Developments in Protein Interaction Analysis
Secure your spot at DiPIA 2026
5–7 October 2026
This year, DiPIA 2026 will bring the global SPR community together in Berlin for a transformative experience. DiPIA is our global scientific forum dedicated to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and its applications within Biacore™ SPR systems.
Join us for three days of cutting-edge science, networking, and collaboration as we shape the future of protein interaction analysis.
What you can expect:
Standard entry tickets: €850
Tickets are strictly limited so act fast to secure your place. Fill in the form on this page to register for attendance. Our partners at Pro-SPR GmbH will be in touch to provide payment details and confirm your registration within 10 to 14 days.
This event is organized by Cytiva. The registration fee includes attendance to the event, light refreshments, the welcome reception and the gala dinner. You can find nearby hotel options using HotelMap. Registrant information will be passed on to our partners at Pro-SPR GmbH to help organize this event and provide a smoother experience for you. Information will not be used for any purpose outside of DiPIA 2026.
Topics include:
...and many more, please check back for the latest updates.
Scientific lecture details will be added as they are confirmed. Please check back for the latest updates.
Meet the speakers
| Time | Title | Speaker and company |
|---|---|---|
| 8:15 – 8:30 | Registration open | |
| 8:45 – 12:00 | Workshops | |
| Tag. Capture. Reuse - simplify your assay set up | Shannon Bryant / Eric Roush, Cytiva | |
| Small steps to improve small molecule assays | Cynthia Shuman / Christin Radon, Cytiva | |
| Key steps for data to be proud of | Mike Murphy / Néstor Santiago, Cytiva | |
| Regulatory ready analytical comparability/characterization tool—built for complex biologics | Anja Drescher / Lars Grossniklaus, Cytiva | |
| 12:00 – 1:15 | Light Lunch | |
| 1:15 – 1:30 | Opening remarks | |
| 1:30 – 3:00 | SPR from Discovery to mechanism | |
| From Design to mechanism: SPR-case study and cross method integration | Andrea Gohlke, AstraZeneca | |
| What Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) can do in early drug discovery | Jingjing Yang, Viva Biotech | |
| TBC | Jay Duffner, Frontier Medicines | |
| 3:00 – 3:30 | Break | |
| 3:30 – 5:30 | HTS and digital transformation in SPR | |
| Fly, you pools! – Enabling HTS by SPR through unique compound pooling | Herwin Daub, Proteros | |
| TBC | Ed DiNunzio, Merck | |
| Accelerating Screening of Small Molecules by SPR | Katrin Schaefer, Evotec SE. | |
| Developments in protein interactions analysis | Martin Teichert, Cytiva | |
| 5:30 – 7:00 | Poster session and refreshments | |
| 7:00 | Free evening in Berlin |
Scientific lecture details will be added as they are confirmed. Please check back for the latest updates.
Meet the speakers
| Time | Title | Speaker and company |
|---|---|---|
| 8:15 – 8:30 | Registration open | |
| 8:30 – 10:30 | Driving drug discovery decisions with SPR | |
| From hit to lead to lead to clinical candidate: Compound optimization driven by SPR analyses | Matthias Geyer, University of Bonn | |
| Targeting Y374-PKCδ Phosphorylation in triple negative breast cancer to overcome chemoresistance | Larissa Doughty, The University of Melbourne | |
| Enabling challenging drug discovery targets through SPR | Anna Hickey, MD Anderson Cancer Center | |
| SPR to interrogate binding of antibiotics to the bacterial outer membrane | Kerry Buchholz, Genentech | |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break and exhibition | |
| 11:00 – 1:00 | Next generation biologics | |
| Identification and characterization of binders to a cryptic and functional pocket of KRAS | Stephanie Katz, Novartis | |
| Advancing soluble TCR therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy | Petra Mlcochova, T-Therapeutics | |
| Allergen-specific nanobodies - tiny antibodies with great potential for allergy treatment | Sabine Flicker, Medical University of Vienna | |
| TBC | Luca Varani, Institute for Research in Biomedicine | |
| 1:00 – 2:30 | Lunch and posters | |
| 2:30 – 4:30 | Exploring frontiers in molecular recognition | |
| Exploration of calcium-regulated peptides | Malin Jonsson, Karolinska Institute | |
| TBC | Zhou Dai, AbbVie | |
| TBC | Stephen Rettie, Vilya | |
| Speed through synergy: using complementary biophysical technologies to accelerate discovery | Phil Addis, Sygnature Discovery | |
| 4:30 – 5:30 | Poster & Exhibition & Round table with R&D | |
| 7:00 - 10:00 | Gala dinner | The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin |
Scientific lecture details will be added as they are confirmed. Please check back for the latest updates.
