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Lights, Camera, Action!

Explore our curated photo gallery of standout moments from Discovery & Development Europe 2026. See if you can spot yourself!

We took notes so you don't have to...

The druggable genome is expanding!

Paul Workman opened the event with something that's easy to lose sight of when you're deep in the science, the druggable genome is expanding, and more patients are reaching benefit because of it.

Biomarker-based approaches are working. RAD is now drugged. Induced proximity pharmacology is moving faster than most expected. There's real momentum in the field and he gave it the credit it deserves.

Drug resistance and clonal evolution is now the thing the whole field is still working on.

What does "Lab-in-the-loop" look like?

Dave Hallett's, (Recursion Pharmaceuticals) session got into the reality behind the phrase, the infrastructure required to run agentic, iterative design-make-test-learn cycles at scale. 

Recursion is operating at the interface between the physical and virtual world, and he was honest about how much work sits between the concept and making it function for small molecule therapeutics.

The gap between the phrase and the practice is where the interesting work is. 

1 in 3 Europeans. €430bn a year. Much of it preventable.

Rafal Kaminski, (Angelini Pharma) opened with the honest facts. 

The science in epilepsy, mental health, and rare neurological disorders is moving, innovative therapies are there, cross-sector partnerships are forming. What's lagging is political and financial commitment.

He made the case plainly: investing in brain health saves lives and saves money. 

Your fastest trial yet

The fastest lap in F1 history: 1 minute 18.792 seconds. The average drug development timeline: 12 years.

One of these is improvable. Come take a lap in our F1 VR simulator in between the sessions. 

Congratulations to James McCune for winning the day 1 competitio with a time of 1 minute 27.343 seconds! 

Huge thanks to Clarivate for sponsoring the F1 experience.

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We have a winner!

Huge congratulations to our winner of the Young Scientist Awards, Ian Hope!

Research Associate from Newcastle University, Ian Hope, claimed the award for best poster presentation, taking home a trophy, £1000 travel contribution and access to LifeScienceXchange, from scientific programme partner ELRIG.

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Red or white?

Day 1 ended at the BBQ and wine tasting at the Estrel Waterfront.

Delegates continued the conversations from the day over a generous buffet and selection of wines throughout the evening.


Thank You to our
Scientific Partner

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Key Event Highlights

An unmissable journey awaits you: from award winning speakers and insightful workshops, to an exclusive gala dinner. Discover the moments that will transform your Discovery & Development experience. 

The Start-up Zone

Are you developing a cutting-edge therapy, platform or technology? Our Start-Up Zone is designed to support emerging companies looking to increase their visibility, find potential partners or early adopters, and meet their investment goals – connecting them with our community of pharma, investors, and mid-to-large size biotechs.

Located in the Exhibition Hall, the Start-Up Zone allows therapeutic pioneers to showcase their approach, conduct invaluable 1:1 meetings and deliver a quick-fire pitch.

There are two options, based on the size of your organisation with prices starting from €1020. 

For further information and to get started submit the application form below.

Criteria:

The Start-Up Zone is designed for therapeutic start-ups, academic spin-outs, and early-stage technology/service providers.

 

To be eligible for inclusion, you must meet the following criteria:

 

•    0 – 5 years operating
•    0 – 30 employees
•    Pre-Series A funding


What you will receive:

  • 1 full conference pass
  • 10-minute pitch on the Start-Up Stage
  • 1x1m space in Start-Up Zone for own partnering meetings; cocktail table provided, start-up to bring 1x pull-up banner
  • Logo featured on website & event platform as a participating start-up
  • Ability to arrange 1:1 meetings via the congress app

 

New Opportunities

Discovery & Development Young Scientist Awards

The Discovery & Development Young Scientist Poster Award recognises exceptional individual achievements in scientific research by PhD students, PostDocs, and early-career scientists.

The top three winners receiving the highest scores will be given a trophy, a £1,000 contribution towards travel costs, access to our LifeScienceXchange Pass, and the opportunity to present on the programme.

