The curATalk lecture series was created in 2021 in order to connect the scientists that are involved in curATime as well as thematically closely related scientist and their research. This virtual meeting takes place at regular intervals and presents their latest research findings and topics that provide additional scientific value for the individual curATime projects. The curATalks are announced publicly and enjoy lively participation from a broad audience.
curATalk Seminar Series
Speakers
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curATalk Matthias Heinig - 21.01.2026
AI in cardiovascular genomics
21.01.2026, 17 - 18.00
Institute of Computational Biology, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Helmholtz Munich
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Lecture hall 401.
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curATalk Nicola Ternette - 16.06.2025
Venturing into the unknown: How non-canonical open reading frames expand cancer immune visibility
16.06.2025, 2 - 3 pm
Prof. Dr. Nicola Ternette
Professor of Antigen Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, UK
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curATalk Craig Morrell - 06.06.2025
Platelets and Megakaryocytes at the Immune Interface
06.06.2025, 14 -15:00 Uhr
Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of Rochester, USA
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708.
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curATalk Marc Lerchenmüller - 15.05.2025
Bridging Discovery and Impact: The Role of the Science of Science in Advancing Translational Research
15.05.2025, 17 - 18:00 Uhr
Prof. Dr. med. Marc Lerchenmüller
Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation and Management, University of Mannheim
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708.
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curATalk Carolin Lerchenmüller - 15.05.2025
From Cardioprotection to Gender Medicine
15.05.2025, 17 - 18:00
Prof. Dr. med. Carolin Lerchenmüller
Professor of Gender Medicine, Head of the Chair of Gender Medicine, University of Zurich
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708.
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curATalk Daniel Dürr - 17.03.2025
Modern cardiac surgery and basic research - crossing the translational divide
17.03.2025, 5 - 5:45 pm
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz
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curATalk Heinz Handels - 16.01.2025
AI in Medical Image Computing
16.01.2025, 5:00 - 5:45 PM
Department of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Image and Signal Processing, DFKI Lübeck
Institute of Medical Informatics, University of Lübeck
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curATalk Miguel Andrade - 02.12.2024
„Computational approaches for the prediction of gene and protein function“
02.12.2024, 5:00 - 5:45 pm
Computational Biology and Data Mining Group, JGU Mainz
Das Seminar will be held on-site at TRON gGmbH, Goettelmannstrasse 17, Mainz, seminar room ground floor right .
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curATalk Martin Zörnig - 26.11.2024
Introducing ForTra - Promoting the translation of medical research results into clinical application
26.11.2024, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
ForTra gGmbH für Forschungstransfer der Else-Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe
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curATalk Bernd Engelmann - 06.11.2024
„Immune cell specificity of immunothrombosis control“
06.11.2024, 5:15 - 6 pm
Institute for Laboratory Medicine,
University Hospital of Munich (LMU Klinikum)The seminar will take place on-site at the University Medical Center Campus Mainz Building 708, Seminar room 2.
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curATalk Lena Seegers - 31.10.2024
Sex differences in coronary artery disease
31.10.2024, 17:00 - 18:00 Uhr
Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt am Main, Medizinische Klinik 3: Kardiologie, Angiologie
The seminar will be held on-site at the University Medical Center Mainz Campus, building 102, seminar room 1.
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curATalk Laura Zelarayán-Behrend - 02.10.2024
Restoration of endogenous transcription factor activity by CRISPRa to prevent cardiac failure
02.10.2024, 17 - 18:00 Uhr
Institute of Phamacology and Toxicology,
University Medical Center Göttingen
The seminar will be held on-site at the University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708
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curATalk Florian A. Weinberger - 02.10.2024
Pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes for cardiac repair - pharmacological considerations
02.10.2024, 17 - 18:00 Uhr
Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, Madrid
& Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708
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curATalk Alice Assinger - 13.06.2024
Platelets in Infection: A Battle of Wits
13.06.2024, 17:15 - 18:15
Institute of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research,
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
The seminar will be held on-site at University Medical Center Mainz, Building 708 -
curATalk Gwendalyn Randolph - 08.05.2024
Dissemination of inflammatory cells and molecules from the intestine to downstream and distal organs
08.05.2024, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Emil R. Unanue Professor of Immunobiology, Department of Pathology
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
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curATalk Laura Bindila - 18.04.2024
Modern lipidomics approaches for clinical and preclinical research and profiling
18.04.2024, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Clinical Lipidomics Unit, Institute of Physiological Chemistry
University Medical Center Mainz
