We are looking forward to the second edition of the joint Matter to Life conference between the Sloan Foundation and the Max Planck School Matter to Life. The Max Planck School is thrilled to welcome the Sloan Foundation to the Bildungscampus in Heilbronn!
Venue
The conference takes place in the Forum of the Bildungscampus. Click here for a location map
Address: Bildungscampus 1, 74076, Heilbronn
The Forum is a 3-minute walk from the hotel.
Accommodation
Address
Premier Inn
Platz am Bollwerksturm 2
74072 Heilbronn
Check-in time: 15:00
Check-out time: 11:00
Breakfast at hotel will be provided between 7:00 and 9:00
Meals and Refreshments
Coffee, and lunch are provided throughout the conference. For details, see the agenda.
The conference dinner will take place on Tuesday, 09.06. at the Alte Reederei, Am Neckaruferpark 20, 74076 Heilbronn
Travel to Heilbronn
There are two airports near Heilbronn. The nearest airport is Stuttgart International Airport. From the airport, you take the S-Bahn to Stuttgart central station (Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof), where you can take the regional trains to Heilbronn main train station (Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof). The total trip takes 1.5 hours. We recommend to download the DB Navigator App for Apple or Android to check train and bus schedules.
The most well connected airport near Heilbronn is Frankfurt International Airport. The journey from Frankfurt airport to Heilbronn by train takes about 2.5 hours.
If you want to rent a car at the airport, there are several options on site but also to book in advance online in Stuttgart and in Frankfurt.
From Heilbronn Central Station, the Premier Inn Hotel is within walking distance (10 min). Alternatively, you can either use Google Maps or the DB Navigator app to check bus schedule or take a taxi to your accommodation.
Parking
There is a car park at Bollwerksturm directly next to the hotel (access via Mannheimer Straße). The cost is €12.00 per night/vehicle, and reservations are unfortunately not possible. Parking spaces are offered on a self-pay basis.
Contact
mattertolife.maxplanckschools.de
phone: Julia Ricken
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Each presentation slot consists of a 15-minute talk followed by 5 minutes of discussion
Tuesday 09.06.26 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:15 | Joachim Spatz & Ernie Glover | Opening Remarks |
| 09:15 - 09:35 | Frank Jülicher | tbd |
| 09:35 - 09:55 | Seraphine Wegner | Light Based Communication in Synthetic And Living Cells |
| 09:55 - 10:15 | Thomas Scheibel | tbd |
| 10:15 - 11:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Petra Schwille | Designing Key Functions for Minimal Cells |
| 11:20 - 11:40 | Dieter Braun | Homing in on the Origin of Life in the Lab |
| 11:40 - 12:00 | Karin Jacobs | Proteins, Vesicles, Bacteria: New Insights From Physics |
| 12:00 - 12:20 | Joachim Spatz | tbd |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch/ Poster Session | |
| 14:00 - 14:20 | Philip Kurian | Morphological Computational Capacity of Physarum Polycephalum |
| 14:20 - 14:40 | Nicholas Hud | Development of a Non-Natural System Capable of Open-Ended Evolution |
| 14:40 - 15:00 | Neal Devaraj | RNA Driven Formation of Synthetic Compartments |
| 15:00 - 15:20 | Pablo Sartori | Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Microbial Growth |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 - 16:20 | Sam Peng | tbd |
| 16:20 - 16:40 | Rebecca Schulman | Active Control of Biomolecular Condensates with Coupled Chemical Reactions |
| 16:40 - 17:00 | Markus Covert | |
| 17:00 - 17:20 | Wilhelm Huck | Exploring Prebiotic Reaction Space Using High Throughput Methods and Active Learning |
| 19:00 | Conference Dinner at Alte Reederei |
Wednesday, 10.06.26 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 9:30 | Erwin Frey | Emergence and Self-organisation in Biological Systems |
| 09:20 - 09:40 | Job Boekhoven | Genotype-Phenotype Coupling in Synthetic Cells |
| 09:40 - 10:00 | Patrick Oakes | Crosstalk Between Mechanics and Metabolism |
| 10:00 - 10:20 | Zhiyue Lu | tbd |
| 10:20 - 10:30 | Group Picture | |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Coffee Break / Poster Session | |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Roseanna Zia | Ribogenesis in Minimal Cells: Using AI to Accelerate Near-Atomistic Modeling |
| 11:20 - 11:40 | Jennifer Ross | Sculpting Energy and Entropy Landscapes in Biological Systems |
| 11:40 - 12:00 | Charlie Carter | Toward a Reflexive Set of Ancestral Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthtetase Genes Whose Translated Products Can Interpret Their Own Genes |
| 12:00 - 12:20 | Srigokul Upadhyayula | AI-Driven Cell Observatory to Explore the Dynamic Machinery Governing Life From Molecules to Organisms |
| 12:20 - 12:40 | Michael Murell | Optimization Principles in Living Systems |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch / Poster Session | |
| 14:00 - 14:20 | Kai Johnsson | tbd |
| 14:20 - 14:40 | Peer Fischer | Physical Tools to interact With Living Systems |
| 14:40 - 15:00 | Cecilia Garraffo | Finding Life in the Universe with AI |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Coffee Break / Poster Session | |
| 15:30 - 18:00 | Experimenta Visit |
Thursday, 11.06.26 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 9:20 | Anton Jackson-Smith/ Richard Murray | Developer Cells: A Modular, Extensible Chassis for Building Synthetic Cells |
| 09:20 - 09:40 | Milo Lin | Thermodynamic Limits of Biomolecular Computation |
| 09:40 - 10:00 | Ido Golding | Spatiality in the Bacterial Cell: Updates and Open Questions |
| 10:00 - 10:20 | Andrew Spakowitz | Physical Mechanisms Underlying the Programming and Reprogramming of Cell Behavior |
| 10:20 - 11:00 | Coffee Break / Poster Session | |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Michael Boutros | tbd |
| 11:20 - 11:40 | Anthony Hyman | tbd |
| 11:40 - 12:00 | Kerstin Göpfrich | tbd |
| 12:00 - 12:20 | Andrea Musacchio | Chromosome Segregation at the Nanoscale |
| 12:20 - 12:40 | Kata Adamala | Synthetic Minimal Cells that Pretend to be Real |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch / Poster Session | |
| 14:00 - 14:20 | David Baum | Multilevel Selection and the Emergence of Ecosystems of Cooperating Genetic Polymers |
| 14:20 - 14:40 | Ayusman Sen | tbd |
| 14:40 - 15:00 | Rein Ulijn | Supramolecular Peptide Systems that Aquire New Functions through Learning and Memory |
| 15:00 - 15:15 | Closing Remarks | |
| 15:15 - 16:00 | Coffee Break |