We cordially invite you to attend the KBC DAYS 2025 conference with the main theme "Bridging Scales: from Quantum to Cosmos" on 11-12 November!
Registration is closed
28 October 23.59 - registration deadline for the KBC DAYS 2025.
22 October - deadline for PhD students to express their interest in presenting their projects.
31 October - abstract submission deadline for PhD students' presentations.
When: Tuesday, 11 November - Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Where: Carl Kempe salen (KB.E3.03) (MAP) and other locations at KBC
We invite you to participate in KBC DAYS, an annual interdisciplinary conference. This conference aims to foster collaborations between different departments and research centres affiliated with the Chemical Biological Centre, KBC, including departments from two faculties of Umeå University and the Faculty of Forest Sciences, SLU.
The scientific theme this year will be "Bridging Scales: from Quantum to Cosmos", providing a framework for discussions on different scales of scientific research and interpreting and using research results across scales and dimensions. We also wanted to highlight that this year is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ 2025). We welcome you to listen to the keynote lectures and other presentations focused on the scientific theme of this year's KBC DAYS! We also hope that the local speakers can relate to this theme and start their talks by identifying the temporal and spatial scales at which their research operates.
We welcome newcomers, longer-term KBC residents and other curious researchers to learn or update themselves about the research infrastructures available at KBC and Campus Umeå, get to know more about their services and join the guided tours to their facilities or drop in to their "stations" to discuss potential projects!
You will also gain insights into what happened at KBC during the previous year by listening to exciting scientific talks from new faculty members of the KBC environment, awardees and researchers who received large grants in the past year, presentations by PhD students and activities organised by the Umeå Postdoc Society (UPS)!
As usual, the KBC DAYS will bring researchers from different departments and scientific disciplines together, offering numerous opportunities to network, participate in engaging discussions, and generate new ideas and collaborations!
Clarice D. Aiello, Founder of the Quantum Biology Ecosystem, CSO of the Quantum Biology Institute, USA
Clarice is a quantum engineer interested in how quantum physics informs biology at the nanoscale. Born and raised in Brazil, Clarice obtained a Diplome d'Ingenieur in Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in France and an M.Phil. in Physics from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, in England; she received her Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical Engineering. She further held postdoctoral appointments in Bioengineering at Stanford, and in Chemistry at Berkeley.
Webpage: https://www.quantumbiology.org/
Sven Adler, Associate Professor, Department of Forest Resource Management; Division of Landscape Analysis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå, Sweden
Sven Adler – Associate Professor of Biology – studied mathematics and biology at the University of Rostock and then completed his PhD on the use of diatoms as bioindicators in paleoecology. After earning his doctorate, he joined the University of Kiel, where he supported PhD students in designing their studies and analysing their data, with a focus on marine birds and mammals in the North and Baltic Seas.
In the autumn of 2011, Adler began working at SLU in Umeå on the EU LIFE project MOTH – Monitoring of Terrestrial Habitats – working on a two-stage monitoring design to locate rare habitat types using remote-sensing data. In subsequent projects, he increasingly combined national monitoring datasets with remote-sensing products, applying different ecosystem-service frameworks and machine-learning methods. In collaboration with the Sámi Parliament and the Swedish Forest Agency, he produced in 2019 the first reindeer-lichen map for northern Sweden. Since 2021, Adler has led the National Alpine Vegetation Monitoring Project (NILSfjäll), where he is testing the integration of diverse remote-sensing platforms, novel field-work techniques (drones) and machine-learning methods to optimize filed data collection in the Swedish alpine environments.
Webpage: https://publications.slu.se/?file=pers/show&cid=307326
Stephanie Werner, Professor, Department of Geosciences, Centre for Planetary Habitability, University of Oslo, Norway
Stephanie C. Werner is a planetary scientist and geophysicist with a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). Her research interests is Comparative Planetology, and combines planetary dynamics, formation and evolution of (exo-)planetary systems, cratering chronology, cratering processes, remote sensing of earth and other planets and potential field data analyses. She is member of several mission consortia studying Mars, Venus and exoplanets. Currently Dr. Werner leads the Centre for Planetary Habitability, a centre of excellence at the University of Oslo, that is to investigate how have Earth’s physical and chemical attributes, and thus our planet’s proclivity for life, evolved, and how can we recognize distant worlds around other stars that have been or could be habitable?
