Program

Scientific Program (preliminary)

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Day 1 – Thursday, October 8, 2026


13:00 Summit Welcome

1.1 Joint Preservation Updates

  • NITRO Program Updates
  • Moonshot cartilage repair/ DoD grant | Nadeen Chahine (US) & Clark Hung (US)
  • First presentation of data from the Richardson / Keele Trial
  • IMPACT study | Daniel Saris (US)
  • Discussion

1.2 Meniscus preservation strategies: the translational frontier

  • Meniscus engineering: The future
  • The degenerative meniscus: A challenging environment | Christopher Nagelli (US)
  • Biomaterials for meniscus | Jos Malda (NL)
  • Meniscectomy: Morphological profiling and predictive modeling
  • Discussion

1.3 From Bench to Business: Startup Spotlight

  • BiomimX
  • Terra Quantum
  • Vanarix

1.4 Meniscus preservation strategies: The clinical challenge

  • The Delphi consensus | Aaron Krych (US)
  • Medial and lateral meniscus root repair – When? | Emmanuel Papacostas (QA)
  • Orthobiologic injectables and meniscus | Kristof Sas (BE)
  • Meniscus: The challenging management in athletes | Francesco della Villa (IT)
  • Meniscus Discovery channel | Giuseppe Anzillotti (IT)
  • Discussion

1.5 Next Gen Session – Career Mentoring

Moderators: Francesca de Caro, G. Tawy 

Panel discussion: Daniel Grande, Christian Lattermann, Tom Minas, Susan Chubinskaya, Brian Cole, Luis Tirico, Keng Lin Francis Wong 

Welcome Reception

Day 2 – Friday, October 9, 2026


2.1 Portugal meets ICRS Joint Session 

  • Osteochondral tissue engineering and biofabricated in vitro 3D models | J. Miguel Oliveira (PT)
  • Mosaicplasty. Is this still an option in 2026? | João Espregueira-Mendes (PT)
  • Biomaterials / Tissue engineering | Rui Reis (PT)
  • TBD | Daniel Grande (US)
  • Discussion

2.2 Novel therapeutics for joint regeneration

  • Biomaterial Cell therapeutics | Marcel Karperien (NL)
  • Allogenic Therapy | Dennis Evseenko (US)
  • Organoids for Regenerative Medicine
  • IPSC Cells
  • Discussion

2.3 Poster session with coffee

2.4 Orthobiologics – The best injectable

  • HA – Eurovisco | Yves Henrotin (BE)
  • Polynucleotides | Kristof Sas (BE)
  • PRP | Giuseppe Filardo (CH)
  • Point of care: Bone Marrow vs Adipose tissue | Elizaveta Kon (IT)
  • What is the consensus? The ESSKA-ICRS consensus results | Laura de Girolamo (IT)
  • Discussion

2.5 Orthotinder: Osteochondral lesions

  • Osteochondral scaffolds: Aragonite-based | Kenneth Zaslav (US)
  • Osteochondral scaffolds: Collagen-based | Luca Andriolo (IT)
  • Allografts | William Bugbee (US)
  • Personalized metal implants | Francesca de Caro (IT)
  • Discussion

Lunch

2.6 Orthotinder: Cartilage regeneration

  • MACT
  • Chondral membranes
  • Minced cartilage | Leela Biant (UK)
  • Umbilical cord stem cells
  • Discussion

2.7 Nextgen injectables: Should we abandon cells and go with vesicles or mitochondria?

  • Rationale for Mitochondrial TTX
  • Mitochondria TTX for OA | Ambika Bajpayee (US)
  • Mitochondria for Cartilage Repair | Michelle Delco (US)
  • EV’s for joint homeostasis | Lucienne Vonk (US)
  • Discussion

2.8 Cartilage Repair in Other Parts of the World

  • Asia | Keng Lin Francis Wong (SG)
  • Europe | Philipp Niemeyer (DE)
  • USA | Kenneth Zaslav (US)
  • South America | Camila Cohen Kaleka (BR)
  • Discussion

Updates from the ICRS patient registry  | Theodorakis Marin Fermin (VZ)

2.9 ICRS and Friends

  • AtiO meets ICRS – Clinically relevant biomechanical parameters for cartilage repair | Tobias Winkler  (DE)
  • BA meets ICRS – BARB updates | Bert Mandelbaum (US)
  • ISAKOS meets ICRS – Joint consensus projects | Norimasa Nakamura (JP)
  • Discussion

Faculty Dinner

Day 3 – Saturday, October 10, 2026


3.1 Beyond the Knee: Cartilage Preservation in Other Joints

  • IVD | Nadeen Chung (US)
  • Ankle Joint | Jari Dahmen (NL)
  • Shoulder | Nicholas Sgaglione (US)
  • Hip | Srino Bharam (US)
  • Discussion

3.2 Gene therapy: Bench to Bedside

  • Phase 3 Clinical trial of Kolon – TissueGene
  • Gene therapy for OA and Cartilage repair | Henning Madry (DE)
  • Gene therapy Clinical Trial | Christopher Evans (US)
  • Discussion

3.3 A new player in the field

  • Weight losing drugs in OA/ GLP-1

3.4 Joint Preservation: beyond cartilage

  • How much can we push surgical indications? My most complex cases | Tom Minas (US)
  • Slow-release pain medicine
  • Optimizing Outcomes: The Role of Concomitant Surgeries in Cartilage Repair | Philipp Niemeyer (DE)
  • Personalizing Cartilage Repair: Factors Beyond Defect Dimensions | Martyn Snow (UK)
  • COST NetwOArk | Sylvia Nürnberger (AT)
  • Discussion

3.5 Selected podium presentations awards

13:00 – Congress closing remarks: Daniel Grande