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.


Symposium Chairs

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

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.


Previous Editions

2024
2022



︎    ︎    ︎    

Juan Álvaro Gallego, PhD


Champalimaud Foundation

Lisbon, PT

Dr Juan Gallego recently joined Champalimaud Foundation. Prior to that, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, which he joined in January 2020. He also held Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Northwestern University. He was awarded a PhD from CSIC and University Carlos III in 2013.

His research focuses on understanding how animals learn and control their movements through a combination of behavioural experiments, large-scale neural recordings, data analysis, and computational models. He is also interested in applying his group’s findings to advance neural interfaces to restore function to people with movement disorders. During his career, he has published over thirty-five journal articles on these various topics. His research has been funded by the EU Commission, the UK Research Institutes, ARIA, and the ERC.


︎ Visit the speaker’s lab here