On May 13, 2024, the 17th CeMM Karl Landsteiner Lecture featured Dame Molly Stevens, John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at the University of Oxford and also Professor at Imperial College London and the Karolinska Institute. Her captivating lecture offered attendees, numbering around 350, profound insights into her groundbreaking research on designer biomaterials for applications in disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine.

The event commenced with a stirring performance by the Vienna-based Radio String Quartet, who delivered a captivating contemporary rendition of J.S. Bach's Presto from the G minor violin sonata, infusing it with renewed energy and dynamism. It proceeded with a warm welcome from CeMM Scientific Director, Giulio Superti-Furga, setting the stage for the Denise P. Barlow Award Ceremony. This annual accolade, launched by the Viennese institutions IMP, Max Perutz Labs, IMBA, and CeMM, celebrates academic excellence in memory of the former CeMM Principal Investigator, Denise Barlow. The 2023 awardee was Bernardo de Almeida, former PhD Student in Alexander Stark's lab at the IMP, for his thesis titled "Decoding the cis-regulatory information of enhancer sequences". Almeida is now building AI systems for the industry as an AI Research Scientist.

After one more musical performance by the Radio String Quartet, Molly Stevens delivered her lecture titled "Designing Innovative Materials for Enhanced Healing and Early Disease Detection". In her compelling talk, she exemplified how fundamental understanding of interactions on a (nano-)particle level has led to numerous applications in research and health care. Hard scientific work for more than twenty years now allows for drug delivery studies on a single particle level. The research of Molly Stevens and her team has the power to reshape early disease detection on a global scale including robust biosensing also applicable in the global south. Furthermore, bridging technological barriers by incorporating the power of mobile communication holds a promise in health care with a huge societal impact.

A big thank you to Molly Stevens for delivering an inspiring and visionary 17th Landsteiner Lecture! We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Bernardo de Almeida for his well-deserved award and express our gratitude to the 350 attendees who joined us in person at this remarkable event once again!

About the CeMM Landsteiner Lecture series
The CeMM Landsteiner Lecture series is named in honor of Karl Landsteiner, the Viennese scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering blood groups. The invited speakers, carefully selected by CeMM Faculty, are prominent scientists whose molecular research is deemed to have had a significant impact on medicine. From 2007 to 2018, the lecture was held in the stunning 18th-century frescoed festive hall of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where once Haydn and Beethoven conducted premieres of their work. In 2019, it took place at the impressive building of the House of Industry in Vienna and as online format during the pandemic. Since 2022, the lecture is held again at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. https://cemm.at/events/landsteiner-lectures