Stem Cells Agenda

Registration

Towards the in vitro Generation of Red Blood Cells from Pluripotent Stem Cells
Jo Mountford, Lecturer, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Blood Transfusion has become a mainstay of modern medical practice. However problems persist both nationally and internationally in maintaining adequacy of supply. We are working to generate red blood cells in vitro from pluripotent stem cells, however the extremely large cell numbers involved pose unique challenges to culture technology and scale-up. I will present our progress in addressing the biological, technical and regulatory issues of this project.

Bioprocess Engineering of Human Stem Cells for Cell Therapy and Drug Discovery Applications
Catarina Brito, Research Associate, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Novel culture and cryopreservation systems for human pluripotent stem cells and neural stem cells will be presented and their advantages and applicability in the production of high quality advanced therapeutic products or functional screening tools for preclinical research discussed.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Stem Cell Therapy for Joint Restoration: A Research Perspective
Cosimo De Bari, Professor/Consultant Rheumatologist, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

The opportunities and challenges of development of stem cell-based therapeutic interventions for joint surface repair for the treatment and prevention of osteoarthritis will be discussed.

Stem Cell Research & Cellular Therapy—Current State of the Marketplace
Enal Razvi, Managing Director, Select Biosciences Inc, United States of America

This presentation describes the current state of the stem cells marketplace as it relates to their utilization for pharmaceutical screening as well as their development for cellular therapy.  Details are provided about the quantitative market opportunity for various stem cell classes as well as the current state of the clinical trials space wherein stem cell-based therapeutics are being evaluated for therapy in various disease classes.

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Session

How to Build on the NHS Infrastructure to Deliver Viable Cellular  Therapies
Simon Ellison, Commercial Manager, NHS Blood & Transport, United Kingdom

- The criticality of managing the process from consent to patient. - Value of national quality systems - How to generate patient focused manufacturing and scale up. - Accessing validated national cold supply chains.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Mechanisms of Nuclear Reprogramming by Eggs and Oocytes
Kei Miyamoto, Research Associate, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute Institute , United Kingdom

Reprogramming of differentiated cells can be efficiently induced in oocytes. Actin and actin-binding proteins in the oocyte nucleus play important roles in this reprogramming.

Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells
Holm Zaehres, Professor, Max Planck Institute, Germany

This presentation will describe the current status of strategies to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from mouse and human somatic cells for patient-specific disease modeling and cell therapeutic applications.

Stem Cell Reprogramming with Chemical Agents and Physical Energy: New Perspectives for Regenerative Medicine
Carlo Ventura, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy

For decades scientists have been trying to reproduce cell culture environment for the closest mimicry of the natural cellular “embedding” within a living organism. We will discuss our recent findings in the use of novel chemistry and physical energy, including radioelectric conveyed fields, to optimize stem cell expression of pluripotentiality.

Issues and Challenges in Clinical Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
Dusko Ilic, Senior Lecturer/Reader, Kings College London, United Kingdom

Clinical use of human embryonic stem (hES) cells is already being explored in a several phase1 safety trials. A number of issues and challenges, however, still remain to be solved before embarking to derivation of new clinical grade lines. Master bank characterization, HLA spread accounting for population variation and resolution of genomic stability testing will be discussed.

Drinks Reception

Human HSCs Transdifferentiated from MSCs can be Used for the Treatment of Blood Diseases and Fabrication of Blood
James Yin, Professor, Institute of Stem Cells, China

Our findings provide the first demonstration that transfection of two small RNAs (sRNA) for two days is sufficient to trigger adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) to transdifferentiate into hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in a large-scale level.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Screening New Agents: Stem Cells or Cancer Cell lines
John Masters, Professor, University College London, United Kingdom

It has been claimed recently that tissue-differentiated stem cells provide a better screening model for new agents than cancer cell lines derived from the tissues of interest. The relative merits of the two screening systems will be compared.

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Session

The Brüstle-Patent-Case – Legal Background and Impacts to European Stem Cell Research and International Cooperation
Timo Faltus, Research Associate, Martin-Luther-University, Germany

The presentation will illustrate the legal background of the Brüstle-Patent-Case to help stem cell researcher to see if their (potential) inventions are affected by the ruling. Furthermore, the presentation will focus on the ruling’s impact to stem cell research in Europe and to international research and industrial applications in the stem cell field.

An Overview of the Regulatory Landscape Relevant to Tissue and Cell Based Therapies within the EU, considering both Adult and Embryonic Stem Cells
Julian Hitchcock, Counsel, Lawford Davies Denoon, United Kingdom

Regulation is cited as the biggest obstacle to investment in regenerative medicine and stem cell science. In this talk, Julian Hitchcock sets out the European legal framework standing between research output and clinical implementation, highlighting some topical issues on the way.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Manipulating Stem Cells to Develop Cancer Models for Drug Testing
William Rideout, Principal Scientist/IACUC Chair, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., United Kingdom

Applying new genetic engineering tools to ES and tissue specific stem cells enables the rapid construction of an array of new cancer models designed to support drug development in oncology. We have used such cancer models and applied them to target discovery, translational medicine, and biomarker identification and validation.

TALENs™: Genome Customization Tools for Precise Gene Editing of Human Stem Cells
Laure Cannesson, Marketing Communications Manager, Cellectis Bioresearch, France

Human stem cells, especially patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells, represent power-full candidates for improvements to current drug screening approaches and for the development of novel regenerative medicines. In such applications however, genome customization is needed for genetic-abnormalities repair, as for more efficient and homogenous cell differentiation to a complete mature stage. Targeted gene editing is entering an exciting new era with the recent advent of TAL Effector Nucleases (TALENs™). They are able to bind to any gene and introduce a specific DNA double strand break at any position, enabling genetic modification in any cell type. Furthermore, as TALENs™ hits are found every 2 to 3 nucleotides, TALENs™ offer advances in both flexibility of design and universality of use for gene modification. Here is shown use of TALEN™ in human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, for targeted gene integration applications. Combined with a robust feeder free culture system, DEF –CSTM, TALEN™ allows fusion of the GFP to the beta actin. This is an efficient, robust and precise approach that opens the door to an “on request” stem cells engineering.

Close of Conference