High Content Analysis Using Stem Cells fir Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery
Davide Danovi, Director, Cell Phenotyping Platform, Kings College London

The talk will present our cell phenotyping strategy, aimed at defining boundaries between health and selected diseases through high content image analysis of induced pluripotent stem cells at single cell level.

iPS Cells for Muscle Disorders: From Regenerative Medicine to Disease Modelling
Francesco Saverio Tedesco, Principal Research Associate, University College London

I will discuss hurdles for the development of therapies for muscle disorders. I will present our platforms based upon iPS cells, inducible myogenesis and human artificial chromosomes. Extension of these technologies for tissue engineering and drug development will also be discussed.

Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery in Neurological Disorders
Zameel Cader, Director and Principal Scientist, IMI StemBANCC, University of Oxford

My presentation will focus on stemBANCC and its progress in developing disease relevant models as well as how we hope to turn these into drug screening assays.

Elucidation of the Regulators of Malignant Stem Cells
Gregor Adams, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

Cancer is a result of complex interactions between germline genetic susceptibility, oncogenic somatic mutations, and environmental insults. We are using an innovative genome-wide association study approach in mice to identify the genetic factors controlling leukemic stem cell pathophysiology.

Commercialization and Manufacturing
Devyn Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Sigilon

How does manufacturing impact the success of a product?

Foreign Companies Advancing Cell Therapies in Japan
Lee Buckler, Vice President , RepliCel Life Sciences

Recent changes to Japan’s regenerative medicine regulatory policy around oversight, approval, clinical development and manufacturing processes related to cell-based therapies has established Japan as a leader in the regenerative medicine industry and is enticing foreign companies to develop products in Japan. Only a handful of companies have created formal ties with Japanese industry to leverage this rapidly emerging opportunity – RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. being one of them.

Cardic iPSCs fpr Drug Discovery
Joseph Wu, Director/Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine

Heart disease is the cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized world. While the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) in regenerative medicine is a long-term goal. Recent technological advancement has enabled the generation of patient-specific and disease-specific human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) in vitro. iPSC-CMs carry all the genetic information and therefore may be an ideal platform for elucidating disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy. Here I will discuss recent advances in this technology in the cardiovascular field.