Highlights from the StratNeuro Retreat 2026
The StratNeuro community gathered once again at Djurönäset on June 3rd-5th for three days of scientific presentations, discussions, workshops, and networking.
The StratNeuro Retreat has established itself as a much-anticipated event for the neuroscience community at KI. This edition opened with the biannual PhD student day dedicated to "Career Development and Networking", followed by the regular retreat programme. This year's edition brought together over 270 attendees for scientific presentations, discussions, and workshops, with multiple networking opportunities to foster collaboration.
PhD Student Day
The theme of this edition’s PhD student day was "Career Development and Networking". The day started with the presentation of the StratNeuro Student Council - an initiative aiming to strengthen the connection between StratNeuro and the neuroscience PhD students at KI, to ensure that future student-oriented initiatives are tailored to their needs and priorities. This presentation also highlighted benefits for Council members, such as developing new skills and networking, which were well in line with the topic of the day and the discussion panel that followed. We welcomed six panelists to share insights from their career paths and lessons learned, while discussing current trends and challenges in careers for PhDs: Ana Osorio Oliveira (Career Program Manager, KI Career Service), Chiara Zambarda (Scientist, BioArctic), Elena Hoffer (Entrepreneur, Alma.me), Karin Agerman (Senior Business Advisor, KI Innovation), Karin Jensen (Professor, CNS, KI), Pablo Lopez (Assistant Professor, Neuro, KI). After lunch, the PhD students attended workshops on entrepreneurship (with Karin Agerman) and writing (with Magnus Linton, IFFS), and took part in a participatory art piece with Anna Haglund. After this packed programme, it was time to relax, enjoy the surroundings, and mingle. A PubQuiz, organised by the Student Council, brought together the participants for a fun and engaging competition that closed the day.
Main Programme
The scientific programme featured keynote lectures from internationally recognised researchers alongside talks from leading national and international speakers. Our keynote speakers covered a remarkable range of topics: the neural basis of natural behaviours in bats (Nachum Ulanovsky, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), the “adaptive” immunity provided by microglia (Anne Schaefer, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Germany) and how a subpopulation of neurons contributes to spinal cord repair (Grégoire Courtine, EPFL, Switzerland). Beyond the keynotes, we had fascinating talks spanning multiple levels of neuroscience - from molecular mechanisms in neuroplasticity and autism, to the diversity and development of neuronal subpopulations in the midbrain, to systems-level questions around the perceptual integration of food cues, the intracardiac nervous system, and the crosstalk between sympathetic neural networks and the immune system in obesity. Parallel breakout sessions rounded out the programme, covering circuits to behaviour, biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases, computational neuroscience, and human brain imaging.
The retreat also offered plenty of opportunities for participants to connect in a relaxed setting. The poster blitz session gave 10 PhD students two minutes each to pitch their work, a fast-paced and fun session to spark curiosity and set the stage for deeper discussions later. The evening poster and mingle session, with over 150 posters on display, brought the attendees together for an evening of exchange and mingling.
NeurotechEU
We welcomed small delegations from partner institutions of the NeurotechEU, the European University of Brain and Technology. Their attendance and contributions further enriched the diversity and expertise at the retreat.
Prize Winners
To wrap up, the winners of the Best Poster Blitz and Best Poster were announced. The audience voted for the Best Poster Blitz winners, while a panel of judges selected the Best Poster winners among PhD student posters. This year's poster judges were: Alessandro Furlan (Neuro, KI), Anna Marseglia (NVS, KI), Cristiana Cruceanu (FyFa, KI), Granville Matheson (CNS, KI), Janina Seubert (CNS, KI), Karl Carlström (Labmed, KI), Li-Ju Hsu (Neuro, KI), Michael Ratz (CMB, KI), Olivia Thomas (CNS, KI), Pawel Herman (KTH), Roberta Filograna (MBB, KI), Sara Pudas (UmU).
The winners of the Best Poster Blitz:
Noa Čemeljić, Department of Neuroscience: Somatosensory perception is temporally modulated during movements to self-touch.
Simona Serra, Department of Neuroscience: Annexin A1 and Ac2–26: New Antimicrobial Agents with Neuroprotective Potential in Bacterial Meningoencephalitis.
The winners of the Best Poster:
Joana Catarino, Department of Neuroscience: Dynamics of the PFC-Striatum pathway in cognitive flexibility.
Yuk Kit Charles Lor, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics: Deciphering the Concentric Lesion Architecture in Baló Concentric Sclerosis Through Spatial Gene Profiling.
StratNeuro Retreat 2026 Program
Acknowledgements
We want to thank all the members of the organising committee for their efforts in making this edition a great success: Jens Hjerling-Leffler, Pablo Lopez, Johan Lundström, Konstantinos Meletis, Mariline Mendes Silva, Emanuela Santini, and Laura Sardon Puig.
We also want to thank Leslie Lafouasse, our photographer, for her fantastic work in documenting the Retreat.
And we want to thank everyone who contributed to making the StratNeuro Retreat 2026 a success, and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!