The ISMB held their biennial meeting as part of IOP's SynSci 2026 Conference in Glasgow
I attended some of the talks & will add Sketchnotes, where I am allowed, over the next weeks. Due to the hugely attractive alternative parallel sessions I am sorry not to have been able to attend more, but.
Monday 13.7.2026 Plenary Session
Ardem Patapoutian, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Scripps Research
"May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology"
Claire Walsh, University College London
"The human organ atlas as a resource for open biomedical research"
Patricia Osseweijer, Delft University of Technology
Innovation for global justice
Tuesday 14.7.2026 am Advanced Tools for Multiscale Mechanobiology
Chwee Teck Lim, NUS, Mechanobiology Institute, National, University of Singapore
Decoding the Mechanoresilience of Circulating Tumor Cells
Decoding the Mechanoresilience of Circulating Tumor Cells
Giuliano Scarcelli, University of Maryland
Brillouin microscopy for cell and tissue biomechanics
Brillouin microscopy for cell and tissue biomechanics
Quantification of cell-ECM 3D forces at the fiber level
Miguel Dias Castilho, Eindhoven University Of Technology / Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Engineered mechanical heterogeneity through light-sheet grayscale volumetric bioprinting enables spatial and temporal control of cellular fate
Andrew Holle, NUS, Singapore
High-Throughput Confined Migration Reveals a Molecular Signature of Physical Confinement
Marco Fritzsche, Rosalind Franklin Institute and Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford
T cells are blind to the dark mechanics of tumours
Tomaso Zambelli
Electrical and Mechanical Characterization of Mono- and Bilayers of hiPSC Cardiomyocytes
Dr Alex Koch, University Of Manchester
Single-Molecule Mechanosensing Beyond FRET Using Synthetic PEG Sensors in the ECM
Tuesday 14.7.2026 pm Nuclear Mechanobiology
Tobias Zech, University of Liverpool
Nuclear force feedback as rheostat for actomyosin tension control
Hawa Racine Thiam, Stanford University
How does nuclear mechanobiology shape neutrophil functions?
Dr. Carmelo Ferrai, UMG, Genova, Italy
The Interaction with Nanotopographical Environment regulates nuclear mechanoresponse in mESCs via Histone Demethylase KDM3A
Cristina Cortesi, Politecnico Di Milano
Disentangling microenvironmental dimensionality and architecture in stem cell mechanobiology
Prof. Andra C. Dumitru
Metabolic stress tunes nuclear viscoelasticiy
Wednesday 15.7.2026 am Cell Mechanics Across Length Scales
Victoria Sanz-Moreno, The Institute of Cancer Research
Physico-chemical signals driving metastatic behaviour
Matthieu Piel, Institute Curie
Water content in the cell and the nucleus
Dr Vito Conte, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)
Using ECM viscoelasticity to regulate cardiomyocytes’ beating dynamics in vitro.
laria Tonazzini, Nanoscience Institute, National Research Council (CNR), Pisa (Italy)
Neuronal mechanosensing in a neurodevelopmental disorder’ model
Alba Diz-Muñoz
EMBL
More than the sum: how composite interfaces govern function
Wednesday 15.7.2026 pm Mechanobiology of Development and Tissue Engineering 1
Pere Roca-Cusachs, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)
Mechanical regulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport
Rashmi Priya, The Francis Crick Institute
Morphogenesis in chaos: Building a beating heart
Dr Steph Höhn, University of Cambrige, DATMP
Spatially controlled tissue properties foster epithelial invagination
Dr. Juan Manuel Gomez, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Heidelberg
Macromolecular order controls tissue-specific mechanical state transitions during gastrulation.
Marine Luciano, University Of Mons
Mechanical response of epithelial tissues to curvature
Wednesday 15.7.2026 pm Mechanobiology of Ageing 2 & 3
Joe Swift, The University of Manchester
Mechanobiology of cellular senescence and ageing
Teodora Piskova, RWTH Aachen University
Age-associated mechanical reinforcement impairs phagocytosis in the retinal pigment epithelium
Samuele Giannoni
Adipose-derived stem cells from Alzheimer’s disease patients exhibit altered mechanotransduction associated with disease progression
Timo Zadegh Nazari-Shafti, Baylor College of Medicine
Mechanoprotective Strategies to Rejuvenate Ageing Endothelium
Thursday 16.7.2026 am ECM Mechanobiology in Physiology and Disease 1
Valerie Weaver
University of California
Forcing inflammation to drive tumor initiation and progression
Jeremy Teo
New York University Abu Dhabi
Mechanical Barriers to Immunity: Collagen Fibril Alignment as a Determinant of Immunological Suppression and Exhaustion in the Tumor Microenvironment
Raquel Ruiz-Mateos Brea
Universidad de Sevilla
STIFFNESS-DRIVEN TRACTION FORCES PROMOTE COLLAGEN ALIGNMENT AND DIRECTIONAL MIGRATION IN 3D BREAST CANCER MODELS
Jonah Voigt
Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix Assembly on Viscoelastic Substrates
Haguy Wolfenson, Technion - Israel Institute Of Technology
Michael Sheetz, a tribute &
Inhibiting Enzyme-Mediated Fibronectin Fibrillogenesis – A Novel Route For Fibrosis Inhibition
Thursday 16.7.2026 am In vivo Mechanobiology 2 & Flash talks
Chris Chen, The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Biomedical Engineering at Boston Univers
TBC
Stephen Holtz, Harvard Medical School
Establishing a dynamic, subcellular understanding of mechanosensation using Drosophila antennal mechanosensors.
Maria Elena Fernandez Sanchez, Institut Curie
Mechanical activation of colon stem cells via magnetic and ultrasound stimulation
Flashh talks
Niklas Gampl, Max-planck-zentrum Für Physik Und Medizin
Mechanical regulation of neuroepithelial development
Mrs Catherine LEON
EFS Grand-Est, UMR_S1255 INSERM
YAP/TAZ deficiency in megakaryocytes impairs actomyosin function and increases platelet formation
You-Hsuan Liu
University Of Cambridge
In vivo nuclear envelope adaptation during cell migration across confining embryonic tissue environments
Oriol Nos Aguila
Impetux Optics SL
Subcellular viscoelasticity and dynamic force generation quantified with optical tweezers
Yuhong Jiang
University of Manchester
Assessing the differential impact of RAS mutations on tissue mechanics and tumour formation