Minerva Foundation Symposium 2025

FROM GENETIC OBSERVATIONS TO FUNCTIONAL INSIGHT AND THERAPY DEVELOPMENT

October 23 – 24, 2025, Hanaholmen, Espoo, Finland

Note. Tentative program, subject to change.

SESSION I

Steatotic liver disease – Leveraging genetics for therapeutic insights

Panu Luukkonen, Minerva Foundation Institute for medical Research
Hepatic mitochondrial reductive stress – from genetics via bench to bedside

Russell Goodman, Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Reductive stress in steatotic liver disease – focus on GCKR

Shawn Burgess, UT Southwestern, USA
Intermediary metabolism in steatotic liver disease – focus on ACC

Sami Qadri, Minerva Foundation Institute for medical Research
Functional characterization of protective gene variants in steatotic liver disease

SESSION II

Incretins – From genes via bench to bedside

Petter Bjornstad, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Incretins – Gut to brain and back

David Cherney, University of Toronto, Canada
Incretins in patients with type 1 diabetes

Ian de Boer, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Incretins in the kidney guidelines 2027

SESSION III

Bone and mineral metabolism, its genetic components and therapeutic approaches

Outi Mäkitie, Folkhälsan, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital
Monogenic osteoporosis – lessons from rare phenotypes to population health problems

Wim van Hul, University of Antwerp, Belgium
The road from the discovery of sclerostin mutations to clinical applications

Harald Jüppner, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
The clinical landscape of parathormone signaling

Heikki Koistinen, Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital
Kidney stone disease and genetics of hypercalciuria

SESSION IV

Genetics and pharmacogenetics in personalized medicine

Hanna Ollila, FIMM, University of Helsinki and Stanford University, CA, USA
Genetic and functional analysis of Raynaud’s syndrome implicates loci in vasculature and immunity

Mikko Niemi, University of Helsinki
Pharmacogenetics in personalized medicine

Elisabeth Widen, FIMM, University of Helsinki
Inherited infertility – mapping loci associated with impaired female reproduction

Adrian Krainer, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA
Splicing defect as a cause of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA): Therapy with a splicing-correcting antisense oligonucleotide

PANEL DISCUSSION

Expensive new therapies: who invented, who profits, who can afford?