MARCH 9-11, 2026
minds and machines in synergy
Get ready for the next ZETA Symposium. Prepare to explore the ever-evolving landscape of technology and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Stay tuned for more!
the symposium
minds and machines in synergy. transforming pharma together
The ZETA Symposium brings together leading minds from pharma and biotech with top technical experts and scientific partners at Seggau Castle in Styria to explore the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
In 2026, we shine a spotlight on the dynamic interplay between humans and machines. Key topics include: personalized medicine, AI-driven bioprocessing, simulation, sustainability, workforce evolution, and regulatory demands.
With around 200 participants, the event offers a platform to tackle complex industry issues and shape smart, forward-looking solutions.
Meet pharma & biotech leaders and engage with international experts on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
International speakers give insights on industry trends and groundbreaking advancements. Discover the possibilities and solutions of the future.
Our attractive networking program provides a framework for getting to know each other, exchanging ideas and enjoying culinary highlights from the region.
WELCOME EVENING | 1.5-DAY CONFERENCE | LECTURES | PANEL DISCUSSION
SPONSOR FORUM DISCUSSION | GALA DINNER | WORKSHOPS
WELCOME EVENING
1.5-DAY CONFERENCE
LECTURES
PANEL DISCUSSION
SPONSOR FORUM DISCUSSION
GALA DINNER
WORKSHOPS
In the scenic beauty of southern Styria, Seggau Castle is the venue for the ZETA Symposium.
Enjoy the ambiance of 1,000 years of history as you discuss the future.
Congress room of Seggau Castle where the ZETA Symposium lectures will be held
program
Monday 9th March
Monday 9th
Check-In
at Seggau Castle
03:00 - 06:00 pm
Hotel Schloss Seggau
Get-together
Meet and network
06:00 - 07:00 pm
Tavern
Welcome Evening
at Seggau Castle
07:00 - 10:00 pm
Restaurant
Tuesday 10th March
Tuesday 10th
Good morning coffee
08:00 - 09:00 am
Congress Center
Welcome and Opening
Dr. Andreas Marchler, Managing Director, ZETA Holding, Austria
09:00 - 09:10 am
Congress Center
Keynote: Bioengineer First: The State of the Cell and Gene Industry
Darren Dasburg, CEO, Clarus Biologics, USA
09:10 - 10:00 am
Congress Center
Digital Continuity – Connecting Product, Process and Production in Pharma
Airton Miranda, Associate Director FPMSAT Assembly Development & Innovation, Novo Nordisk, Denmark
10:00 - 10:45 am
Congress Center
Break
10:45 - 11:00 am
Congress Center
Discussion at the Sponsor Forum
Get insights from our sponsors
11:00 - 11:30 am
Congress Center
The Role of Robots in Future Production
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Ramsauer, Head of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management, Graz University of Technology, Austria
11:35 - 12:15 pm
Congress Center
Navigating the Future of Pharmaceuticals: Insights into Emerging EU Legislation and Strategic Initiatives
Dr. Günter Waxenecker, Head of the Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, AGES, Austria
12:20 - 01:00 pm
Congress Center
Lunch
at Seggau Castle
01:00 - 02:30 pm
Restaurant
Chain of Hope: Connecting Humanity and Innovation in Healthcare
Duccio Manetti, PhD, Chief Communications Officer & Maria Concetta Santangelo, Strategic Projects Senior Engineering Lead, Kedrion Biopharma, Italy
02:30 - 03:10 pm
Congress Center
Beyond the Genome – The Data Driving Personalized Care
Thomas Wieland, Sr. Director, Strategic Operations, Foundation Medicine, United States/Germany
03:15 - 03:55 pm
Congress Center
Break
03:55 - 04:10 pm
Congress Center
Panel Discussion: Supply Chain Resilience in the Changing Geopolitical Environment
Get insights from our speakers
04:10 - 04:55 pm
Congress Center
Think Summit: Future of Medicine - How Silicon Valley Revolutionizes Our Health
Thomas Schulz, Chief Reporter of the newsmagazine Der SPIEGEL and bestselling author, Germany
05:00 - 05:45 pm
Congress Center
Gala Evening
Aperitif / Dinner / Cocktails
07:00 - 12:00 pm
Upper Castle
Wednesday 11th March
Wednesday 11th
Good morning coffee
08:00 - 08:30 am
Congress Center
A Window to the Future of a Digital Enterprise
Niels Vandervoort, Director Digital Transformation & AI Synthetic Development, J&J Innovative Medicine, Belgium & Dirk Wollaert, Manager Business Development, Pharma USA and Europe, SIEMENS, Belgium
08:30 - 09:10 am
Congress Center
Supply Chain Digitalization, and How AI is Rebuilding Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Dorothea Nochelski, Director and IoT Strategy and Architecture Co-Offering Lead & Dr. Kendra Bussey, Manager Life Sciences, Deloitte Consulting, Germany
09:15 - 09:55 am
Congress Center
Break
09:55 - 10:10 am
Congress Center
Built to Scale: Where Process Understanding Meets AI to De-Risk Process Development, Scale-Up, and Manufacturing
