The New York Stem Cell Foundation Announces Second Research Conference On The Future Of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 25 Sep 2007 - 15:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

The New York Stem Cell Foundation's (NYSCF) second annual Translational Stem Cell Research Conference will be held from October 15-16 at The Rockefeller University in Manhattan. The conference will bring together many of the most prominent figures in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research from across the United States and abroad. These pre-eminent scientists will present the latest and most exciting breakthroughs in this revolutionary field of research in the search for cures of the major diseases of our time.

This year, the NYSCF Translational Stem Cell Research Conference will be co-chaired by John Gearhart, PhD, Director, Stem Cell Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Douglas Melton, PhD, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute; and Paul Nurse, PhD, president of The Rockefeller University.

The conference opens on October 15 with a public policy panel, featuring top stem cell scientists, advocates and policy leaders, who will discuss the continuing challenges facing the field of hESC research. The panel will be moderated by R. Alta Charo, JD, Professor of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and will include David A. Carmel, Vice President, Business Development, StemCyte, Inc.; Dr. Gearhart; Michael Manganiello, principal, Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek Government Affairs; Dr. Melton; William B. Neaves, PhD, president and CEO, Stowers Institute for Medical Research; and Susan L. Solomon, JD, CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

The second day of the conference, October 16, "Unlocking the Potential," will begin with opening remarks by Susan L. Solomon, welcoming remarks by Paul Nurse, followed by a special address by R. Alta Charo and presentations on Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), the most advanced hESC technique. Among the presenters with be Kevin Eggan, PhD, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University and NYSCF's scientific director. Dr. Melton will give the keynote speech. Further sessions will explore the impact human embryonic stem cell research is having on efforts to better understand, and ultimately find more effective treatments and cures for, cancer, neurological disorders, heart disease and diabetes, and auto immune disease.

A full conference pamphlet and registration information is available at http://www.nyscf.org.

"Our inaugural conference was an unprecedented event for New York and reinforced the city's status as a vital national center for stem cell research," said Solomon. "With the field of hESC research now at critical scientific and political junctures, the conversations at this year's conference will be key to gaining a better understanding of what is on the horizon."

The New York Stem Cell Foundation conference is co-sponsored by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology at New York University School of Medicine, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the members of Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative: The Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

"The New York Stem Cell Foundation is a very important organization, because the kinds of problems we're trying to solve are far beyond the reach of any one investigator or laboratory, so we need cooperation across the universities to make progress in this area," said Dr. Melton.

"We need, desperately, foundations like this, and I would look for the New York Stem Cell Foundation to lead us for quite a while," said Dr. Gearhart.

"The Foundation's work is important because it allows support of those activities which, at present, the federal government, through the NIH, will simply not support," said Dr. Nurse.

"It's a delight to work with people who are passionate about trying to find new cures," added Melton. "And it's a pleasure in life to work with people who are so focused on a mission and want to work together to achieve that goal."

About The New York Stem Cell Foundation

Founded in 2005, the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is a privately funded foundation dedicated to furthering human embryonic stem cell research to advance the search for cures of the major diseases of our time. The foundation opened the first privately funded human embryonic stem cell laboratory in New York in March 2006 to serve as a "safe haven" where scientists from academic medical centers in the New York area and throughout the East Coast can conduct advanced human embryonic stem cell research free of the federal restrictions that limit the scope of government-supported work.

The Foundation convenes an annual Translational Stem Cell Research Conference at which researchers present the latest advances in the field; this year's conference will be held October 15-16, 2007 at Rockefeller University in New York City. The organization's mission is to support scientists engaged in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), thro! ugh grants, fellowships and symposia; to educate the public about the importance and potential benefits of hESC research and SCNT; and to establish new collaborative, state-of-the-art research facilities supported entirely with private funds and directly focused on curing disease.

New York Stem Cell Foundation