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curATalk Stefan Engelhardt - 15.01.2024
Macrophage-targeted RNA therapeutics
15.01.2024, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt
Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Technical University of Munich
Speaker of the CNATM Cluster
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curATalk Christoph Reinhardt - 08.11.2023
Microbiota and Arterial Thrombosis
08.11.2023, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinhardt
Center for Thrombosis and Haemostasis
University Medical Center Mainz, Germany
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curATalk Muhammad Nabeel Asim - 08.08.2023
Protein Protein interaction prediction in our AI based Genomics and Proteomics Sequence Analysis Framework
08.08.2023, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Dr. Muhammad Nabeel Asim
DFKI GmbH
Kaiserslautern, Germany
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curATalk Klaus Ley - 12.06.2023
Breaking Tolerance: The Autoimmune Aspect of Atherosclerosis
12.06.2023, 17 - 17:45 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Klaus Ley
Immunology Center of Georgia
Augusta University, USA
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curATalk Johnny Kim - 25.05.2023
Synthetic regeneration at the heart of reversible reprogramming
25.05.2023, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Dr. Johnny Kim
TRON gGmbH, Mainz
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curATalk Markus Jostock - 21.03.2023
Blockchain as Digital Access Gate to Medical Data
21.03.2023, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Dr. Markus Jostock
Arxum GmbH, Kaiserslautern
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curATalk David Leistner - 17.01.2023
Acute coronary syndrome – novel pathophysiologic insights call for precision prevention
17.01.2023, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Prof. Dr. David M. Leistner
Med. Clinic 3 – Cardiology, Angiology, University Hospital Frankfurt
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curATalk Christoph Binder - 23.11.2022
„Humoral“ Immunity and Immune Homeostasis in Atherosclerosis
23.11.2022, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Christoph Binder
Department of Laboratory Medicine Medical University of Vienna & Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences -
curATalk Lutz Nuhn - 06.09.2022
Macromolecular strategies for enhancing immunotherapy responses to treat cardiovascular diseases
06.09.2022, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Julius Maximilian University Würzburg
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curATalk Florian Leuschner - 21.07.2022
Inflammation of the heart: Mechanism and therapeutic options
21.07.2022, 16:00 – 16:45 Uhr
Prof. Dr. med. Florian Leuschner
Heidelberg University Hospital
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curATalk Hugo ten Cate - 21.06.2022
Atherothrombosis: the impact of clotting proteases
21.06.2022 17:30 - 18:15 Uhr
Prof. Hugo ten Cate
CARIM, Maastricht University Medical Center+ -
curATalk Stefanie Dimmeler - 12.04.2022
RNA therapeutics in cardiovascular disease
12.04.2022, 17:00 - 18:00 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dimmeler
Goethe- University, Frankfurt
Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Centre for Molecular Medicine
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curATalk Johan Trygg - 23.03.2022
Chemometrics strategies and tools in Precision Medicine
23.03.2022 17:30 - 18:15 Uhr
Prof. Johan Trygg
Departmentof Chemistry, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Corporate Research, Sartorius, Umeå, Sweden
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curATalk Jürgen Scheele - 22.03.2022
Artificial CRISPR, an AI based approach to predict signature drug response from multi-omics datasets
22.03.2022, 17:30 - 18:15 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Scheele
Chief Medical Officer Innoplexus AG
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curATalk Abdelhak Zoubir - 15.02.2022
Advancing Robust Signal Processing and Statistical Learning for Biomedical Applications
15.02.2022, 17:30 - 18:15 Uhr
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Abdelhak Zoubir
Signal Processing Group, Technical University of Darmstadt
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curATalk Sara Vieira-Silva - 02.02.2022
Human gut microbiota variation in health and disease
02.02.2022, 17:00 – 17:45 Uhr
Laboratory of Molecular Bacteriology (Rega Institute), KU Leuven, Belgium
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curATalk Jama Nateqi - 24.01.2022
Symptoma – Every patient deserves the right diagnosisand treatment
24.01.2022, 17:00 - 17:45 Uhr
Dr. med-univ. Jama Nateqi
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curATalk Stefan Tenzer - 15.12.2021
Mass spectrometry-based proteomics in translational research and systems medicine
15.12.2021, 17:30 – 18:15 Uhr
Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Stefan Tenzer
Institut für Immunologie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz
Events
08
Sep 2026
curATime Kick-off Event
We are officially launching the second phase
08.09.2026
DFKI, Kaiserlautern
We’ve accomplished a lot during the first funding period. Now we want to go even further! We’re all coming together to get to know each other, present the new project ideas, and officially welcome our new partners.
12
Sep 2026
Mainzer Wissenschaftsmarkt 2026
We're excited to actively participate for the first time this year!
12.09.2026
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13.09.2026
Platz der Mainzer Republik / Deutschhausplatz, Mainz
The motto is “Discover, Participate, be Amazed": a diverse program awaits children, teens, and adults, featuring interactive activities and experiments, exciting presentations, and innovative projects (entrance is free). At our booth, we’ll take a closer look at cardiovascular diseases and bust some myths.
