Programming the formation of synthetic tissues
Wendell Lim - University of California, San Francisco and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States of America

Engineering tissue architecture through microfabrication and polymer engineering
Milica Radisic - University of Toronto, Canada

Building the human embryo in vitro: one step at a time
Marta Shahbazi - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Coffee Break and Meet the Speakers in ATC Foyer with:
Wendell Lim - University of California, San Francisco and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States of America
Milica Radisic - University of Toronto, Canada
Dora Tang - Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
Christopher Chen - Boston University and Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, United States of America
Buzz Baum - University College London, United Kingdom

Synthetic cellularity
Dora Tang - Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany

Blue light switchable cell-cell interactions provide reversible and spatiotemporal control towards bottom-up tissue engineering
Seraphine Wegner - Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany

Making. Tissues. Function. How simple is complex enough?
Christopher Chen - Boston University and Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, United States of America

Coffee Break

Theoretical tool bridging cell polarities with development of robust morphologies
Silas Boye Nissen - University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Changes in gene expression shift and switch genetic interactions
Xianghua Li - Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain

Morphogenesis in evolved systems
Buzz Baum - University College London, United Kingdom

Dinner in EMBL Canteen

Coordination of progenitor specification and growth in the developing spinal cord
Anna Kicheva - Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Austria

Pattern formation by multi-species bacterial colonies with programmed population-to-population interactions
Jiandong Huang - The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Coffee Break

From circuits to organs: towards a dynamic computer simulation of limb development
James Sharpe - EMBL Barcelona, Spain

Mechanisms underlying robust tissue behavior in changing environments
Darren Gilmour - University of Zurich, Switzerland

Lunch and Meet the Speakers in ATC Foyer with:
Anna Kicheva - Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Austria
James Sharpe - EMBL Barcelona, Spain
Darren Gilmour - University of Zurich, Switzerland
Naama Barkai - Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Justin Crocker - EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Veronica Grieneisen - Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Session 3 - Gene expression dynamics/Gene circuits
Chair: Miki Ebisuya

Visualizing morphogen shuttling in the early Drosophila embryo
Naama Barkai - Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

An ab-initio derivation of the Drosophila gap gene system from an optimization principle
Thomas Sokolowski - Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Austria

Coffee Break and Meet the Editors in ATC Foyer with:
Kerstin Brachhold - Wiley, Germany
Gonzalo Cordova - Springer Nature, The Netherlands
Ieva Gailite - The EMBO Journal, Germany
Stefan Galander - The Company of Biologists, Unitked Kingdom
Thomas Lemberger - EMBO, Germany
Amos Matsiko - Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom
Martina Rembold - EMBO, Germany

Decoding development: from gene regulatory structure to function
Justin Crocker - EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

Coupling gene circuits through tissue polarity to achieve adaptive tissue responses
Veronica Grieneisen - Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Flash Talks Session I  
Sangram Bagh (abstract no. 39) - Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India
Cristina C. Barrias (abstract no. 41) - i3S-Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde; INEB-Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Portugal
Alazne Dominguez (abstract no. 53) - University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Luciano Marcon (abstract no. 65) - Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology, Spain
Jose Muñoz (abstract no. 71) - Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain
Jose Negrete Jr (abstract no. 75) - École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, Switzerland
Melinda Perkins (abstract no. 79) - University of California, Berkeley, United States of America

Dinner in the EMBL Canteen

The genetic blueprint of the mammalian embryo: a synthetic approach
Alfonso Martinez Arias - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Blastoids: blastocyst-like structures generated solely from stem cells
Nicolas Rivron - Hubrecht Institute and MERLN, The Netherlands

Coffee Break and Meet the Editors in ATC Foyer with:
Kerstin Brachhold - Wiley, Germany
Gonzalo Cordova - Springer Nature, The Netherlands
Ieva Gailite - The EMBO Journal, Germany
Stefan Galander - The Company of Biologists, Unitked Kingdom
Thomas Lemberger - EMBO, Germany
Amos Matsiko - Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom
Martina Rembold - EMBO, Germany

Dissecting human-specific brain development by studying single cell expression dynamics of great ape cerebral organoids
Sabina Kanton - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Human time vs. mouse time with in vitro segmentation clock
Miki Ebisuya - EMBL Barcelona, Spain and RIKEN BDR, Japan 

Lunch and Meet the Speakers in ATC Foyer with:
Meritxell Huch - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Alfonso Martinez Arias - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Miki Ebisuya - EMBL Barcelona, Spain and RIKEN BDR, Japan
Anne Grapin-Botton - DanStem, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 
Manuel Théry - Hôpital Saint-Louis, France
Michael Levin - Tufts University, United States of America

Session 5 - Mechanics
Chair: Veronica Grieneisen

Energy dissipation by molecular motors
Manuel Théry - Hôpital Saint-Louis, France

Topological transitions of epithelial surfaces
Keisuke Ishihara - Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany

Sequential bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells
Joachim Spatz - Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany

Coffee Break

Assembly of lung progenitors into developmentally-relevant tube structures drives differentiation patterning via cellular tension
Alison McGuigan - University of Toronto, Canada

Endogenous bioelectric circuits: morphological computation in real and synthetic organisms 
Michael Levin - Tufts University, United States of America

Flash Talks Session II 
Chaitanya Athale (abstract no. 38) - Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
Margaux Dastor (abstract no. 52) - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Ziyin Han (abstract no. 58) - Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory; National University of Singapore, Singapore
Alphy John (abstract no. 60) - University of Côte d'Azur, France
Iftach Nachman (abstract no. 72) - Tel Aviv University, Israel
Kristina Stapornwongkul (abstract no. 85) - Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom
Satoshi Toda (abstract no. 86) - University of California, San Francisco, United States of America
Melda Tozluoglu (abstract no. 87) - University College London, United Kingdom

Poster Session II (even numbers)
with beer and snacks

Optogenetic-guided tissue morphogenesis
Stefano De Renzis - EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

Circuits and devices for real-time control of cellular systems
Mustafa Khammash - ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Thermal activation of gene expression in 3D printed tissues
Daniel Corbett - University of Washington, United States of America

Coffee Break and Meet the Speakers in ATC Foyer with:
Stefano De Renzis - EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Mustafa Khammash - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Zev Gartner - University of California San Francisco, United States of America
Ron Weiss - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America

ESC differentiation on micro-patterned substrate to study Antero-Posterior axis formation in mouse and human
Benoit Sorre - Paris Diderot University, France

Building tissues to understand how tissues build themselves
Zev Gartner - University of California San Francisco, United States of America

Packed Lunch and Departure