Research Platform Medical Imaging (RPMI) Festival 2026

Shaping the Force: An Alliance in Imaging

9^th of June 2026, 9.00 am - 6.00 pm

Van Swieten Saal, Van-Swieten-Gasse 1a, 1090 Vienna

Participation in this event will be accredited with 10 DFP points by the Medical Association for Vienna! More information following soon.

We call on all of you:

1. the Engineers who create the instruments,
2. the Wielders who skillfully operate them,
3. the Seers who translate their signatures into knowledge, and
4. the Healers who restore the fabric of life.

For years, our greatest power in medicine was seeing within the body. But seeing was only the beginning. The new frontier is to understand, predict, and shape the living processes we observe. The Force links the physical signals we measure to the biological and computational models that give them meaning.

This festival explores the dialogue between the forces we shape and the forces of life. We sculpt the Force into focused streams of photons, precise acoustic waves, and carefully crafted magnetic fields—and send them into the body to listen for its response. What returns is more than an image; it’s a story. Intrinsic mechanical, metabolic, and electrical forces leave signatures on our probes, subtle whispers in phase, path, or energy that reveal invisible currents of disease long before taking form.

Turn up the dial, and the Force becomes therapy. We can write upon the matrix—ablating, remodeling, and restoring tissue with precision. One science, two applications: to understand, and to heal.

We invite you to bring your science, your perspective, and your unique interpretation of this theme. Show us how you shape the Force, and tell us what you have learned from its echoes.

Join us as we define the future of a medicine that doesn't just see, but shapes.
 

Save-the-date (Please click the link to view and download the flyer.)

What to Expect:

•             Keynote Lecture

•             Speaker-Centered Presentations

•             Poster Presentations

•             Hands-On Sessions and Tutorials

•             Networking Opportunities with Researchers and Industry Partners

Important Dates

Deadline Abstract Submission: 31^st of March 2026 - Extension to 14^th of April 2026!

Deadline Proposal Hands-on Session: 30^th of March 2026

Deadline Project Talk Submission: 10^th of March 2026

Notification of Acceptance: 12^th of May 2026

Deadline RPMI Festival Registration: 2^nd of June 2026

RPMI Festival: 9^th of June 2026

Acknowledgment: The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Registration is open!

RPMI Festival 2026 Programme

8.30 - 9.30 am, Registration & Poster Hanging - Morning Coffee

9.30 - 9.45 am, Welcome & Opening Speech, 

Moderation: Richard Haindl

• Speakers: Cecile Philippe

9.45 - 10.30 am, Hands-On Session and Coffee

• Lena Zachhuber and Daniela Prinz - The Grape Escape from Bias: PREPARE to Measure, ARRIVE to Report, OBSERVE to Improve
• Simon Gutwein - Uncertainty-Aware Genetic Aberration Diagnosis Using Artificial Intelligence
• Roberta Frass-Kriegl - Demonstration of MagnetXplorers: An Interactive Mystery Game on Medical Imaging
• Rana Abdelaziz - Exploring the In Ovo Model
• Lena Müller and Bettina Zierfuss-Ciepala - Beyond Autofluorescence: Multiplexed Spatial Profiling with Imaging Mass Cytometry
• Lukasz Bugyi - Showcase of locally hosted LLMs

10:30 - 11:30 am, Project Talks, Moderation: Gerd Heilemann

• AI in the Eye: How Ophthalmology is Shaping Systemic Disease Prediction, Speakers: Nataša Jeremić and Hrvoje Bogunović 
• CONGLIOMERAT - “Connected Glioma Experts in Research and Teaching”, Speakers: Ivo Rausch et al.

