5.-7.11.2025 Bonn
Organoids in Translation: Ethical Landscape & Legal Challenges
Time: 5-7 November 2025
Venue: IMPULSE – House for Innovation and Creativity, Adenauerallee 131, 53111 Bonn
What role do organoids — self-organizing, stem cell-derived models of human organs — play in the rapidly evolving field of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), and what challenges are currently hindering the translation of these insights into clinical practice? This conference aims to bridge the disciplines of ethics and law to foster a comprehensive understanding of these issues. By doing so, it seeks to address pressing questions surrounding public trust, individual rights, and the future of research involving human surrogates. The event also offers a platform to discuss how responsible innovation can support both scientific progress and societal acceptance.
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
From 4.00pm Reception
4.30pm Welcoming & Introduction
4.40pm Sarah Diner, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Medical Humanities, University of Bonn
“Organoids Across the Translational Spectrum: Models, Medicine, and Mechanisms”
5.10pm Karola Kreitmair, Associate Professor of Medical History and Bioethics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin – Madison
“On the Moral Status of Human Brain Surrogates” (online)
6.00pm Søren Holm, Professor of Bioethics, Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, Department of Law, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
„Contested organoids – Potential, Sentience and Precaution“
Thursday, 6 November 2025
9.00 – 10.30am Matthias Braun, Chair for Social Ethics, University of Bonn
“Self Fulfilling Predictions? The case of translational models to predict patients’ preferences”
Andrea Lavazza, Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, Pegaso University, Senior research fellow, Centro Universitario Internazionale, Arezzo, Italy
“Still on Consciousness in Human Brain Organoids – and Why It Remains So Divisive”
11.00 – 12.30am
Joshua Jowitt, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Law School, England “Are Human Brain Organoids Legal Persons or Property, and Why Does It Matter?”
Hannes Wolff, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Legal Research Officer, Federal Constitutional Court of Germany “On a Quest to Uniformity: Striving for Regulation”
1.30pm Gardar Árnason, Professor of Philosophy, University of Akureyri, Iceland
“Ethical governance of organoid research: Public engagement, trust and democratic science”
2.30 – 3.45pm Panel Discussion N.N./N.N.
Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz, Jr. Prof. Argelander-Professor for ‚Organoid Biology‘, University of Bonn
Bert Heinrichs, Professor for Ethics and Applied Ethics at the Institute for Science and Ethics, University of Bonn / Research Center Jülich
4.15 – 5.45pm
Lomax Boyd, Assistant Research Professor, Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University
“Factors shaping the public’s epistemic and moral attitudes toward engineered neural system” (online)
Amy Hinterberger, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, University of Washington/Aleksandra Stelmach Business School, University of Exeter
“Beyond Animal Testing? Ethical Futures, Organoids and the Rise of New Approach Methodologies” (online)
Friday, 7 November 2025
9.00am Lara Wiese, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Social and Health Law, Ruhr-University Bochum
“Protection, use and status of stem cell models from the perspective of German constitutional law”
9.20 – 10.50am Karl Stöger, Professor of Medical Law at the Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Vienna
“Austria: Leading Scientific Research vs. Regulatory Standstill”
Inesa Fausch, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Basel
„From cells to rights? Navigating the legal landscape of organoids in Swiss law”
11.20 – 12.50am
Anja Pichl, Research Associate, University of Potsdam, Faculty for Health Science Brandenburg
„Integrating Ethics into Organoid Science: Towards A Justice-oriented Approach“
Andrew Barnhart, Postdoctoral Reseacher at the Department of (Social-)Ethics at the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Bonn
“Anticipating Down-Syndrome Associated Alzheimer’s: Organoids, AI, and Relationship-Centered Predictive Medicine“
12.50pm Closing Remarks & Goodbye
1.00pm End of the Conference
Organisation: Sarah Diner, Institute for Medical Humanities, University of Bonn, Lara Wiese, Institute for Social and Health Law, Ruhr-University Bochum
Registration is free. If you would like to attend the conference in person, please email annett.schmidt@ukbonn.de to register before 22 October.
For further programme details, please visit https://www.medhum.uni-bonn.de/de/aktuelles
Funded by the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) Individuals, Institutions and Societies (University of Bonn) as part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.