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



wed 15

scaling up
thu 16

cybernetic
loops
fri 17

models
and robots

︎  Time in Lisbon (WEST)


wed 15  / scaling up


morning chair:
Guillaume Hennequin, PhD
University of Cambridge. Cambridge, United Kingdom
afternoon chair:
I. Memming Park, PhD
Neural Dynamics Lab, Champalimaud Foundation. Lisbon, Portugal


08:30

Registration & Welcome Coffee




09:30

Opening Remarks


Leonor Beleza, President of the Champalimaud Foundation



10:00

Misha B. Ahrens, PhD 

Janelia Research Campus,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ashburn, Virginia, USA




11:00

Coffee Break




11:30

Neural manifolds, invariances, and meaning


Juan Álvaro Gallego, PhD
Champalimaud Foundation
Lisbon, PT




12:00

Computational approaches towards cognitive motor control


Shreya Saxena, PhD
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Wu Tsai Institute
Yale, United States




12:30

Charting the space of dynamics with hierarchical state-space models


Ayesha Vermani, PhD
Champalimaud Foundation
Lisbon, PT




12:45

Flow equivariant cybernetics


T. Anderson Keller, PhD
The Kempner Institute For the Study of Natural & Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University
Cambridge, USA



13:00

Lunch




16:30

Ehud Ahissar, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot, Israel


18:00 & 18:30

Champalimaud Tours


Get to know the inside of the Champalimaud Foundation and discover the groundbreaking science conducted within its walls.