On September 17, 9:00-17:00 hr, Utrecht University, RIVM and the Section Vaccinology of the KNVM will jointly organize the national Vaccine Symposium at the UMC-Utrecht in Utrecht, this year entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Vaccine Development”.

For this event, we will have 4 distinguished keynote speakers, in addition to several early-career speakers who will be selected from submitted abstracts.

 

Registration and abstract submission are open: 
Organizers: Cécile van Els, Jorgen de Jonge, Jeroen Langereis, Gorben Pijlman, Alice Sijts

 

Abstract submission deadline: August 27th 2026
Abstracts on all topics related to vaccinology are accepted.
When registered w/o abstract, an abstract can still be submitted later via email (below)
From the abstracts, four or five will be selected for 20-minute talks , with the focus on early career scientists.
Symposium registration deadline: September 10th 2026
Regular registration including lunch:                         € 25,00
Master student registration including lunch:            € 10,00
Keynote speakers on central theme:
Clara T Schoeder
Medical Faculty, Leipzig University, Germany
“Vaccine design with artificial intelligence tools – enabling rapid antigen discovery for pandemic preparedness”
Mark J.G. Bakkers
ForgeBio BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“AI-Guided Engineering of Stabilized Glycoproteins for Next-Generation Vaccines”
Johannes Textor
Medical BioSciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
“Artificial Immune Systems in Vaccine R&D”
Alex D. Yermanos
Center for Translational Immunology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Basel, Switzerland
“Leveraging artificial intelligence and bioinformatics to understand, predict, and engineer adaptive immune recognition”
Organizers: Cécile van Els, Jorgen de Jonge, Jeroen Langereis, Gorben Pijlman, Alice Sijts

 

Preliminary program:
 
08:50-09:20      Arrival, registration
09:20-09:30      Cécile van Els (Center for Infectious Disease Control, RIVM, Bilthoven, NL)
                               “Welcome”
                                                                                                       
SHORT TALKS  (i)                                                         Moderator: Jorgen de Jonge (Center for Infectious Disease Control, RIVM, Bilthoven, the Netherlands)
09:30-10:10        Selected abstracts
PART I  KEYNOTE ADDRESSES: AI IN VACCINE DESIGN 
Moderator: Gorben Pijlman (Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research,, the Netherlands)
10:10-11.00         Clara T Schoeder (Medical Faculty, Leipzig University, Germany)
“Vaccine design with artificial intelligence tools – enabling rapid antigen discovery for pandemic preparedness”
11:00–11:30         Coffee/tea break
11:30-12:20          Mark J.G. Bakkers  (ForgeBio BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
                               “AI-Guided Engineering of Stabilized Glycoproteins for Next-Generation Vaccines”
12:20–13:20        Lunch
PART II  KEYNOTE ADDRESSES: AI IN VACCINE IMMUNOLOGY
Moderator: Alice Sijts (Division Immunology, Depart. Biomolecular Health Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, Utrecht University, the Netherlands)
 
13:20-14:10         Johannes Textor  (Medical BioSciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
                               “Artificial Immune Systems in Vaccine R&D”
14:10-15:00         Alex D. Yermanos (Center for Translational Immunology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Basel, Switzerland)
                                “Leveraging artificial intelligence and bioinformatics to understand, predict, and engineer adaptive immune recognition”
15:00-15:20        Coffee/tea break
 
SHORT TALKS  (ii)                                                           Moderator: Jeroen Langereis (Department of Medical Immunology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
15:20-16:20         Selected abstracts
16:20-16:30        End of symposium ‘Wrap up’
16:30                     Networking drinks