Paradigm Shifts in Life Sciences: From Germ Theory to Tomorrow’s Medicines
This year’s SLS Days & TWINCORE Joint Symposium was a special edition merging our annual symposia with TWINCORE. It brought together leading voices from academia, biotech, pharma, and investors. Across diverse talks and discussions, one central theme kept recurring: paradigm shifts. Each speaker, in their own domain, showed how breakthroughs often come from challenging assumptions, rethinking established models, and daring to experiment differently.
At SLS Europe, we are proud to support these conversations by providing comprehensive services in regulatory consultancy and global development strategy, helping innovators turn scientific insights into tangible solutions in pharmaceutical development.
The Roots of Paradigm Shifts: From Germ Theory to CAR-T Cells
Stefan Kaufmann (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology) traced the history of immunology, from early insights into germ theory of disease through today’s breakthroughs like CAR-T cell therapies. His talk reminded us how every discovery — once radical — expanded our understanding and opened the door for the next leap.
Challenging Current Understanding: The Hepatic Immune Niche and AI in Virology
Mathias Heikenwälder (University Hospital Tübingen) highlighted the hepatic immune niche and its role in homeostasis and anti-tumor surveillance. Joe Grove (University of Glasgow) followed with a keynote on AI-driven structure prediction in virology, showing how computational tools can reveal viral mechanisms and guide new therapeutic strategies.
Rethinking Methods: Meaningful Science
Jeffrey Brown (PETA Science Consortium International e.V) emphasized the role and limitations of animal experiments. His call was clear: conduct experiments meaningfully. Beyond fulfilling regulatory requirements, scientists should always ask whether their experiments are designed to demonstrate relevant data. Sometimes, the real paradigm shift is in rethinking how we generate and interpret evidence.
Speed, Quality, and Thinking Outside the Box
Dialing in from Australia, Mathew Palmer (Accelagen) highlighted how the Australian clinical trial ecosystem combines speed, quality, infrastructure, and tax incentives. His talk showed how innovation in where and how we run clinical trials can dramatically reduce costs and accelerate access for patients worldwide.
Revolutionary Biology: Beyond Genes to tRNA Modifications
Karsten Fischer (Umlaut.Bio GmbH) opened an entirely new window: the role of tRNA modifications. Long overlooked, these post-transcriptional processes may regulate tumor development and immunological diseases. Targeting tRNAs is nothing less than revolutionary — a potential new paradigm in therapeutic intervention.
Challenging Conventional Paradigms
Bobby Reddy from Immunity Bio provided a forward-looking perspective on immunotherapy beyond 2026, urging the community to rethink strategies for next-generation immune interventions.
Scientific Insights
Additional insights from TWINCORE researchers, including Thomas Pietschmann, Yannic Bartsch, Patrick Behrendt, Yannick Frommeyer, and Frank Pessler, showcased how strong academic foundations can be translated into novel antibodies, antivirals, and vaccines, highlighting the importance of cross-institutional cooperation for innovation.
Innovative Platforms: Vaccine Technology
Henning Jacobsen (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) presented an innovative MCMV-based vaccine technology, showcasing a platform designed to achieve durable immunity and expand future vaccine strategies. Katrin de la Rosa (Hannover Medical School) highlighted how antibody diversity can be harnessed through recombination signatures for precision vaccination and novel antigen design. Notably, her BiBAX platform is integrated into Henning Jacobsen’s MCMV-based vaccine platform against RSV, illustrating the power of combining complementary innovative approaches.
One Smart Protein? Klotho’s Surprising Potential
Agustin Fernandez Santana from Rational Vaccines shed light on the remarkable Klotho protein, which may fight both metabolic disease and cognitive decline. Can one protein really be this versatile? If proven, it would represent a striking paradigm shift in how we approach complex diseases.
The Cancer Vaccine Question
Sezai Taskin (ViferaXS GmbH) presented progress on prime-time cancer vaccines. With a robust pipeline and promising clinical data, the question arises: Is the long-awaited era of cancer vaccines finally here?
Beyond Science: Strategies, Investment, Branding, and Patents
Heike Gielen-Haertwig from IBT Lower Saxony shared how a startup can succeed with a solid Target Product Profile (TPP) as its foundation. Christian Kannemeier (High-Tech Gründerfonds) explored trends in life science investments, reminding us that innovation needs sustainable financial backing. Teunie Westera from Bilthoven Biologicals focused on marketing and branding — often underestimated, but crucial for reflecting values and building trust. Wolfgang Weiß (Weickmann & Weickmann) explained the challenges of patenting antibodies, a technical but vital topic in protecting innovation.
Global Health Perspective
Harish Rao from the Serum Institute of India highlighted progress in the malaria vaccine program. Tackling global diseases is both a scientific and social paradigm shift — proving that scalable solutions can come from collaborative, international efforts.
Panel Session: A Constructive Collision of Ideas
The panel discussion, featuring Asisa Volz, Thomas Pietschmann, Agustin Fernandez Santana, and Christian Kannemeier, was an eye-opener. Controversial ideas on how global policy shifts affect pharmaceutical development collided — yet constructively. Active participation from the audience further enriched the debate, adding valuable perspectives. Despite differences, everyone agreed on a key principle of the new paradigm: innovative solutions should be pursued thoughtfully, and when they are truly worthwhile, scientists, developers, regulators, patients, and policymakers need to act in concert to make them succeed without escalating costs to unsustainable levels.
Conclusion
From bacteria to CAR-T cells, from tRNAs to Klotho protein, from cancer vaccines to malaria prevention — every talk carried the same message: progress comes when we dare to rethink paradigms. This year’s SLS Days & TWINCORE Symposium showed that life sciences are in the midst of such a shift, and the only way forward is together.
Thank You
We would like to thank all speakers and participants for their inspiring contributions and engaging discussions.
We would also like to extend a special thank-you to TWINCORE for their excellent collaboration in making the Joint Symposium such a success.
At SLS Europe, we bring your product development to life, supporting innovators at every step and helping turn these paradigm-shifting ideas into real-world therapies that benefit patients globally.