Three runner ups will be provided with the opportunity to present their work on the programme as well as access to the LifeScienceXchange Pass.

Included in the LifeScienceXchange Pass – 12 months access to expertly curated content, monthly thought leadership sessions & technology showcases.

NextGen Biomed - New Opportunities YSA

Last Year's Speakers from Discovery & Development Europe 2026

Amardeep Singh Bhalla
Executive Director,
Regeneron
Andreas Bernkop Schnürch
Professor,
Innsbruck University
Andreas Seidl
Chief Scientific Officer,
Formycon
Andreas Gryczke
ACoS Research Fellow,
AbbVie
Bjarki Johannesson
Director, Safety Innovation,
AstraZeneca
Covadonga Paneda
Chief Operating Officer,
Altamira Therapeutics AG
Dave Hallett
Chief Scientific Officer,
Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Emma Mead
Chief Scientific Officer,
ARUK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute
Fatma Salahioglu
Senior Programme Manager,
Resolian
Ingo Hartung
Executive Director, Global Head of Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Design,
Merck & Cie KmG
Jean-Philippe Courade
Chief Scientific Officer,
Discoveric bio alpha
Jenifer Mains
Senior Director, Formulation Science ,
Bicycle Therapeutics
Jens Frauenfeld
Chief Executive Officer,
Salipro Biotech
Liam Good
Chief Scientific Officer,
Tecrea
Liuhong Chen
Vice President, Platform Innovation,
Bicycle Therapeutics
Magnus Ivarsson
Chief Scientific Officer,
astronautx.bio
Paul Workman
Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
The Institute of Cancer Research, London
Peyman Gifani
Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
AI VIVO
Rafal Kaminski
Chief Scientific Officer,
Angelini Pharma
Ruth Shah
Head of Bayer Co.Lab Berlin,
Bayer
Samir Mitragotri
Professor,
Harvard University
Shadi Farhangrazi
Chief Executive Officer,
S. M. Discovery Group (SMDG)
Sheila Peters
Executive Director and Early Asset Lead,
Boehringer Ingelheim
Steinunn Sara Helgudottir
Chief Scientific Officer,
Neurometa Therapeutics
Susanne Muller-Knapp
Chief Operating Officer,
The Structural Genomics Consortium
Theresa Scheuble
R&D Director, Drug Delivery Systems,
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines
Abhishek Choudhary
Principal Data Engineer,
Bayer
Aishwarya Parthasarathy
Associate,
Sofinnova Partners
Alex Ide
General Manager,
Genomics
Amal Ali Elkordy
Professor of pharmaceutics,
University of Sunderland
Anselm Schneider
Head of Laboratory in Lead Discovery,
Nuvisan ICB GmbH
Arianna Sabò
Head of R&D,
Quantro
Austin Gamble Jarvi
Applications Manager,
High Q Technologies
Avinash Murthy
Drug Product Lead,
Roche
Bilada Bilican
Senior Director,
Applied Stem Cell Sciences - Centre for Genomics Research, AstraZeneca
Birgitta Leuthner
Scientific Director,
Merck Healthcare Kgaa
Carsten Spannhuth
Chief Scientific Officer,
ateka|tx
Cathy Vickers
Head of Innovation,
NC3Rs
Cerlin Roberts
CEO,
Oxford Global
Chris Hamlett
Director,
Astex Pharmaceuticals
Christian Klein
Business Development Manager EMEA,
Lonza Capsules & Health Ingredients
Christian Lotz
General Manager EMEA,
Pfanstiehl
Christian Pilger
Director,
AbbVie
Christina Theisgen
Senior Global Product Trainer,
Cell Signaling Technology
Chuang Kee Ong
Director Data Product,
GSK
Cristina Hidalgo
Senior Automation Scientist,
AstraZeneca
Csaba Peltz
Director of Chemistry,
Certara
Cyril Teixeira da Silva
Investment Officer, Growth Finance & Venture Debt,
European Investment Bank
David Heinz
Board Member,
SiLA
Dhwani Rana
Senior Scientist,
RCPE
Dr. Mathias Gschell
Head of Cryo-EM ,
Bimovis
Duy Trieu Trieu
Chief Technology Officer,
NYB.AI
Elena Fernandez-Kleinlein
Head of JLABS EMEA,
Johnson & Johnson
Eliot Morrison