Webpage: https://www.mn.uio.no/geo/english/people/aca/phab/stephaw/
Time in the programme is Central European Time (CET), e.g. Stockholm, Umeå
Note! The programme is under construction, preliminary and subject to change
8.30 Registration and poster mounting
and coffee
(Chairperson: Stefan Björklund)
9.00 Welcome
Stefan Björklund
Scientific Coordinator of KBC
9.05 Opening KBC DAYS 2025
Thomas Olofsson
Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Umeå University
9.15 Shaping the next generation of researchers in infection biology: NDPIA and NDP-VIP
Annasara Lenman
National coordinator NDPIA and NDP-VIP, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University
9.25 KEYNOTE LECTURE I: “Quantum Biology”: How nature might be optimized to harness quantum mechanics
Clarice D. Aiello
Founder of the Quantum Biology Ecosystem, CSO of the Quantum Biology Institute
10.10 Coffee break
Chairperson:
10.40 Positive strand RNA virus replication – why the most interesting questions are still unanswered
Lars-Anders Carlson
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics and Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University
10.55 Resolving microbial genomes in complex communities at the single-cell level
Laura Carroll
Department of Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University
11.10 Integrated Multi-Trophic Farming: circularity and challenges
Olivier Keech
Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University
11.25 Development and prospect of hollow-core optical fiber
Max Yan
Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University
11.40 Cuticle and apical hook development in Arabidopsis
Stephanie Robert
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
12.00 Lunch break
Chairperson:
13.00 Elevator talk presentations by PhD students (2 min each), Part 1
1. Burning Question: Where Does Chromium Hide in Bottom Ash?
Jeenu Jegy, Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University
2. ELEVATE – Implementing new technologies into alpine vegetation monitoring programs
Arvid Sjöberg, Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU Umeå
3. Light-dependent modulation of sustained quenching during overwintering in Pinus koraiensis seedlings
Mingyu Liu, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC), Umeå University
4. TBA
13.10 KEYNOTE LECTURE II: Integrating Environmental Ground Monitoring and Remote Sensing Using Machine Learning: Promising Advances and Key Challenges
Sven Adler
Department of Forest Resource Management, Division of Landscape Analysis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
13.55 Elevator talk presentations by PhD students (2 min each), Part 2
5. TBA
6. TBA
7. TBA
8. TBA
14.05 Poster presentations by PhD students and research infrastructures
and Coffee
Chairperson:
15.00 Using crystals to track the Earth's past climate extremes
Morgan Jones
Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience, Umeå University
15.15 Nanostructured carbon materials for removal of actinides from industrial waste solutions
Alexandr Talyzin
Department of Physics, Umeå University
15.30 Methane emissions from northern rivers: from microbial to planetary scales
Gerard Rocher Ros
Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience, Umeå University
15.45 Optical bio-manipulation of cells, vesicles and single molecules
Pól Martin Bendix
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
16.15 Gut microbial modulation of intestinal mucus function
Björn Schröder
Department of Molecular Biology and Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University
16.30 Poster viewing and mingling before the dinner starts
16.45 KBC Ping-Pong Tournament Semi-Finals and the Final (in Stora Fokusrummet)
18.00 Dinner
- Announcement of the PhD student presentation prize winners
- Announcement of the KBC Employee of the Year
- Award ceremony for the KBC Ping-Pong Tournament winner
8.30 Coffee
Chairperson:
9.00 From research to benefit for society
Johan Nordlund
IP- and innovation lawyer, The Innovation Office, Umeå University
Programme organised by UPS
9.15 The forest value chain – from seeds to trees where STEM sees
Christian Kugge
Research specialist, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) R&D
9.35 Panel discussion
Moderator:
Panel members:
Eric Capo, Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience
Laura Bacete, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC), Umeå University
Max Renner, Department of Chemistry, Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR)
Paulina Wanrooji, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Ryo Morimoto, Department of Molecular Biology, Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS)
