Decoding the Raw Materials of Life

Decoding the Raw Materials of Life Spatial Transcriptomics, CRISPR Gene Editing, and AI for the Life Sciences

Join us for an exciting day of scientific discovery, innovation, and hands-on learning at EMBL Rome!
Participants will have the opportunity to learn from experts across multiple disciplines, explore emerging technologies, and engage with real-world research applications shaping the future of life sciences.
Bringing together researchers, students, and professionals, this event will showcase cutting-edge advances in life sciences through:

• scientific presentations on Epigenetics, Neuroscience and AI in Life Sciences
• interactive workshops covering Spatial Transcriptomics, CRISPR Gene Editing, and AI Agents for Life Science Research.

SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS:

– New tools and technologies for understanding social behavior (Cornelius Gross)
– Engineering the (Epi)genome with CRISPR technology (Jamie Hackett)
– Co-scientist agents and physical AI for scientific discovery (Fabio Petroni)

INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS:

The workshops will run in parallel, and participants will be asked to choose one of them:

• Seeing Genes in Space: An Introduction to Spatial Transcriptomics (Elena Emili, Alvaro Crevenna, Erika De Sensi, Josefina Sulis)

Spatial transcriptomics is a new class of technologies that allows researchers to measure gene expression while preserving the spatial organization of cells within tissues. By combining microscopy and molecular biology, these approaches provide unprecedented insight into how tissues develop, function, and change in disease.

In this interactive workshop, participants will be introduced to the fundamental concepts of gene expression, cell identity, and tissue organization. Through microscopy demonstrations and the exploration of real spatial transcriptomics datasets, they will learn how images and sequencing data can be combined to generate molecular maps of tissues. The workshop is designed to stimulate discussion and provide a first exposure to modern biomedical research.

• CRISPR project design and AAV template delivery (Neil Humphreys, Michela Ascolani, Adriana Castillo)

This workshop aims to give a clear understanding of the principles for designing a CRISPR gene editing strategy. To both functionally knock-out a gene and to knock-in additional DNA sequence into the genome.

The workshop will consist of short introductory presentations followed by practical, instructor-led projects to design CRISPR strategies, from gRNA selection and DNA template delivery to downstream validation.

NB: Participants should bring their own computer and a download copy of SnapGene Viewer.

• AI Agents in the Life Sciences (Fabio Petroni, Luigi Sigillo, Matteo Silvestri)

This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to the emerging role of AI agents in life science research. We will discuss how autonomous AI systems can support scientific workflows by interacting with tools, databases, and computational resources to automate complex research tasks.

The session will combine short presentations with practical demonstrations and interactive exercises. Participants will explore recent advances in reasoning models, agent frameworks, and tool integration, with examples focused on biomedical and life science applications.

NB: Participants should bring their own laptop computers.

Please note that registrations are now closed.