We are pleased to invite clinicians, scientists, allied health professionals, patient and family representatives, and other stakeholders to an international symposium exploring the development of the gut microbiota–immune–brain axis in early life.
The earliest stages of life represent a critical window during which microbial colonization, immune maturation, nutrition, environmental exposures, and clinical care may shape health and development far beyond infancy. These processes are particularly relevant for preterm and other vulnerable newborn infants, in whom early microbial and immune trajectories are profoundly influenced by both immaturity and intensive medical care.
The symposium aims to connect fundamental, translational, and clinical perspectives on how early microbial communities interact with the developing immune and nervous systems, and how these interactions may be supported to improve infant health and long-term outcomes.
Join us in Vienna for a day of interdisciplinary exchange, discussion, and collaboration.
Program
- 9:00 - 9:10 Uhr | Welcome and opening perspectives
David Berry, University of Vienna
Lukas Wisgrill, Medical University of Vienna - 9:10 - 9:30 Uhr | Beyond Neurological Morbidity: What Matters to Preterm-Born Children and Their Families?
Teresa Primavesi-Poggio, GFCNI
- 9:30 - 10:00 | From Gut Signals to the Developing Brain: Barriers, Radial Glia and Neurovascular Interfaces
Maria Rodriguez Aburto, University College Cork - 10:00 - 9:30 | Microbial Signals in Neurodevelopment: From Peptidoglycans to Neural Circuits and Behavior
Rochellys Diaz Heijtz, Karolinska Institutet - 10:30 - 11:10 Uhr | Coffee Break
- 11:10 - 12:00 | Human immune system development - a chain of events driven by colonizing microbes
Petter Brodin, Karolinska Institutet & Imperial College London - 12:00 - 13:00 | Lunch Break
- 13:00 - 13:30 | TBA
Alexandra Zhernakova, University of Groningen - 13:30 - 14:00 | Microbial Metabolites as Immune Instructors: Bile Acids, Treg Cells and Intestinal Homeostasis
Clarissa Campbell, CeMM - 14:00 - 14:30 | From Microbial Networks to Brain Networks: Neural Plasticity and Cognition along the Gut–Brain Axis
Isabella Anderson-Wagner, University of Vienna - 14:30 - 15:00 | Coffee Break
- 15:00 - 15:30 | Priming Immunity in Very Preterm Infants: Translational Lessons from Preterm Infant Birth Cohorts Studies
Dorothee Viemann, University of Würzburg - 15:30 - 16:00 | TBA
Stefan Johansson, Neobiomics AB & Karolinska Institutet 16:00 - 16:30 | Closing Remarks and Take-Home Messages
David Berry, University of Vienna
Lukas Wisgrill, Medical University of ViennaInformal Networking & Refreshments
until 18:30
Registration
Please follow this link to register for the event.
Location