Principal Scientist, Head of Molecular Design Biology,
Silence Therapeutics
Elisabetta Leo
ED Global Asset Lead,
Ipsen
Emma Murphy
Head of Biology,
Centre for Medicines Discovery
Eric Munson
Professor,
Purdue University
Eszter Sutowski Nagy
Senior Production Director,
Oxford Global
Fabrizio Ricci
Senior Scientist,
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Felix Hausch
Professor for Structure-Based Drug Research,
TU Darmstadt
Florian Ries
Principal Research Scientist I,
AbbVie
Freya Trasischker
Senior Applications Scientist,
Chemical Computing Group
Friedrich Sarrazin
Co-Founder,
Addimus Bio
Gerhard Wolber
Professor of Medicinal Chemistry,
Epiios Therapeutics
Gisbert Schneider
Full Professor of Computer-Assisted Drug Design,
ETH Zürich
Goran Verspui
Head of Drug Development ,
Symeres
Gustavo Gutierrez
Director,
AstraZeneca
Hongbo Zhang
Chief Scientific Officer,
HitChem
Ib Vestergaard Klewe
Senior Director, Head of Area, External Partnering Lead, Early Research & Innovation,
Lundbeck
Ildiko Terebesi
Scientific Consultant ,
INVITE GmbH
Ingo Kober
Director Emergent Modalities Pharmacology,
Merck Healthcare KGaA
Ionel Mangalagiu
Professor,
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Of Iasi
Jack Palmer
Field Application Scientist Europe,
Nova biomedical
Jamie Cartland
Client Partner, EMEA,
Causaly
Jan Schäfer
Senior Field Application Scientist EMEA – Global Distribution Support,
Redshift Bio
Jarrod Walsh
Director – Affinity Screening,
AstraZeneca
Jean Ge
Patent Attorney,
Wolf Greenfield
Jenny Karlsson
Senior Director - Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals,
Bayer
Johan Pihl
Chief Scientific Officer,
Cellectricon AB
Johannes Krupp
Research Program Director Neurology,
Servier
Jordan Bye
Principal Formulation Development Scientist,
Immunocore
Jorge Dias
Director Antibody Discovery,
Alchemab Therapeutics
Josephine Blersch, PhD
Screening & Data Scientist,
DZNE
Josh Bagley
Chief Scientific Officer,
AheadBio
Kamalinder Singh
Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology & Drug Delivery,
University of Lancashire
Karl Box
Chief Scientific Officer,
Pion Inc
Katie Beckwith
Machine Learning Engineer,
Ignota Labs
Katja Rosti
COO,
Avenue Biosciences
Kelly Gray
Senior Alliances Manager,
Ignota Labs
Kenan Pandza
VP of R&D,
Persist AI
Keqian Nan
Application Scientist ,
AcoustoFab
Kevin Gonzales
Principal Scientist,
Novo Nordisk
Kilian Huber
Associate Professor, Senior Group Leader Chemical Biology & Chemical Probes,
University of Oxford
Kimberly Shepard
Director, Advanced Drug Delivery,
Lonza
Konstantinos Gkatzis
Chief Executive Officer,
Epiceller
Kristine Freude
Professor,
University Copenhagen
Kristof Schuett
Senior Principal Machine Learning Research Scientist,
Pfizer Ltd
Krzysztof Brzózka
Chief Scientific Officer,
Ryvu Therapeutics
Kurt Pike
Senior Director, External Innovation,
Johnson & Johnson
Laurent Gomez
Senior Vice President & Head of Discovery,
Iambic Therapeutics
Leena Otsomaa
Vice President, Head of Medicine Design,
Orion Corporation, Orion Pharma
Lian Rajewski
Senior Director Formulation Development,
Ligand Pharmaceuticals (CyDex Pharmaceuticals)
Lucas Bethge
Vice President, Group Leader Oligonucleotide Chemistry,
Silence Therapeutics
Magdalena Kierkowicz
Senior Scientist,
UCB
Mahendra Deonarain
Chief Executive Officer,
Antikor Biopharma Ltd
Main Speaker: Atsushi Kaga, Scientist, SPERA PHARMA
Invited speaker: Emilia Buchsteiner, Application Scientist, Rigaku ,
Marc Porr
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, TechkIT & SiLA Director and Head of Cyber Security Work Group,
TechkIT GmbH; SiLA
Marc Siggel
Associate Director, Head of Digital for Next Gen Drug Delivery,
Merck KGaA
Marianne Gentric