Dr. Mark Duerkop, Co-Founder and CEO, Novasign, Austria
10:10 - 10:40 am
Congress Center
Digital Plant Modeling at Boehringer Ingelheim: Empowering Production, Innovation, and Sustainability
Dr. Joachim Bär, HP BioP Launch & Innovation, Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany
10:45 - 11:25 am
Congress Center
Break
11:25 - 11:40 am
Congress Center
From Bioinformatics to AI-Powered Drug Discovery: How Molecular Intelligence and Accelerated Computing Are Reshaping the Pharmaceutical Pipeline
Dr. Christian C. Gruber, CEO & Co-Founder, Innophore, Austria
11:40 - 12:15 pm
Congress Center
Reimagining Life Sciences: From EPC 4.0 to Pharma 4.0 for a Digital Future
Thomas McCarthy, Industry Principal Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, AVEVA, United States
12:15 - 01:00 pm
Congress Center
Lunch
at Seggau Castle
01:00 - 02:00 pm
Restaurant
Transfer
to ZETA HQ
02:00 - 02:45 pm
Workshops at ZETA HQ
Mind and Machines
Lifecycle Connected with FrameWORKS
Lifecycle Connected with FrameWORKS
Insight and Foresight
Simulation to Operations
Scaling and Delivering
CFD Meets Realization
Explore and Connect
Hands-On with InFlow, EcoConnect & PUPSIT Solution
03:00 - 04:30 pm
Lieboch
speakers
Darren Dasburg
Keynote “Bioengineer First: The State of the Cell and Gene Industry”
CEO, Clarus Biologics, USA
Airton Miranda
“Digital Continuity - Connecting Product, Process and Production in Pharma”
Associate Director FPMSAT Assembly Development & Innovation, Novo Nordisk, Denmark
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Ramsauer
“The Role of Robots in Future Production”
Head of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management, Graz University of Technology, Austria
Dr. Günter Waxenecker
“Navigating the Future of Pharmaceuticals: Insights into Emerging EU Legislation and Strategic Initiatives”
Head of the Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, AGES, Austria
Duccio Manetti, PhD
“Chain of Hope: Connecting Humanity and Innovation in Healthcare”
Chief Communications Officer, Kedrion Biopharma, Italy
Maria Concetta Santangelo
“Chain of Hope: Connecting Humanity and Innovation in Healthcare”
Strategic Projects Senior Engineering Lead, Kedrion Biopharma, Italy
Thomas Wieland
“Beyond the Genome – The Data Driving Personalized Care”
Sr. Director Strategic Operations, Foundation Medicine, United States/Germany
Thomas Schulz
“Future of Medicine - How Silicon Valley Revolutionizes Our Health”
Chief Reporter of the newsmagazine Der SPIEGEL and bestselling author, Germany
Dirk Wollaert
“A Window to the Future of a Digital Enterprise”
Manager Business Development, Pharma USA and Europe, SIEMENS, Belgium
Niels Vandervoort
“A Window to the Future of a Digital Enterprise”
Director Digital Transformation & AI Synthetic Development, J&J Innovative Medicine, Belgium
Dorothea Nochelski
“Supply Chain Digitalization, and How AI is Rebuilding Pharmaceutical Manufacturing”
Director and IoT Strategy and Architecture Co-Offering Lead, Deloitte Consulting, Germany
Dr. Kendra Bussey
“Supply Chain Digitalization, and How AI is Rebuilding Pharmaceutical Manufacturing”
Manager Life Sciences, Deloitte Consulting, Germany
Dr. Mark Duerkop
“Built to Scale: Where Process Understanding Meets AI to De-Risk Process Development, Scale-Up, and Manufacturing”
Co-Founder and CEO, Novasign, Austria
Dr. Joachim Bär
“Digital Plant Modeling at Boehringer Ingelheim: Empowering Production, Innovation, and Sustainability”
HP BioP Launch & Innovation, Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany
Dr. Christian C. Gruber
“From Bioinformatics to AI-Powered Drug Discovery: How Molecular Intelligence and Accelerated Computing Are Reshaping the Pharmaceutical Pipeline”
CEO & Co-Founder, Innophore, Austria
Thomas McCarthy
“Reimagining Life Sciences: From EPC 4.0 to Pharma 4.0 for a Digital Future”
Industry Principal – Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, AVEVA, United States
MODERATOR Univ. Prof. Oliver Spadiut
Head of Research Unit Biochemial Engineering, TU Wien, Austria
lectures
Bioengineer First: The State of the Cell and Gene Industry
by Darren Dasburg, Clarus Biologics
The keynote explores biopharma industry transitions, covering U.S. capital markets, emerging technologies, and AI’s role in facility design. It also addresses demographic shifts and how new modalities will shape future strategies and infrastructure.
Digital Continuity - Connecting Product, Process and Production in Pharma
by Airton Miranda, Novo Nordisk
The presentation highlights Digital Continuity in pharma, connecting data across design, manufacturing, and supply chain. By integrating digital solutions into PLM, it accelerates time-to-market, improves quality and efficiency, and enables proactive risk mitigation through frontloaded design and robust change management.
