WHAT: The first Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Scientific Symposium, dedicated to furthering our ability to bring stem cell therapies from the laboratory to the patient bedside. The conference, led by Clive Svendsen, Ph.D., and Eduardo Marbán, M.D., Ph.D., will highlight the most recent developments in leading-edge stem cell research and treatments for brain and heart diseases.
WHO: Svendsen is director of the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute and is working on a stem cell clinical trial for ALS patients in which doctors will inject stem cells releasing powerful therapeutic molecules into patients’ spinal cords. Marbán is director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and leading a groundbreaking clinical trial in which a patient’s own heart tissue is used to grow specialized heart stem cells. The stem cells are then injected back into the patient’s heart in an effort to repair and re-grow healthy muscle in a heart that has been injured by a heart attack.
International guest faculty include some of today’s most prominent stem cell scientists: • Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE, FRS, FRSE, director, Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, England. He is best known as a key member of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a lamb named Dolly. • James Thomson, VMD, Ph.D., director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research, University of Wisconsin. Thomson is widely credited with discovering human embryonic stem cells in 1998, and then the remarkable induced human pluripotent stem cells that can now be generated from adult skin cells. • Oliver Brustle, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Reconstructive Biology, University of Bonn. Brustle was one of the first scientists in the world to successfully transplant embryonic stem cells into the brains of young mice that then produced functional neurons. • Fred Gage, Ph.D., Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif. Gage was the first scientist to show that humans are capable of growing new nerve cells in certain parts of the brain throughout life. He is recognized as a world leader in this emerging field of generating new neurons within the adult brain – or neurogenesis.• Stefanie Dimmeler, M.D., Ph.D., Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Goethe-University, Frankfurt. Dimmeler is known for her work in elucidating the mechanisms of angiogenic and cardiogenic effects of stem cells, laying the basis for multiple clinical trials of cell therapies for regenerating injured hearts. • Christine Mummery, Ph.D., Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands. Mummery is well-known for investigating the necessary and sufficient conditions for functional benefit after transplanting stem cells into the heart. WHEN: Monday, June 14, 2010. Registration opens at 8 a.m.; program begins at 9 a.m.
WHERE: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Harvey Morse Auditorium, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90048
CONTACT: Attendance is strictly limited to medical professionals and journalists. To arrange attendance and interviews, contact Sally Stewart at 310.248.6566.
About the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute
The new Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute brings together basic scientists with specialist clinicians, physician scientists and translational scientists across multiple medical specialties to translate fundamental stem cell studies to therapeutic regenerative medicine. The institute is housed in new state-of-the-art laboratories designed for stem cell and regenerative medicine research. Stem cells produced within the Institute will be used in a variety of Cedars-Sinai research programs, currently focusing on understanding the causes of and finding treatments for diseases of the brain, eye, liver, pancreas and skeletal structures
About the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute
The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is internationally recognized for outstanding heart care built on decades of innovation and leading-edge research. From cardiac imaging and advanced diagnostics to surgical repair of complex heart problems to the training of the heart specialists of tomorrow and leading-edge research that is deepening medical knowledge and practice, the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is known around the world for excellence and innovation.
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