Computational Biology Symposium

Lausanne, 18-19. September 2025

Welcome to the

Computational Biology Symposium

18-19. September 2025

About

Computational biology is everywhere. As biology has developed into a vast field over the last century, available data size increased both in terms of the analyzed samples and assessed biological characteristics. Translating these data into knowledge requires computational approaches. Whereas the spectrum of their applications is vast, ranging from species evolution to protein structures, from bacterial communities to human diseases, the underlying methods analyzing diverse data sets often share fundamental approaches, such as mathematical modeling, statistics, and AI. This symposium aims at bringing together computational biologists from different fields to showcase the transversal nature of their work with a strong emphasis on the applied methods. This shift of focus will bridge seemingly distant fields and provide a fertile ground for synergistic collaborations and unprecedented innovation.

Hosted by the Department of Computational Biology of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, this meeting will welcome you in a friendly and relaxed environment on the shores of Lake Geneva, with plenty of opportunities for discussing your work and exchange ideas with new friends and colleagues. Join us in Lausanne!

Speakers

Andrea Ganna
FIMM, University of Helsinki
MGH, Harvard Medical School

Anne-Florence Bitbol
SV, EPFL

Hélène Morlon
Ecole Normale Supérieure

Mo Lotfollahi
Wellcome Sanger Institute

Marianna Rapsomaniki
BDSC, CHUV

Michael P. Brenner
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Sonja Lehtinen
DBC, University of Lausanne

Roser Vento-Tormo
Wellcome Sanger Institute

Blagoje Soskic
Human Technopole

Joana Pereira
VIB, KU Leuven

Register or submit an abstract here

Submit

Programme (may be subject to change)

8:00 - 9:15
Open Registrations and Welcome Coffee
9:15 - 9:30
Opening Remarks
9:30 - 10:15

Andrea Ganna - Keynote 1

University of Helsinki, MGH - Harvard Medical School
Sex-related signatures in the plasma proteome not attributable to XX and XY chromosomes and their impact on health and disease
10:15 - 10:30

Axel Schmidt - Short Talk

University of Bonn
Host control of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent infection
10:30 - 10:45

Chiara Auwerx - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne / Harvard
Assortative mating exacerbates the impact of rare pathogenic CNVs
10:45 - 11:00

  • Ivan Kuznetsov Measuring genetic effects on educational attainment in a changing society: no evidence of substantial difference between Soviet and post-Soviet era in Estonia
  • Giorgia Benegiamo EPFL: Harnessing mouse genetic diversity to identify novel therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases
  • Gaurav Bhole EPFL: Deep phenotyping via hierarchical learning of mouse movement: decoding ageing through activity
  • Ekaterine Kikodze University of Lausanne: Plasmids in isolation vs plasmids in congregation – how do evolutionary dynamics differ?
11:00 - 11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:00

Anne-Florence Bitbol - Invited Speaker

EPFL
Predicting protein-protein interactions using protein language models
12:00 - 12:30

Hélène Morlon - Invited Speaker

Ecole Normale Superiore, Paris
Exploring speculation: how and why rates vary across lineages
12:30 - 14:00
Lunch Break on Site & Poster Session
14:00 - 14:30

Mo Lotfollahi - Invited Speaker

Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK
Large-scale characterization of cell niches in spatial atlases using bio-inspired graph learning
14:30 - 14:45

Deepak Yadav - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne
Training graph neural network to classify SNARE proteins structures
14:45 - 15:00

Davide Bozzi - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne
A 5,500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia
15:00 - 15:20

Debora Sesia; Aurora Savino - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne / Human Technopole
Functional Assessment of Variants of Unknown Significance through the Cancer Dependency Map
15:20 - 15:45
Coffee Break
15:45 - 16:15

Marianna Rapsomaniki - Invited Speaker

CHUV
Accelerating Precision Oncology with AI: From CAR T-Cell Design to Histopathology
16:15 - 16:30

Vanessa Vermeirssen - Short Talk

Ghent University
Modeling disease metabolism from multi-omics data
16:30 - 16:45

Daan de Groot - Short Talk

University of Basel
Bonsai: Tree representations for distortion-free visualization and exploratory analysis of single-cell omics data
16:45 - 17:00

Dennis Bontempi - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne
Genetic and Prognostic Insights from Deep Learning Segmentation of Carotid Lumen Diameter
17:00 - 17:15

  • Dylan Lawless University of Zurich: Quantifying variant evidence for precise, probabilistic genomics
  • Pacôme Prompsy University of Lausanne / CHUV: Subcellular immune interactions reveal a MHC class I related mechanism of immune evasion in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
  • Dennis Gankin ETHZ: Predicting Genetic Risk with Biologically Interpretable Neural Networks at the Scale of the UK Biobank
  • Lauric Ferrat University of Geneva: Maximizing Screening Efficiency Using Genetic Risk Scores and Multi-Objective Optimization
17:30 - 19:00
Poster Session and Apero
19:00 - 22:00
Social Dinner

9:15 - 10:00

Michael P. Brenner - Keynote 2 - Alma Dal Co Memorial Lecture

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Revealing Lineage-Related Signals in Single-Cell Gene Expression Using Random Matrix Theory
10:00 - 10:15

Thibault Latrille - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne
Between and within species variation to detect selection on gene expression level in mammals
10:15 - 10:30

Gábor Holló - Short Talk

DEE - University of Lausanne
Turing Instability and Pattern Formation in Microbial Consortia
10:30 - 10:45

Marina Papadopoulou - Short Talk

University of Tuscia
Data-inspired simulations of collective escape: the case of starling murmurations
10:45 - 11:15
Coffee Break
11:15 - 11:45

Sonja Lehtinen - Invited Speaker

DBC
Antibiotic resistance dynamics
11:45 - 12:00

Athina Gavriilidou - Short Talk

DBC - University of Lausanne
Cracking the animal venom code using phylogenetic big data
12:00 - 12:15

Matthew Boyton - Short Talk

Heritability-informed drug repurposing across immune mediated traits
12:15 - 12:30

  • Harry Wright University of Exeter: Methods for meta-analysis of whole-genome sequence data across biobanks characterised using simulated and real phenotypes
  • Nadira Ali University of Exeter: Whole-genome sequence analysis of sleep questionnaire data in 171,566 individuals provides new insights into the genetic architecture of sleep
  • Cailyn Mae Ong University of Lausanne: Tissue Specific Protein Quantitative Trait Loci to Assess which Proteins Pass the Blood Brain Barrier
  • Silvia Prieto Banos University of Lausanne: Annotation matters: the effect of structural gene annotation on orthology inference
12:30 - 14:00
Lunch Break on Site & Poster Session
14:00 - 14:30

Roser Vento-Tormo - Invited Speaker

Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK
Gene regulation of human cell systems
14:30 - 14:45

Robin Journot - Short Talk

Institut Curie
Conserved molecular mechanisms and functional diversification in multilayered epithelia
14:45 - 15:00

Bethany Voller - Short Talk

University of Exeter
Using genetics to understand the shared mechanisms of hypertension and type 2 diabetes after accounting for obesity and cholesterol
15:00 - 15:15

Pierre Bost - Short Talk

Next-generation statistical framework for next-generation spatial transcriptomics data
15:15 - 15:45
Coffee Break
15:45 - 16:15

Joana Pereira - Invited Speaker

VIB, KU Leuven
Mapping the entire protein universe
16:15 - 16:30

Julian van Gerwen - Short Talk

The functional landscape of the human ubiquitinome
16:30 - 16:45

Mehdi Mirzaie - Short Talk

A Novel Protein Representation Based on of Pairwise Interaction Energies
16:45 - 17:15

Blagoje Soskic - Invited Speaker

Human Technopole, IT
Genome wide association studies (GWAS) in immune-mediated diseases
17:30 - 18:00
Concluding Remarks and Poster Prize
18:00 - 19:00
Apero

Practical information

Dates

Abstract submission deadline
30 June 2025 [Monday]
Notification of acceptance
11 July 2025
Early Registration closing date
11 July 2025
Final registration
1 September 2025
Conference dates
18-19 September
Social dinner
18 September 2025

Registration fees

Early
Late
Student/post-doc
150 CHF
200 CHF
PI
250 CHF
300 CHF
Industry
350 CHF
400 CHF

Venue

Address

Starling Hotel Lausanne ★★★★
Rte Cantonale 31, CH-1025 Saint-Sulpice

How to reach

The nearest international airport is Geneva Airport, located 60 km from Lausanne. Geneva Airport is serviced by numerous airline companies providing connections with European cities like Paris, London, and Frankfurt, as well as a few non-European destinations. To get from Geneva Airport to Lausanne, attendees can use the train from Geneva Airport to Lausanne train station (~45 minutes) Alternatively, Lausanne can be reached by car from Geneva Airport in approximately 45 minutes

Lausanne is well connected by train to all major cities in Switzerland. The main train station is located in the city center and offers frequent connections to cities like Zurich, Bern, and Geneva. Please see Swiss Railways website to access train schedules.

How to get to Starling Hotel from downtown Lausanne
  • Metro M2 + M1 From Lausanne-Flon or Gare (main train station), take Metro M2 to "Lausanne-Flon"
    Transfer to Metro M1 (direction: "Renens") Get off at EPFL station (~13 minutes)
    Walk ~5 minutes across the campus to the hotel (behind Rolex Learning Center)
  • Direct Bus (TL Bus Line 1)
    Take Bus from downtown. Get off near St-Sulpice, Parc Scientifique
    (journey ~18–20 minutes) Walk ~5 minutes to the hotel
  • Hotel Shuttle (Weekdays only)
    Starling Hotel offers a free shuttle service from Lausanne train station (available weekdays 7:00–10:30 and 16:30–21:30). You must book in advance with the hotel.
  • Taxi or Uber
    Distance: ~6 km from downtown. Duration: ~10 minutes by car
    Estimated cost: CHF 30–35

Other accommodation options

A large number of hotels located right in the city centre, not far from the symposium venue, close to Lake Geneva:

Hôtel Alpha-Palmiers ★★★★

Address: Rue du Petit-Chêne 34, 1003 Lausanne.

Hôtel Agora ★★★

Address: Avenue du Rond-Point 9, 1006 Lausanne.

Hôtel des Voyageurs ★★★

Address: Rue Grand-Saint-Jean 19, 1003 Lausanne.

Hôtel Elite ★★★

Address: Av. Sainte-Luce 1, 1003 Lausanne.

Auberge de Jeunesse de Lausanne

Address: Chem. du Bois-de-Vaux 36, 1007 Lausanne.

Hôtel du Marché

Address: Rue Pré-du-Marché 42, 1004 Lausanne.

About the Area

The University of Lausanne (UNIL) is nestled along the picturesque shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The campus is a vibrant hub of academic and social activity, surrounded by lush greenery and stunning views of the lake and mountains. With modern facilities, including libraries, sports centers, and cafes, students have everything they need within walking distance. The nearby city of Lausanne offers a rich cultural experience with museums, theaters, and a lively nightlife. Whether you're attending a lecture or enjoying a leisurely stroll by the lake, the UNIL campus provides an inspiring and welcoming environment for all.

Organizers

Speaker Name

Zoltán Kutalik

Speaker Name

Giovanni Ciriello

Contacts

michelle.ncho@unil.ch

Michelle N'Cho

Sponsors