Drug Product Team Leader,
Sanofi
Mark Eccleston
Chief Executive Officer,
ValiRx
Marta Koper
Senior Scientist,
UCB
Martin Kriebel
Senior Principal Scientist, Next Generation Cellular and Organotypic Assays,
NMI
Matt Clark
CSO,
X-Chem
Matthew Segall
CEO,
Optibrium
Matthew Todd
Professor & Head of Global Research Collaborations,
University College London & Structural Genomics Consortium
Matthias Gehringer
Professor,
University of Tuebingen
Max Salm
Senior Director, Target Sciences,
Bicycle Therapeutics
Mazdak Asadian-Birjand
Principal Chemist,
Sapreme Therapeutics
Michael Gosselin
Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development,
Aprecia
Michael Johnson
Professor of Neurology and Genomic Medicine,
Imperial College London
Min Shan
Associate Director of ADC Chemistry in MCDD, Discovery and Development Technologies, Merck Healthcare KGaA,
Merck Healthcare KGaA
Mitul Mehta
Professor,
King's College London
Moh Tadayyon
Co-founder,
Apeikon Therapeutics
Mohammed Shahid Uddin
Senior Director,
Immunocore
Nicola Chessum
Principal Scientist,
Boehringer Ingelheim
Nicola Vettore
Customer Engagement Scientist,
Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. (CDD)
Nicolas Schwenck
Head of Business Development & Partnerships,
EbenBuild
Parmi Shah
CEO,
Rasayan Labs
Peter Bitsch
Conjugation Specialist, Next Gen Drug Delivery,
Merck
Peter Donnelly
Chief Executive Officer,
Genomics plc
Philip Christophersen
Principal Scientist in Oral Formulation Research,
Novo Nordisk
Piyush Agrawal
Data Science Manager,
CAS
Preben Bruun-Nyzell
Chief Executive Officer,
Neurometa Therapeutics
Ricardo de la Torre Gonzalez & Daniel Garcia Gonzalez
Co-founders & CEO and CSO (Respectively),
60Nd
Rick Ewing
Vice President, Head of Chemistry,
Rapafusyn
Robert Byrne
Head of Structural Biology,
CRELUX, A Wuxi AppTec Company
Robin Roehm
Chief Executive Officer,
Apheris AI GmbH
Roman Schulte-Sasse
Head of Data Science Discovery,
Aignostics GmbH
Ross Wheatcroft
Business Development Manager EMEA & APAC,
Sabrina Stöckl
Principal,
b2venture
Sam Dylan Moré
CEO and Founder,
Dendropharm GmbH
Sanne Holt
Associate Director immuno-oncology,
Ncardia
Simon Gilbert
Associate Director Bioscience,
Amphista Therapeutics Ltd
Søren Nielsen
Scientific Senior Director,
Amgen
Stefan Hauser
Group Leader,
DZNE (German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases)
Stefan Knapp
Professor,
Goethe University Frankfurt
Stefan Schiesser
Director of Medicinal Chemistry,
AstraZeneca
Steffen Renner
Associate Director Data Science,
Novartis
Steve Amoussou-Guenou
Customer Solutions Manager,
Sune Klint Andersen
Scientific Associate Director,
Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Suruchi Vishwasrao
Senior Scientist,
Merck & Cie KmG
Takashi Ebihara
COO,
GeneFrontier Corporation
Tanvir Tabish
Director, Early Formulation Development,
AstraZeneca
Thijs Cui
Principal Scientist,
Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Tomaso Guidi
Head of Formulation and Process Development,
Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA
Valeriya Shunina
Investor,
Earlybird VC
Vijay Chandrasekar
Associate Principal Scientist,
AstraZeneca
Vijaya Lakshmi Kari
Group Leader,
Evotec
Vijayavittha Mathad
Chief Operating Officer,
Cramsn
Vinay Pawar
Director, R&D External Innovation,
Novo Nordisk A/S
Yann Gaston-Mathe
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Iktos AI
Yuhei Onizuka
Research Scientist, Life Science Research Laboratory,
NOF CORPORATION
Zameel Cader
Director, Oxford Headache Centre & Professor of Neuroscience & Neurology,
University of Oxford
Zoran Rankovic
Professor of Chemical Biology & Director, Centre for Protein Degradation,
The Institute of Cancer Research

