Self-Organization in Biology: Freiburg Spemann-Mangold Centennial Symposium celebrates 100 years of scientific advances rooted in Hilde Mangold’s and Hans Spemann’s discovery of the gastrula organizer in vertebrate development, published in 1924 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935.

It builds a bridge to today’s molecular and cellular understanding self-organization in developing systems, including gastrulation, stem cell organoids, morphogen gradients, invertebrate systems, Evo-Devo, and emerging fields deriving from the discovery of embryonic induction.

Conference topics

Abstracts for talks and posters are invited on the following topics. They should be submitted using the online abstract submission system.

Abstract Submission Deadline: 3 May 2024

 We encourage active participation in the symposium, and, if registration numbers may exceed symposium capacity, we may preferentially admit registrations with abstract submissions. A limited number of submitted abstracts will be selected for short talks, therefore please indicate if you wish to present an oral presentation.

• History of the organizer and of self-organizing systems
• The gastrula organizer
• Gastrulation cell behavior
• Pattern formation
• Signaling pathways in self-organizing systems
• Self-organization in morphogenesis
• Evo-Devo
• Organizing organoids and gastruloids
• From stem cells to synthetic organizers
• Self-organization in development
• Plant organizers