📢 4th IMMUPARKNET Annual Conference

We are pleased to present the final program of the 4th and final IMMUPARKNET Annual Conference, bringing together leading international researchers, clinicians and stakeholders in Parkinson’s disease and neuroimmunology research.

🔹 Friday, 12 June 2026

08:30 Registration opening for Management Committee (MC) meeting (MC members only).

09:00 MC meeting.

10:00 Coffee break – Registration opening for the general conference.

11:00 Welcome and IMMUPARKNET overview by Action Chair Cristoforo Comi, University of Piemonte Orientale (UPO), Novara, Italy.

11:15  Working groups update and wrap-up.

12:30 Lunch at Botanical Gardens, UC.

14:30 Coimbra landscape – Co-Chairs Cristoforo Comi, UPO and Frederico Pereira, Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra (FMUC), Portugal.

Opening lecture – Invited Speaker: João Malva, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal: “Ageing@Coimbra and CHAngeing Excellence Hubs: Quadruple helix-based networks to support brain research and healthy aging”.

15:00 Invited Speaker Manuel Santos, MIA-Portugal: “MIA-Portugal´s research strategy for healthy longevity”.

15:30 Invited Speaker: Sandra Morais-Cardoso, CIBB, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal: “The Role of Gut Immunity in Parkinson’s disease”.

16:00 Coffee Break.

16:30 Invited Speaker: Ana Sofia Morgadinho, neurologist at Hospital da Luz, Coimbra, Portugal: “Challenges and Opportunities in Research on Movement Disorders in Coimbra: Different Hospital Realities”.

17:00 Invited Speaker: Diogo Reis Carneiro, neurologist at ULS Coimbra and FMUC, Coimbra, Portugal: “Interoception in Parkinson’s Disease”.

17:30 End of day 1

 19:30 Welcome cocktail and Social Dinner (Refeitório do Seminário Maior)

🔹 Saturday, 13 June 2026

08:30 Registration opening

Invited Speakers. Chair: Ivanka Markovic, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia.

09:00 Vania Broccoli, CNR Institute of Neuroscience, Milan, Italy: “Engineering the immune response in Parkinson’s disease“.  

09:30 Feng Hefeng, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg: “Immune Aging and its gender-specific link to Parkinson’s Disease”.

10:00 Coffee break + poster session.

Invited Speakers. Chair: Cristoforo Comi. University of Piemonte Orientale (UPO), Novara, Italy.

10:30  Antonella Consiglio, University of Barcelona/IDIBELL, Spain: “Modeling non-cell-autonomous mechanisms in Parkinson’s disease using human stem cells”.

11:00 Alessio Di Fonzo, University of Milan and Foundation IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Neurology Unit, Milan, Italy: “How to use iPSCs-derived brain organoids to model neurological diseases”.

11:30 Alexia Polissidis, The American College of Greece Research Centre, Athens, Greece: “Decoding G2019S LRRK2-driven neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease”.

12:00 Guillaume Dorothée, INSERM, Paris, France: “T cell immunity in AD and other Tauopathies”.

12:30 Lunch at Botanicals Gardens, UC.

14:30 First stakeholder. Silvia Almeida, Accelbio, Portugal:“From Science to Solutions: Translating Research into Impactful Assets”.

15:00 Second stakeholder. Viktoriia Gerasymchuk, Clinical Lead at AC Immune, Lausanne, Switzerland: “Targeting alpha-synuclein in early Parkinson’s Disease: Phase 2 VacSYn trial of ACI-7104.056”.

15:30 Coffee break and poster session.

Invited Speakers. Chair: Augustas Pivoriūnas, State Research Institute Center for Innovative Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania.

16:00  Tiago Outeiro, University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany and  Universidade do Algarve, Portugal: “From biology to classification: understanding PD and related synucleinopathies”.

16:30 Giorgia Melli, Institute of Translational Research, Bellinzona, Switzerland: “Plasma-derived extracellular vesicles as biomarker for early Parkinson’s disease and their functional role in brain cells”.

17:00 Liliana Bernardino, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal: “MicroRNA-mediated regulation of neurodegeneration and regeneration in Parkinson’s disease models”.

17:30 Isabel Lastres-Becker, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain: “Pharmacological inhibition of SGK1 reprograms α–sinuclein-induced neuroinflammation and protects dopaminergic neurons in a Parkinson’s Disease mouse model”.

18:00 End of day 2

21:00 Old University by night with fado session.

🔹 Sunday, 14 June 2026

08:30 Registration opening

Invited Speakers. Chair: Action Vice-Chair Yasemin Gursoy-Ozdemir, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.

9:00 Muthuraman Muthuraman, Institute of Computer Science, University of Augsburg, Germany: “How to integrate biomedical technologies and deep learning into the study of immunity in PD”.

9:30 Joaquim Ferreira, CNS – Campus Neurológico, Lisbon, Portugal: “New Models of Care for Management of Parkinson’s Disease”.

10:00 Rhonda McFleder, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany: “Dissecting the Immune-Mediated Crosstalk along the Gut-Brain axis in PD“.

10:30 Coffee Break and Poster Session

Selected Oral Presentations. Chair: Paolo Solla, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.

11:00 Tommaso Schirinzi, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy: “Immunometabolic remodeling of early-stage Parkinson’s disease according to Alzheimer’s Disease copathology”.

11:20 Christa Noehammer, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria: “Multi-Omics Biomarkers for Therapy Response Prediction in Immune-Mediated Diseases”.

11:40 Marcello Manfredi, Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy: “Epilipids as Diagnostic Markers of Parkinson’s Disease”.

12:00 Elenamaria Pirovano, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy: “Modified Mediterranean Diet Effects on Parkinson’s Disease (MED-PARK): a single-centre randomised controlled trial protocol”.

12:20 Ariana Farrand, Michael J. Fox Foundation, New York, USA:” The Immune Consortium: outcomes to date. MJFF strategic goals for the coming years and synergies with IMMUPARKNET”.

12:40 Lunch at Botanical Gardens, UC.

Selected Oral Presentations. Chair: Kari Fladmark, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

14:30 Ana Margarida Vale, RISE-Heatlh UBI, Covilhã, Portugal: “Peripheral immune priming induces region-specific glial remodelling and attenuates dopaminergic neurodegeneration”.

14:50 Inês Silva, NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal: “A novel brain-on-chip to disclose polyphenol metabolites effects on neuroimmune crosstalk in Parkinson’s disease”.

15:10 Fourth Stakeholder. Paloma Fernandez, Cure Parkinson’s, Great Britain “Cure Parkinson’s as a stakeholder in Parkinson’s translational research”.

15:30 Fifth stakeholder. Tiago Outeiro, Young Parkies, Portugal: “Early-onset PD: empowering patients, changing lives”.

15:50 Coffee break and poster session

Special session on NLRP inflammasome inhibition. Chairs: Cristoforo Comi and Frederico Pereira.

16:20 Gennaro Pagano, Roche, Basel, Switzerland: “the Selnoflast trial”.

16:50 Bina Patel, University of Cambridge, Great Britain (online): “the DAPAPD trial”.

17:30 IMMUPARKNET closing remarks and Goodbye.