2026 Thought Leadership Insights

Join our CEO, Cerlin Roberts, as she sits down with leading industry voices to explore the ideas, innovations, and themes shaping the future of our industry.

Thought Leaderships - Watch Now

Interested in Sponsoring NextGen Omics & Spatial Biology US 2025?

Become a driving force in accelerating the next generation of multi-omics-based treatments. NextGen Omics & Spatial Biology US offers a unique platform to enhance your brand visibility and connect with thousands of pharma, biotech, & academic experts. Our branded event opportunities, immersive experiences, and content services enable you to engage, educate, & collaborate with the community shaping the future of genomic medicine today.

Interested in Sponsoring NextGen Biomed?

Become a driving force in accelerating the next generation of biologics and immunotherapy medicines to patients. NextGen Biomed offers a unique platform to enhance your brand visibility and connect with thousands of pharma, biotech, and R&D experts. Our branded event opportunities, immersive experiences, and content services enable you to engage, educate, and collaborate with the community shaping the future of biomedicine today.

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2025 Young Scientist Awards (YSA) for Best Poster Presentation

The NextGen Biomed Young Scientist Awards include the best poster presentation award and are intended to honour an outstanding individual performance for a scientific work by a PhD student, PostDoc or early career scientist.

Please submit your poster presentation by no later than 13th January 2025 in the below category:

  • Protein/Antibody Engineering
  • Bioanalysis & Characterisation
  • Next Generation Biotherapeutics
  • Peptides Chemistry & Therapeutics
  • Oligonucleotides Chemistry & Therapeutics
  • Sustainable Chemistry & Manufacturing
  • Student (PhD), PostDoc or early career scientist under 35 years of age. Proof must be provided via an active student ID card or a copy of status
  • Applicants must be the first AND presenting author of the submitted paper and register for the meeting by 13th January 2025
  • ONLY ONE YSA submission per person will be accepted. If authors submit multiple abstracts for consideration for the YSA, only one abstract will be taken into consideration for the YSA

Applicants must follow the procedure as follows: 

  • Register and submit an abstract by 13th January 2025 using the registration link to the left on this page 
  • Once registered you will be provided with the online abstract submission form 
  • Prepare the poster or platform and present it (The poster presenter should be at the poster during all breaks.) 
  • The 3 winners with the highest scores will be announced at the Networking Drinks on the second day of the event 
  • The winners’ 10-minute oral presentations will take place during the networking drinks on day 2 

The platform or poster presentation will be evaluated by senior scientists (consisting of our speaking and steering group committee for the NextGen Biomed series) on the basis of originality of the approach and quality of the work (e.g. appropriate methodology, interpretation of results, conclusiveness). All participants will receive the scoring and comments after the annual meeting via email.

The 3 winners receiving the highest scores will be announced at the Networking Drinks on the Day 2 and will be given a trophy as well as £1,000 contribution towards travel costs. Oxford Global will also provide winners with PLUS Pass – 12 months access to our content platform providing access to on-demand presentations, exclusive reports and highlights. 

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Sign-up for our regular LifeScienceXchange newsletter to keep up to date with all things Discovery & Development, direct to your inbox.

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