The event is organized by MAINZER WISSENSCHAFTSALLIANZ e.V. in cooperation with the City of Mainz.
More info: www.wissenschaftsallianz-mainz.de/wissenschaftsmarkt
Recent Events
curAMeet 2026
Archive
“Meet & Connect” – Impressions from our 3rd curAMeet cluster conference
On February 24, our annual cluster conference “curAMeet” took place on the campus of Mainz University Medical Center.
With the theme “Meet & Connect” our doors were opened wide, allowing us to exchange ideas not only with our current and future curATime members, but also with other parties interested in curATime.
Around 110 guests listened to welcoming remarks from our cluster spokesperson, the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science and Health, the University Medical Center Mainz, and Project Management Jülich, took in important research findings from our keynote speakers (Fu Siong, Ng, Joost Sluijter, Aimo Kannt, and Kluas Ley), and learned about gamification and serious games during Philipp Busch's Impulse Talk.
In addition to these impressive presentations, the important progress made in all curATime projects was presented either during the poster session, in the presentation of our lighthouse projects, or in the research project presentations by some of the doctoral students.
During the breaks, participants took the opportunity to get to know each other beyond the existing network and exchanged ideas about existing and potential projects.
We would like to thank all participants and contributors for this successful day.
Our cluster member Michael Molitor summarizes:
"curAMeet was a great experience for me, especially the opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange between biomedical research and AI science and finding a "common" language here was outstanding. A unique platform for innovation, networking and scientific progress within the framework of curATime’. It’s amazing how sharing experiences can spark new ideas and future collaborations with current and new academic and industry partners."
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curAHack Hackathon 2026 - Impressions
Archive
Our 3rd curAHack was themed: Innovate the Future of Life Science and Medicine
On March 23 and 24, 2026, curAHack took place once again as an interdisciplinary hackathon, this time at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern. Around 25 participants took part to tackle current challenges at the intersection of the life sciences, medicine, and artificial intelligence.
This year’s challenges also covered a broad range of topics: from improving the resolution of cell cycle phases by combining single-cell RNA and chromatin data, to the targeted investigation of weaknesses in AlphaFold predictions, to AI-assisted analysis of ultrasound images. Another team worked on a machine learning model to predict individual cardiovascular risk based on microbiome data. The challenges were proposed by the curATime core partners.
Once again this year, prior knowledge of bioinformatics was not the main focus. Rather, curAHack once again provided a platform for interdisciplinary exchange, creative problem-solving, and collaborative work on innovative solutions. Participants discussed, programmed, and brainstormed during several intensive team sessions. Shared breaks and lunches also provided opportunities for networking and interdisciplinary exchange in an open and collaborative atmosphere.
The event concluded on Tuesday afternoon with presentations of the challenge results and the award ceremony for the best solution. This year, Challenge 3—“Rethinking Ultrasound”—from DFKI emerged as the winner. The team impressed with an approach to weakly supervised segmentation of cardiac and vascular ultrasound images. The goal of the project was to reduce the high effort required for pixel-accurate annotations by training the model using only a few point markers instead of complete segmentation masks. This was intended to enable efficient and robust image analysis.
We can conclude: In addition to innovative ideas, exciting potential solutions emerged in a short period of time within a dedicated and collaborative work environment.
TFMed 2026
Archive
A Showcase for Cross Clustering and Translation
As a proud co‑organiser, curATime looks back on TFmed 2026 as a strong example of how collaboration across innovation clusters can amplify scientific progress. The joint organisation with the Clusers4Future PROXIDRUGS and CNATM highlighted complementary expertise in RNA technologies, drug development, and translational research, creating a unique environment for interdisciplinary dialogue.
The conference programme reflected this diversity, covering a broad spectrum of therapeutic frontiers — from novel nucleic acid–based modalities and delivery technologies to immunology, oncology, and disease‑driven translational approaches. TFmed thus served not only as a conference, but as a living interface between discovery, development, and application.
TFmed 2026 featured particularly strong engagement from the curATime core partners, including TRON, University Medical Center Mainz, and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Their scientific contributions underlined the depth and breadth of expertise within the curATime consortium and its commitment to translation‑driven research.
The conference also marked an important milestone for curATime Phase 2, with active participation from new partners joining the cluster. Inspiring talks and poster presentations by Robert Zweigerdt (Hannover Medical School), as well as Boris Greber and Thomas Berger (Catalent), added valuable perspectives and further enriched the scientific discussions.
curATime extends its sincere thanks to Ivan Đikić, Johnny Kim, and Stefan Engelhardt for bringing people together and helping shape TFmed into a vibrant platform that goes beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
We are proud to host the next TFmed, 2028 in Mainz!