Meet the speakers
| Time | Title | Speaker and company |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:30 | Registration open | |
| 8:30 – 10:30 | Advanced analytics with SPR | |
| Red meat allergy meets SPR: Glycan analysis of alpha-gal | Sebastian Friebe, Roche Diagnostics | |
| TBC | Masaru Muraoka, Chugai Pharma | |
| SPR in the construction and validation of a biosimilar mAb | Ana Maria Moro, Butantan Institute | |
| Poster winner | ||
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break and exhibition | |
| 11:00 – 1:00 | Understanding induced proximity | |
| Applications of Surface Plasmon Resonance in PROTAC and MG drug discovery | Aina Urbina Teixidor, University of Dundee | |
| TBC | Anna Bonhoure, Novalix | |
| SPR-based insights into ternary complex formation | Pedro Sousa, iBET | |
| 12:30 – 1:30 | Lunch and posters | |
| 1:30 – 3:00 | SPR in manufacturing and quality control | |
| TBC | BJ Hoey, BMS | |
| Application of SPR in pharmaceutical testing: From CMC to QC | Johannes Beder/Nicklas Skjoldager, Novo Nordisk | |
| TBC | Ayana Nagatani | |
| 3:00 – 3:30 | Closing remarks | Tim Bervoets, Cytiva |
Viva Biotech, China
Jingjing Yang is the Director of the Biology Department at Viva Biotech, where he has led the company’s SPR platform since 2012. With more than 14 years of hands‑on expertise in protein interaction analysis, assay development, and screening technologies, he oversees a team of 25 scientists and guides SPR‑based collaboration with global partners.
Jingjing is recognized for his deep technical knowledge, his contributions to integrated drug discovery projects, and his commitment to advancing high‑quality SPR capabilities across the organisation.
iBET, Portugal
Pedro Sousa is a Principal Scientist at iBET (Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica). He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB), NOVA University of Lisbon, where he studied the characterization of prokaryotic aerobic respiratory chain supercomplexes.
For the past 12 years, he has coordinated the Molecular Interactions Platform within the Merck Healthcare KGaA satellite laboratory hosted at iBET. His work focuses on the characterization of molecular interactions using advanced biophysical techniques, particularly Surface Plasmon Resonance and Differential Scanning Fluorimetry, supporting early drug discovery. Current interests include the development of SPR assays to study ternary complex formation, as well as the characterization of small molecules and fragment libraries.
T-Therapeutics, United Kingdom
Project Leader and Senior Scientist II at T-Therapeutics with a strong experience in immunology, virology and molecular biology.
At T-Therapeutics we are passionate about research and innovations in T cell engineering and therapeutic development driving next-generation immunotherapies from concept to clinic.
AstraZeneca, United Kingdom
Dr. Andrea Gohlke is an Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca whose work focuses on biophysical characterisation and early-stage oncology drug discovery. She leads multidisciplinary teams advancing target validation and hit-to-lead efforts using methods such as SPR, ITC, and NMR, and has managed portfolio and new modality workflows.
Andrea has built internal and external collaborations, and contributed to multiple peer reviewed publications across medicinal chemistry and biophysics. She served on the Biophysical Society’s Publication Committee and holds the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) credential.
University of Dundee, United Kingdom
Aina Urbina Teixidor is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Ciulli Lab at the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD) at the University of Dundee. After completing her PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, she joined the Ciulli Lab in 2021 as a Medicinal Chemist within an industrial collaboration with Almirall, contributing to the discovery of degraders for skin diseases.
Since 2025, she has been part of the LITE (LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutics Exchange) Team, funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, where she leads high throughput chemistry efforts in PROTAC discovery and SPR based characterisation of ternary complexes to advance new therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s disease.
Novartis, Switzerland
University of Bonn, Germany
Matthias Geyer is the Director of the Institute of Structural Biology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn. His research focuses on the regulation and inhibition of transcriptional kinases and the human inflammasome to treat chronic diseases.
Matthias’s lab uses a wide variety of biochemical methods to determine protein-protein interactions, as well as interactions with lipids, nucleic acids, and small molecular ligands. In addition to crystallographic and microscopic approaches, he uses SPR spectroscopy for compound-binding identification and site-directed optimization. Matthias is a scientific co-founder of IFM Therapeutics Inc., working on NLRP3 antagonists.
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Sabine Flicker is a researcher at the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research of the Medical University of Vienna. She studied Biology/Genetics at the University of Vienna and obtained both her PhD and habilitation at the Medical University of Vienna. The highly competitive Hertha Firnberg Fellowship enabled Sabine Flicker to pursue her scientific career in a targeted way. Several additional grants supported her independent academic research and ultimately to secure her Associate Professorship in 2015.
Since starting her PhD, her work has focused on allergen–antibody interactions, with a particular emphasis on their immunological characterization. She recently discovered her research interest in allergen‑specific nanobodies and has since published her team’s latest findings and insights in high‑impact international journals. The aim of her research is to develop antibody/nanobody-based treatment and preventive approaches for allergic diseases. She is also strongly committed to mentoring enthusiastic students.
