The Power of Collaboration
The 12th UBC Symposium
Friday 2 October at 8:30h at Hogeschool Utrecht
UBC Symposium - The Power of Collaboration
We are pleased to announce the 12th UBC Symposium: The Power of Collaboration, taking place on Friday 2 October 2026 as part of Utrecht Science Week.
Join us at Hogeschool Utrecht (University of Applied Sciences Utrecht), Padualaan 101, Utrecht, for a day of inspiring talks, networking, and knowledge exchange within the Utrecht bioinformatics community.
Registration is now open and free of charge. We encourage participants to submit a poster abstract to showcase their research, connect with colleagues, and compete for the UBC Poster Prize.
We are currently finalizing the programme, so save the date, register, and stay tuned for more details.
Preliminary program
08:30 — Registration
09:00 — Welcome by the UBC Executive Board & HU
09:15 — Keynote dr. Saskia Haitjema
09:45 — Keynote dr. Halima Mouhib
10:15 — Coffee Break
10:45 — Pitch Talks A
12:00 — Lunch
13:00 —Keynote dr. Justin van der Hooft
13:30 — Keynote dr. Jasmijn Baaijens
14:00 — Poster Session
15:00 — Coffee Break
15:30 — Pitch Talks B
16:45 — Closing Ceremony & Awards
17:00 — Drinks & Networking
University of Applied Sciences Utrecht
Padualaan 101, 3584 CH Utrecht
Keynote speakers
Jasmijn Baaijens is a bioinformatician and assistant professor at TU Delft with a focus on pathogen genomics. She develops algorithms and software to leverage sequencing data for reconstructing microbial genomes, enabling the characterization of pathogen diversity in patient or community samples. With a background in mathematics, she earned her PhD in viral genomics at CWI and expanded her expertise in bacterial genomics during a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. She is also a member of the European Virus Bioinformatics Center and advocates for gender equality in academia through mentorship and outreach initiatives.
Keynote talk
Talk abstract will follow soon!
Saskia Haitjema is an associate professor at the Central Diagnostic Laboratory and head of the Utrecht Patient Oriented Database (UPOD). Her research focuses on improving diagnostics and personalizing healthcare through data analytics, using routine hematology characteristics and large datasets.
She studied Medicine and Linguistics at Utrecht University and completed her PhD in Experimental Cardiology in 2017. Dr. Haitjema leads a vibrant data science community, supervises PhD candidates, and participates in multiple European research projects. She is also actively involved in education and strategic initiatives to advance digital health and AI in healthcare.
Keynote talk
Keynote title and abstract will follow soon!
Halima Mouhib is an associate professor and co-head of the Bioinformatics group in the Computer Science department at VU Amsterdam. Her research focuses on understanding complex biological phenomena, such as olfaction and taste, using machine learning and multi-scale computational techniques.
She obtained her PhD at RWTH Aachen University, specializing in the characterization of odorants and volatile organic compounds. She later expanded her expertise into structural bioinformatics and computational biophysics, and was awarded the Descartes-Huygens Prize in 2021 for her work on odorant absorption.
Keynote talk
Keynote title and abstract will follow soon!
Justin van der Hooft is an assistant professor in computational metabolomics at Wageningen University. His research focuses on bridging the gap between metabolomics data and biochemical interpretation, using computational approaches inspired by natural language processing and genomics.
He obtained his PhD in analytical biochemistry at Wageningen University, where he developed methods for metabolite identification and annotation. After several postdoc projects in Glasgow Scotland he returned to Wageningen, where he started his group in 2020. He has been an active member of the Metabolomics Society, including serving on the Board of Directors and leading initiatives to advance metabolite identification.
Keynote talk
Keynote title and abstract will follow soon!