A four-day residential meeting bringing together statistical genetics, machine learning models of gene regulation, CRISPR perturbation and experimental model systems — to work out how we get from a genetic association to a mechanism.
Genome-wide association studies have located tens of thousands of variants that influence human traits and disease. Most of them lie outside protein-coding genes, and tracing them to the gene they act on, the cell type they act in and the mechanism behind them is one of the most absorbing problems in human genetics today.
Three advances have brought it within reach. Reference atlases — ENCODE, GTEx, the Human Cell Atlas — now map regulatory activity across tissues and single cells. Machine learning models read regulatory consequence directly from DNA sequence, with transformer architectures capturing long-range relationships and DNA language models learning a transferable sequence grammar. And CRISPR screens, reporter assays and organoid systems have become scalable enough to test what those models predict.
Each of these communities has built something the others can use, and the interesting work now lies in putting them together. The meeting is deliberately small, single-track and residential: a hundred people in one place for four days, with the time — over meals, posters and long discussions — to work out how the pieces fit.
CRISPR perturbation screens with single-cell readout, massively parallel reporter and element screens, single-cell and spatial atlases, human organoid and iPSC models, and lineage recording.
DNA language models and sequence-to-function architectures, regulatory network inference, multi-omic integration, and the algorithms that turn lineage and spatial data into biology.
Genetic architecture of complex traits, molecular QTLs and rare regulatory variation, selection and constraint, and the heterogeneity that averaging across people hides.
Fifteen invited talks · 35 minutes with 10 minutes of discussion
Alongside the invited talks, six contributed talks will be selected from submitted abstracts and are reserved for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.
The detailed programme, with speakers and session themes, will be announced at a later date. The shape of the week is set, so you can plan your travel now.
| 16:00–18:00 | Arrival & registration |
| 18:00–19:00 | Welcome drinks |
| 19:00–20:30 | Dinner |
| 20:30 | Informal gathering |
| Morning | Invited talks · contributed talks |
| Midday | Lunch |
| Afternoon | Invited talks |
| 16:00–18:00 | Poster session |
| 19:00–20:30 | Dinner |
| 20:30 | Networking + posters |
| Morning | Invited talks · contributed talks |
| Midday | Lunch |
| 13:45–18:00 | Excursions — two groups |
| 19:00–20:30 | Conference dinner — Grotto Broggini, Losone |
| 20:30 | Networking + posters |
| Morning | Invited talks |
| 11:00–12:00 | Cross-strand discussion and close: functional genomics × modelling × human genetics |
| 12:00–14:00 | Lunch & departure |
Two poster sessions, with space for about 15 posters each. The programme starts on Monday morning and ends at 12:00 on Thursday; arriving on Sunday afternoon and leaving after Thursday lunch lets you attend in full.
Monte Verità, Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland
Monte Verità sits above Lake Maggiore in Italian-speaking Switzerland and has hosted ETH Zurich's Congressi Stefano Franscini conferences since 1989. Participants stay and eat on site — which is the point: at a meeting this size, most of the useful conversation happens over a meal or in the bar afterwards, not in the auditorium.
The registration fee covers every meal of the conference, with a reduced rate for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Accommodation is separate, and you choose how to arrange it.
All lunches and dinners, the Wednesday conference dinner at Grotto Broggini, every coffee break, the Sunday welcome drinks and the Wednesday excursion. Accommodation is booked and paid separately.
Exactly the same package at a reduced rate, for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. You will be asked to confirm your status when you register your interest.
| Twin room, shared with one other | 81 / night |
| Single room, bathroom shared with one other | 81 / night |
| Single room, own bathroom | 101 / night |
| Twin room for single use | 141 / night |
| Four nights, Sunday to Thursday | CHF 325–565 |
Per person, including breakfast and the Ascona city tax. A small number of simpler single rooms in Casa Gioia, two minutes’ walk across the grounds, go at CHF 51 a night — CHF 205 for the four nights. Rooms are limited and allocated strictly first come, first served at the point of registration; a room cannot be held by registering your interest. True single rooms are very limited, and once they go the remaining single occupancy is in twin rooms at the higher rate. Booked and billed by Monte Verità, separately from the registration fee.
| Accommodation | your own |
| Total, standard rate | CHF 600 |
| Total, early-career rate | CHF 450 |
Ascona and Locarno have a wide range of hotels and apartments within a short bus or taxi ride, and we expect to hold a small block of rooms at a nearby hotel at an agreed rate — details when registration opens. You still take all meals on site with everyone else, so nothing in the programme is missed. Note that Monte Verità is a twenty-minute walk uphill from Ascona.
Room rates are the Monte Verità 2026 list and include the city tax at its October 2026 level of CHF 4.20 per person per night; both will be confirmed for 2027. Registration fees are indicative — because the fee now includes meals, VAT applies to part of it and the final figure may be adjusted slightly. Both fees are subsidised — meals and administration alone cost about CHF 590 per participant, and the difference is met by the Congressi Stefano Franscini, the SNSF and the organisers.