11.30 - 12.00 pm, Oral Session 1 - Tracing the Force: Molecular and Preclinical Imaging Across Scales

Moderation: Stefan Geyer 

• Mario Laskaj et al. - Age- and sex-dependent differences in [18F]FDG and [18F]FDS uptake in C57BL/6J mice (#61)
• Daniela Prinz et al. - MRI-Guided Optimization of Caliper-Based Subcutaneous Xenograft Tumor Volume Calculation (#22)
• Ines Lopez Martinez et al. - In Vivo PET Evaluation of novel [68Ga]Ga-Pt(IV)-DFO Complexes: Biodistribution and Tumor Uptake in an Orthotopic Osteosarcoma Model (#3)
• Chrysoula Vraka et al. - Image-guided lesion RadioFlow Links In Vivo PET Imaging with Ex Vivo Cellular Phenotypes (#36)
• Victoria Helm et al. - Combining Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence with Electro-Optic Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging for Super-Resolution Microscopy (#64)
• Jennifer Illibauer et al. - Multi-modal optical diagnosis of Post-Viral Syndrome from Blood Plasma (#75)

12:00 - 1:00 pm, Lunch Break, Poster Session 1, Sponsor Expo

1:00 - 1:35 pm, Oral Session 2 - Reading the Echoes: Clinical Imaging Beyond Anatomy, 

Moderation: Sazan Rasul and Benjamin Spurny-Dworak 

• Stefanie Chambers et al. -Clinical and MRI correlates of the DTI-ALPS index in Focal Epilepsy (#62)
• Nicolas Weilguny et al. - A Processing Pipeline for Analyzing Intraoperative fMRI Network Changes in Epilepsy Surgery (#16)
• Johannes Schrittwieser et. al. Integrating Choriocapillaris Perfusion with Structural Imaging to Explain Retinal Sensitivity Using Microperimetry in Geographic Atrophy (#38)
• Vladislav Agafonov et al. Towards Adaptive Imaging Instruments: Robotic Ultra-Widefield Retinal Imaging (#74)
• Astrid Hafner et al. Rigid composite materials with positive contrast in standard clinical MRI (#18)
• Johannes Tischer et al. ALRAU: Atlas Learning from Routine Antenatal Ultrasound (#9)

1:40 - 2:15 pm, Oral Session 3 - Guiding the Force: Imaging for Precision Oncology and Therapy

Moderation: Thomas Helbich

• Daniela Prinz et al. - Multiparametric [18F]FDG PET/MRI Enables Early NAC Response Assessment in Breast Cancer Xenografts (#23)
• Thomas Spiegel et al. - Uptake Patterns of [18F]Fluoroestradiol PET/MRI in Benign Breast Lesions and Molecular Breast Cancer Subtypes (#47)
• Oğuz Lafcı et al. - Pretreatment Breast MRI Features and Clinicopathologic Factors Associated with Pathologic Complete Response and Overall Survival After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (#78)
• Gerd Heilemann et al. Geometry-Aware MRI Phenotyping Using Automated Tumor Subregion Segmentation Improves Progression Modeling in Glioblastoma (#13)
• Julius Arnold et al. - Bronchial Correlation Objects for improved tumour localisation on stereoscopic X-ray images in radiotherapy (#15)
• Clara Mertel et al. - Revealing stress-adapted tumor niches in treatment resistant NSCLC through spatial transcriptomics (#31)

2.20 - 3.00 pm Panel Discussion: Large Language Models in Medical Imaging: Practice, Privacy and Responsibility

Moderation: Roxane Licandro and Richard Haindl

• Speakers: 
  • Ass. Prof. Dr. Tabea Ott, University of Vienna, Institute of Ethics and Law in Medicine
  • Dr. Laszlo Papp, Medical University of Vienna, Quantum Computing  
  • Ass. Prof. Adam Gosztolai, PhD, Medical University of Vienna, Dynamics of Neural Systems
• Topic: A focused discussion on how LLMs are entering medical imaging workflows, from image analysis, coding and teaching to institutional infrastructure, sensitive data handling and future policy.

3.00 - 4.00 pm, Coffee Break, Poster Session 2 + Hands on Session, Sponsor Expo

4.00 - 5.00 pm, KEYNOTE TALK by Brendan Kennedy (The University of Western Australia)

Moderation: Kareem Elsayad

5.00 - 5.30 pm, Award Ceremony & Closing

Moderation: Lena Hirtler

• Speakers: Cecile Philippe and Richard Haindl
• Awards: Best Poster Award; Best Presentation Award; additional awards/recognitions

6.00 - 6.30 pm - Conclusion and Networking

Scientific Committee

Contact: rpmi-festival-submissions (a) meduniwien.ac.at

Contact

Bronze Sponsors