25 March, 2026
The European Respiratory Society (ERS) thanks all those who contributed to the success of the Society’s 24th Lung Science Conference in Estoril, Portugal, and online earlier this month.
Thanks to presenters, programme coordinators, and all participants
The theme of the LSC 2026 was ‘Multiscale multiomics: dissecting lung diseases from bench to bedside’. The event was fully booked onsite, with a number of delegates also joining online.
For the first three days of the conference, sessions focused on the translational approach to early life events and early onset obstructive lung disease; multiomic profiling of host-pathogens interactions; integrating imaging with biology; and emerging multiomics platforms to decipher the lung’s immune system.
ERS thanks all those who contributed to insightful and engaging scientific discussion, and the event’s programme coordinators for 2026 – Prof. Didier Cataldo, Prof. Anke-Hilse Maitland-Van der Zee, Prof. Francesca Polverino, Dr Åsa Wheelock and Dr Bénédicte Machiels – who curated an engaging and insightful programme ideally suited to all delegates.
Early-career researchers recognised with prestigious awards
The event’s annual awards were also announced during the conference – with the 2026 Young Investigators Session – William MacNee Award going to Leonor Simoes (Canada), for her presentation Unveiling hidden biological complexity enabling multimodal-spatial omics analysis following light-sheet microscopy of whole-mount samples.
Meanwhile the winner of the Oral Presentations – Geoffrey Laurent Award was Stephanie Adaikalam (USA) with her presentation Increased S-nitrosothiol flux and GSNOR expression in bronchopulmonary dysplasia with tracheobronchomalacia.
The distinguished posters for 2026 were:
- Simone Olsthoorn (Netherlands) – Common γ-chain cytokines induce a precursor-like and epigenomically primed KIT+ ILC2 state associated with severe asthma
- Lianne Trap (Netherlands) – Polygenic risk scores capture cell-type specific mechanisms underlying asthma
- Perrine Donay (Belgium) – Heated Tobacco Products Induce Lipid-Laden Alveolar Macrophages and Impaired Phagocytic Function
- Anneloes van Krimpen (Netherlands) – Spatial proteogenomics of tumour-draining lymph nodes reveals the myeloid cell-secreted PLA2G2D as a targetable regulator of anti-tumour immunity
- Manon Paccagnini (France) – cIAP1/TRAF2 complex is a key driver of TGF-β-mediated differentiation and is a potential therapeutic target in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Lena Cords (Germany) – Towards building the human lung perturbation atlas from slice cultures across health and disease
Sunday session places emphasis on application of multiomics in lung disease and treatment
In 2026, the LSC’s Sunday session focused on applying multiomics in lung disease and treatment. It featured presentations on paediatric asthma (Sejal Saglani, United Kingdom) and the ways that transcriptomic analysis of human and experimental COPD identifies pathways for therapeutic intervention (Ken Bracke, Belgium).
This was followed by a panel discussion that centred on the translation of the novel findings presented at the conference into diagnosis and treatment – featuring panellists Francesca Polverino, Ian M. Adcock, Pascal Barbry, and Åsa Wheelock.
Prof. Didier Cataldo, ERS Conferences and Seminars Director, said:
“The Lung Science Conference 2026 highlighted the very best of respiratory science, from multiomics breakthroughs to outstanding poster presentations.
“The quality of discussions and the openness of exchanges created a unique and inspiring environment. Together, we experienced what it means to be part of a strong, connected scientific community.”
The 25th ERS Lung Science Conference will take place in mid-March 2027. Its theme will focus on epigenetics. ERS looks forward to welcoming so many of the world’s most talented early-career scientists and established experts to Estoril and online for #LSC2027.