30 Epigenetic restoration of full developmental potential in differentiation-compromised human pluripotent stem cell lines

Stefan Schoenfelder, Senior Staff Scientist, Epigenetics Programme, The Babraham Institute

14.50 Keynote Address: Building the Human Cell Factory: Programming Cells with opti-ox

Mark Kotter, Founder of bit.bio, Meatable, clock.bio, Research Professor, University of Cambridge, Team Lead in Neuroprotection & Neurodegeneration, NIHR Brain Injury MedTech Co-operative.

This conference is taking place thanks to the support provided by: