14-16 October 2026
Lisbon, Portugal
Call for abstracts will open on 27 January 2026.
Apply for oral or poster presentations.
The Champalimaud Research Symposium 2026
(CRSy26) will gather an interdisciplinary community of researchers to discuss the interplay between the neural and immune systems in relation to cancer initiation, progression and therapy. This symposium will emphasise the dynamic interactions among tumour cells, neurons and immune components, and how these relationships impact tumour growth, metastasis and the tumour microenvironment.
Key topics will include mechanistic insights into neuro-immune signaling pathways, the influence of stress and innervation on tumor immunity, and how immune responses can affect neural activity within tumours and beyond.
(CRSy26) will gather an interdisciplinary community of researchers to discuss the interplay between the neural and immune systems in relation to cancer initiation, progression and therapy. This symposium will emphasise the dynamic interactions among tumour cells, neurons and immune components, and how these relationships impact tumour growth, metastasis and the tumour microenvironment.
Key topics will include mechanistic insights into neuro-immune signaling pathways, the influence of stress and innervation on tumor immunity, and how immune responses can affect neural activity within tumours and beyond.
Symposium Chairs
Carlos Minutti
Immunoregulation Lab, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, PT
Henrique Veiga-Fernandes Immunophysiology Lab, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, PT
Carlos Minutti
Immunoregulation Lab, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, PT
Henrique Veiga-Fernandes Immunophysiology Lab, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, PT
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Douglas Hanahan
EPFL, Lausanne, CH
Florent Ginhoux
Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, FR
Douglas Hanahan
EPFL, Lausanne, CH
Florent Ginhoux
Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, FR
CRSy is the main scientific symposium of the Champalimaud Research. Since 2017, it has fostered global dialogue among researchers across various disciplines, focusing on groundbreaking advancements in neuroscience, physiology and cancer.
Auke J. Ijspeert, PhD
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Lausanne, SwitzerlandAuke Ijspeert is a professor at EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland), IEEE Fellow, and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory. He has a B.Sc./M.Sc. in physics from the EPFL (1995), and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (1999). His research interests are at the intersection between robotics and computational neuroscience. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to gain a better understanding of animal locomotion and movement control, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of robots and locomotion controllers (see for instance Ijspeert et al, Science, Vol. 315, 2007 and Ijspeert, Science Vol. 346, 2014). He is also interested in assisting persons with limited mobility using exoskeletons and assistive furniture. With his colleagues, he has received paper awards at ICRA2002, CLAWAR2005, IEEE Humanoids 2007, IEEE ROMAN 2014, CLAWAR 2015, SAB 2018, CLAWAR 2019, and ICRA2024. He is associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. He is also a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science magazine.
︎ Visit the speaker’s lab here