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Symposium 13 September 2025 | Molecular Otology

08:30 – 09:30  Registration

09:30                  Opening, Anthony Gummer & Hubert Löwenheim
09:30 – 09:40  Welcome, Boris Palmer (Lord Mayor of Tübingen)
09:40 – 09:50  Welcome, Hendrik Rosewich (Speaker, Center for Rare Disease, Tübingen)
09:50 – 10:00  Welcome and Introduction to the Symposium, Hubert Löwenheim

10:00   Session 01:      Advanced Genetic Diagnostics, Drug Delivery and Drug Therapy
               
Moderators:    Ronald Pennings, Anke Tropitzsch

10:00 – 10:30  Eliot Shearer (Harvard University)
               "Diagnostic Evaluation for Hearing Loss in the Era of Gene Therapy”

10:30 – 10:50  Anil K. Lalwani (Columbia University)
               "Microneedle-Mediated Safe and Precise Inner Ear Delivery"

10:50 - 11:10  Christoph Arnoldner (Vienna University)
               "Drug Delivery Studies in the Large Animal Model Pig"

11:10 – 11:30  Jonathan Kil (Sound Pharmaceuticals)
               “Drug Development and Clinical Trials”

11:30 - 12:00              Round table
               
Moderators:    Pennings, Tropitzsch
               Panelists:         Shearer, Lalwani, Arnoldner, Kil

12:00 – 13:00              Lunch

13:00   Session 02:      Current Gene Therapy Trials
              Moderators:    Hinrich Staeker, Hubert Löwenheim

13:00 – 13:20  Géraldine Honnet (Sensorion)
                "SENS-501 Gene Therapy in Young Children with Severe to Profound Hearing Loss Due to Otoferlin Mutations"

13:20 – 13:40  Carleton E. Corrales (Regeneron)
                “Safety and Efficacy of DB-OTO Gene Therapy in Children with Profound Deafness due to Otoferlin Variants: Data from the CHORD Phase 1/2 Open-label Trial”

13:40 – 14:00  Aaron Tward (Akouos/Lilly)
                "Clinical Development of AK-OTOF Gene Therapy for OTOF-mediated Hearing Loss: Preliminary Results"

14:00 – 14:20  Yuxin Chen (Eye & ENT Hospital, Fudan University)
                "Gene Therapy vs Cochlear Implantation in Restoring Hearing Function and Speech Perception for Congenital Deafness Individuals"

14:20 - 15:00              Round table
               Moderators:    Staecker, Löwenheim
               Panelists:         Honnet, Corrales, Tward, Chen

15:00 – 15:30              Break

15:30   Session 03:      Stem Cell Therapies & Organoids
              
Moderators:    Athanasia Warnecke, Thore Schade-Mann

15:30 - 15:50  Heiko Locher (Leiden University Medical Center)
               "Mapping and Modeling the Human Inner Ear: RNA Atlases, Organoids, and Clinical Applications"

15:50 - 16:10  Pascal Senn (Geneva University)
               "From Regenerating Auditory Neurons To Drug Screening"

16:10 - 16:30  Marcelo Rivolta (Rinri Tx)
               “Recent Advances in the Development of a Pluripotent Stem-Cell Based Therapy for the Treatment of Hearing Loss”

16:30 - 17:00              Round table
               Moderators:    Warnecke, Schade-Mann
               Panelists:         Locher, Senn, Rivolta

17:00 - 19:00              Welcome reception
               at the Rooftop of the congress venue

Please click here for the detailed programme.