November 11, 2025
We had the honor to host
A/Prof. Inês Pires Silva from Champalimaud Foundation, who gave a talk on
“From lab to bedside: how translational research can inform clinical practice?”
Dr. Anette Hammes from Max Delbruck Center, who gave a talk on
“The Heart’s Sense of Touch: Building Arteries Through Mechanosensation”
A/Prof. Inês Pires Silva Short Bio
A/Prof Inês Silva, MD FRACP PhD is a Medical Oncologist and Senior Researcher at Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney, and Champalimaud Foundation. She received her MD degree at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal) and completed specialist training in Medical Oncology at Instituto Português de Oncologia (Lisbon, Portugal). She did her PhD at Bhardwaj Lab (part of Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group and New York University [NYU] Cancer Institute, New York, United States of America) in tumor immunology, describing how the dysfunction of the protective innate immune mechanisms, including NK cells, can contribute towards melanoma progression. She did two clinical fellowships in melanoma, one at NYU Cancer Institute (2014), and more recently, at Melanoma Institute Australia (2017-2019) where she was co-investigator in phase I, II and III clinical trials (neoadjuvant, adjuvant and metastatic) in melanoma. Ines has presented her research work in several meetings (SMR, ESMO) and oral presentations at SITC, AACR, ASCO and ESMO; and she got the best poster award at ESMO 2019 and Cancer Conquer merit award in 2019, 2020 and 2021, including the Bradley Stuart Beller Endowed Merit Award for the highest ranking ASCO abstract overall (2020). She has over 50 publications, including 1st author publications in Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Cell, NEJM and JITC, amongst others, senior author in JITC publication, and co-author of publications in Cancer Cell and JCI on the field of melanoma and immuno-oncology. Her main research interests are (1) Biomarkers of response to immunotherapy and targeted therapy in melanoma; (2) Mechanisms of innate and adaptive resistance with immunotherapy; (3) Patterns of metastization and patterns of response to immunotherapy; (4) Mechanism of toxicity with immunotherapy.
Dr Anette Hammes Short Bio
Annette Hammes-Lewin is a group leader at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Berlin, Germany. She obtained her Diploma in Biology from the University of Bonn in 1993 and completed her doctoral degree in Cardiovascular Biology at the University of Würzburg in 1997.
Following her doctorate, she joined the Max Delbrück Center as a postdoctoral fellow, where she investigated cardiovascular, urogenital, and brain development. From 2007 to 2010, she was awarded a Helmholtz-Delbrück Research Fellowship at the MDC’s Neuroscience Department, followed by a Junior Group Leader position from 2011 to 2016. Since 2017, she has led an independent research group at the MDC investigating the pathomechanisms that lead to disorders affecting the developing brain, craniofacial tissue, and heart.
She is an active member of the International Society of Neuroscience and the Society for Developmental Biology. In addition to her research, she regularly serves as a reviewer for major national and international funding organizations, including the DFG (Germany), MRC (UK), Czech Science Foundation, and Fondation Maladies Rares (France). She also reviews for numerous scientific journals and contributes to Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology as a Guest Editor and Editorial Board Member.