Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Ascona 2026

Mechanobiology of Infection

Program Schedule

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 8:30 – 12:00

Registration/Information

Reception Desk

Session IV

Adhesion and Force Sensing Chair: Alex Persat, EPFL, Switzerland

9:00 – 9:30

Joe Sanfilippo, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Bacterial Stress Responses and Surface Adhesion in Shear Flow Ashley Nord, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France Probing Spatiotemporal Electrochemical Dynamics on Single Bacterial Cells

9:30 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:30

Coffee Break

Sala Balint

10:30 – 10:45

Sergei Sukharev, University of Maryland, USA * Local Forces in Bacterial Environmental Adaptation

10:45 – 11:00

Rafael Bernardi, Auburn University, USA * Mechanical Stability Drives Adhesion and Virulence Evolution in Staphylococcus Aureus Khalid Salaita, Emory University, USA DNA Force Sensors Reveal the Role of Mechanical Forces in the Adaptive Immune Response

11:00 – 11:30

11:30 – 12:00

Enrique Rojas, New York University, USA Physical Factors Underlying Rod-Shaped Morphogenesis

12:00– 14:00

Lunch

Sala Luce

14:00 – 19:00

Free Time

19:00 – 20:30

Dinner

Sala Luce

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

8:30 – 17:00

Registration/Information

Reception Desk

Session V

Mechanobiology of Bacterial Cell Growth and of the Envelope Chair: Daria Bonazzi, Institut Pasteur, France

9:00 – 9:30

Morgan Delarue, Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (LAAS), France Confined Growth Induces Robust Yeast-To-Hyphal Transition in Candida Albicans Bart Hoogenboom, University College London, United Kingdom * Mechanical Forces as A Tool to Decipher Bacterial Resistance and Death

9:30 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:30

Coffee Break

Sala Balint

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