We intend to offer ten bursaries of CHF 500 for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who would otherwise be unable to attend. A bursary more than covers the early-career registration fee: a recipient registers free of charge, and the small balance is reimbursed after the conference. These are subject to confirmation of funding and will be announced when registration opens — indicate your interest when you register. Two-thirds of places are reserved for early-career researchers, and all contributed talk slots are reserved for them.
The programme finishes at lunchtime on Wednesday and the whole afternoon is free from 13:45. There are two excursions, both included in the registration fee and both ending at the conference dinner:
A guided hike through the hills above Ascona, on the paths that drew the original Monte Verità community here a century ago. Transport included. Walking shoes and a rain jacket needed.
A separate guided visit to the three UNESCO World Heritage castles that guarded the Alpine passes, half an hour away by road. Transport included.
Both groups converge on Grotto Broggini in Losone at 19:15 for the conference dinner, with transport laid on. Anyone who would rather use the afternoon differently is very welcome to — just join us at the Grotto for dinner.
Sunset in early November is just after 17:00, so both afternoons are built to be back before dark.
A few things that are easy to get wrong about Monte Verità in November.
Ticino is the mild side of the Alps, but this is November. Expect roughly 5–14 °C, a real chance of rain, and sunset just after 17:00 — by the end of the week it is dark before the afternoon coffee break is over. Bring a warm layer, a rain jacket and shoes you can walk a hill in. Nothing in the programme depends on the weather.
Monte Verità sits on top of a hill, about twenty minutes’ walk above Ascona, and there is nowhere else to eat up there. That is why the registration fee covers every meal of the conference — lunches, dinners, the conference dinner and all coffee breaks. If you are arranging your own accommodation in Ascona or Locarno, you still eat on site with everyone else.
Posters are displayed in A0 portrait format. Board space is genuinely limited: we can show about 15 posters in each of the two sessions, around 30 in total, so poster slots are allocated alongside the contributed talks from submitted abstracts.
There is no childcare at Monte Verità itself, but there is a childcare provider in Ascona that conferences here use regularly. Arrangements are made directly between you and the provider, since needs vary so much — write to us and we will pass on the contact and help where we can.
The site is spread over a hillside park and involves some walking and a few slopes. If you have accessibility requirements, dietary requirements, or anything else that would make the week work better for you, tell us early — the earlier we know, the more we can do about it.
Partners and family are welcome in Ascona, and accompanying guests can usually be added to rooms and to conference meals at cost. Ask us when you book rather than on arrival, as both rooms and catering numbers are fixed in advance.
Nearest airports are Milan Malpensa (about 1 h 45 by road) and Zurich (about 3 h by train). Ascona is reached by train to Locarno, then a short bus or taxi ride up to Monte Verità. Detailed travel instructions will be sent with registration confirmation.
Provisional — confirmed dates will be posted when registration opens.
| Autumn 2026 | Registration and abstract submission open |
| 31 March 2027 | Abstract submission deadline |
| To be announced | Invited speakers and detailed programme |
| 30 April 2027 | Contributed talks and early-career bursaries announced |
| 15 July 2027 | Registration closes |
| 31 Oct – 4 Nov 2027 | The conference |
Four tiers, from CHF 500.
Sponsorship keeps the early-career registration fee down and funds participation bursaries. We are direct about what this meeting can and cannot offer: there are no exhibition booths, no equipment displays and no speaking slots — the scientific programme is set by the organisers alone. What sponsors get instead is four days in a residential setting where their representatives attend as participants, at every meal and in every poster session, alongside a hundred researchers who cannot leave.
Two complimentary registrations · two poster boards · logo on the website, booklet cover and session slide · full-page acknowledgement · named in the opening and closing sessions
One complimentary registration · one poster board · logo on the website and in the booklet · half-page acknowledgement · named in the opening session
One poster board · logo on the website and in the booklet · named in the acknowledgements
Named on the website and in the booklet. CHF 500 is exactly one early-career bursary, and can be given as a named bursary — one PhD student or postdoc in the room who would not otherwise have been there.
Sponsorship confers no influence over the programme, the selection of speakers or contributed talks, or the award of bursaries. Representatives register like any other participant and count against the 100-person cap.
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will follow up individually — no obligation, and we will send the full prospectus.
Send a sponsorship enquiryPlaces are limited to 100 and are allocated on scientific fit, not first-come-first-served.
Opens our registration-of-interest form. It takes about three minutes, and asks you to confirm your career stage so we can apply the reduced rate. Accommodation is not booked at this stage — rooms are chosen and paid for at full registration, first come, first served. We will ask about dietary requirements and any accessibility needs separately, once your place is confirmed.