Verena Kohler, Department of Molecular Biology
10.35 Coffee break
Chairperson: Linda Sandblad
10.55 Start of a live experiment by electron microscopy – “Bridging scales”
11.05 Overview and news from KBC research infrastructures – Local and National facilities in one building
Linda Sandblad
Director of Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy and SciLifeLab Site Umeå, Umeå University
11.15 Research Infrastructure at Translational Research Centre in 6M
Ola Billing
Department of Diagnostics and Intervention, Umeå University
11.25 TBA
Marcus Wallin
Director of the national infrastructure SITES (The Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science)
11.35 Combining lab-sources and synchrotron X-rays: Need, strategies and future
Mahesh Ramakrishnan
TEC Lab, Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University and Guest Researcher – MAX IV
11.45 National unique research infrastructure to elevate your research
Linda Sandblad
Director of Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy and SciLifeLab Site Umeå, Umeå University
12.00 Posters by Research Infrastructures
and
standing lunch
13.00 Posters by Research Infrastructures (continued) and
Guided tours to infrastructure facilities /drop-in discussions with infrastructure representatives
Chairperson:
13.30 KEYNOTE LECTURE III: Exoplanets, near and far, small and rare, large and plenty?
Stephanie Werner
Centre for Planetary Habitability, University of Oslo
14.15 Precision spectroscopy using optical frequency combs
Aleksandra Foltynowicz Matyba
Department of Physics, Umeå University
14.30 Coffee break
Chairperson:
14.45 Why the Arctic Matters – Communicating Science to Make an Impact
Keith Larsson
Director of the Arctic Centre at Umeå University and Coordinator of the Climate Impacts Research Centre, Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience, Umeå University
15.00 Disarming Fusobacterium nucleatum: Development of FadA Inhibitors to Enhance Immunotherapy and Reduce Tumor Burden in Colorectal Cancer
Fredrik Almqvist
Director of the Umeå Center for Microbial Research, UCMR, Department of Chemistry, Umeå University
15.15 Efficient genome editing in worms
Changchun Chen
Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University
15.30 Concluding remarks
Stefan Björklund
Scientific Coordinator of KBC
- Announcement of photo contest winner
Information about and pre-registration for the various activities organised in the frame of this year's KBC DAYS will be available on this webpage soon. Stay tuned for the email and digital screen announcements!
Registration is closed
Send your nomination letter to info.kbc@umu.se by 6 November
Submit your photos by 9 November and vote for your favourite images during the KBC DAYS.
26 November 2025. Registration deadline: 21 November
Scientific Organisers
Stefan Björklund, Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Scientific Coordinator of KBC, Umeå University
Anna Strandberg, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University
Benedicte Albrectsen, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University
Lars-Anders Carlson, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University
Madhusree Mitra, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, SLU, and Umeå Postdoc Society (UPS)
Morgan Jones, Associate Professor, Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience, Umeå University
Nicolò Maccaferri, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Umeå University
Ryo Morimoto, Research Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology and Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University
Conference Organisers
Stefan Björklund, Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Scientific coordinator of KBC, Umeå University
Anna Shevtsova, Communications Officer, KBC, Umeå University
Ingrid Söderbergh, Research coordinator, Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR), Umeå University
Irina Iakovleva, Research coordinator, Bio4Energy and Department of Chemistry, Umeå University
Ainhoa Querejeta, Coordinator, SciLifeLab Site Umeå
Agrisera is sponsoring the best elevator pitch presentation prize
Agrisera video presentation:
Agrisera - Your local antibody and reagent supplier
Our sponsoring companies have the opportunity to present themselves and their products at a table in the mingling area during the two days of the conference.
Anna Shevtsova, PhD, Communications officer, KBC
E-mail: info.kbc@umu.se, anna.shevtsova@umu.se
Tel. +46 (0)70 547 2672
Visiting Address: KBC-building, KB.J3(C3.25.25), Linnaeus väg 6, 90736 Umeå