The Role of Robots in Future Production
by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Ramsauer, Graz University of Technology
Automation is transforming manufacturing into a future where smart, mobile IoT systems, AGVs, and emerging humanoid robots strengthen—not threaten—industrial jobs. As global competition intensifies, flexible automation becomes essential for securing production sites and ushering in a new era of industry worldwide.
Navigating the Future of Pharmaceuticals: Insights into Emerging EU Legislation and Strategic Initiatives
by Dr. Günther Waxenecker, AGES
The presentation outlines evolving EU pharmaceutical regulations supporting innovation in advanced manufacturing, AI, and novel therapies. It highlights EMA initiatives like ITF, QIG, PRIME, and Regulatory Sandboxes, alongside AGES’ national efforts, fostering early dialogue, scientific advice, and frameworks to accelerate patient access.
Chain of Hope: Connecting Humanity and Innovation in Healthcare
by Duccio Manetti, PhD & Maria Concetta Santangelo, Kedrion Biopharma
Plasma-derived therapies transform donated plasma into life-saving biologics through complex processes requiring strict standards and innovation. This field exemplifies how scientific progress and human compassion intersect, turning generosity into healing and advancing healthcare through collaboration and excellence.
Beyond the Genome - The Data Driving Personalized Care
by Thomas Wieland, Foundation Medicine
This presentation shows how Foundation Medicine leverages computational biology, real-world clinico-genomic data, and AI-driven signatures to advance precision oncology. Drawing on 1.2M samples, it demonstrates integrated pipelines for therapy selection, biomarker discovery, and regulatory-grade reporting, reshaping clinical decision-making and access to targeted treatments.
Future of Medicine - How Silicon Valley Revolutionizes Our Health
by Thomas Schulz, Chief Reporter of the newsmagazine Der SPIEGEL and bestselling author
Rapid advances in data technologies and AI are transforming medicine, from cell therapies and early diagnostics to protein modeling and aging research. With unprecedented biological data and emerging quantum computing, biotechnology is accelerating scientific discovery and reshaping how diseases are understood and treated.
A Window to the Future of a Digital Enterprise
by Niels Vandervoort, J&J Innovative Medicine & Dirk Wollaert, SIEMENS
This presentation will walk the audience through the journey of digital transformation. We’ll introduce a proven methodology that simplifies the complexity of this process and drives successful execution. Demonstrating a solvent swap process from J&J as a real-world example, we’ll demonstrate how the 'big elephant' of transformation can be broken down into manageable components -“Digital Threads”
Supply Chain Digitalization, and How AI is Rebuilding Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
by Dorothea Nochelski & Dr. Kendra Bussey, Deloitte Consulting
Biopharma supply chains are rapidly digitalizing to boost resilience, sustainability, and speed. Deloitte’s survey shows growing adoption of AI, digital twins, and machine vision. Agentic AI enables predictive, self-healing networks, while collaborations with ZETA, NVIDIA, and Siemens explore AI-driven pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Built to Scale: Where Process Understanding Meets AI to De-Risk Process Development, Scale-Up, and Manufacturing
by Dr. Mark Duerkop, Novasign
This talk introduces a hybrid digital twin approach combining AI insights with mechanistic models to optimize bioprocessing for complex modalities. Case studies show how it reduces experimental effort, accelerates scale-up, enables predictive control, and ensures robust tech transfer from development to manufacturing.
Digital Plant Modeling at Boehringer Ingelheim: Empowering Production, Innovation, and Sustainability
by Dr. Joachim Bär, HP BioP Launch & Innovation, Boehringer Ingelheim
This presentation highlights how plant, cost, and holistic facility models address process and manufacturing challenges. Case studies demonstrate their use in tech transfer and debottlenecking, while enhanced model capabilities and workflow integration enable smarter decision‑making and optimized facility performance.
From Bioinformatics to AI-Powered Drug Discovery: How Molecular Intelligence and Accelerated Computing Are Reshaping the Pharmaceutical Pipeline
by Dr. Christian C. Gruber, CEO & Co-Founder, Innophore
AI breakthroughs like AlphaFold are transforming structural biology and drug discovery, yet clinical success remains limited. This talk presents a structural‑intelligence approach using 3D protein binding‑site representations and accelerated computing to predict off‑targets, enable large‑scale virtual screening, and advance programmable, generative biology.
Reimagining Life Sciences: From EPC 4.0 to Pharma 4.0 for a Digital Future
by Thomas McCarthy, AVEVA
This session shows how connecting EPC 4.0 and Pharma 4.0 transforms facility design and operations. Learn to leverage Operational Digital Twins for real-time insights, risk reduction, and compliance, accelerating tech transfer and lifecycle optimization to deliver next-generation therapies faster and more efficiently.
the sponsor forum
gain practical insights from our partners
Join the round table discussions at our Sponsor Forum, discuss trending topics, and gain expertise from our sponsor partners!
register now
Registration for the ZETA Symposium 2026 is now open! Please note that your spot is not guaranteed yet.
Please select a ticket option
live stream
Start Date: 09:00 AM (CET) Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Please note that the live stream is only accessible with a password provided upon registration.
our sponsors
