Board Letter to Stem Cell Community Regarding Travel to ISSCR 2017
Dear members of the stem cell research community:
The ISSCR community stands united in support of science and the belief that international collaboration and the free flow of ideas is essential to our work. Restricting travel to the U.S. from seven countries named in a recent Executive Order negatively affects scientific exchange, and has generated concern among many.
While some of you may be questioning whether to travel for the ISSCR 2017 annual meeting in Boston, 14-17 June, this is not a time to stay away. Rather, in coming to attend the meeting, you show support for colleagues around the world and the global scientific community. Your presence underscores that we are stronger as a community when we unite around the goals that bring us together: advancing science and developing therapies that are vital to the future of human health. Our strength lies in the diversity of our ideas, our research, and our scientists.
Please know that the ISSCR supports you and the field, and we encourage you to gather this year as you normally would, to share science and build collaborations that advance our field. We look forward to seeing you at ISSCR 2017 in Boston.
View a list of questions and answers about the recent Executive Order provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Read the ISSCR’s statement in opposition to the recent U.S. Executive Order.
Sincerely,
ISSCR Officers and Board
Sally Temple, Neural Stem Cell Institute, USA, President
Sean J. Morrison, UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA, Past President
Hans C. Clevers, Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands, President Elect
Martin F. Pera, University of Melbourne, Australia, Clerk
Douglas A. Melton, Department of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Biology, USA, Vice President
Arnold R. Kriegstein, University of California San Francisco, USA, Treasurer
ISSCR Directors
Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, University of California San Francisco, USA
Nissim Benvenisty, Hebrew University, Israel
Marianne E. Bronner, California Institute for Technology, USA
George Q. Daley, Boston Children's Hospital, USA
Valentina Greco, Yale University School of Medicine, USA
Urban Lendahl, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Haifan Lin, Yale University School of Medicine, USA
Hideyuki Okano, Keio University, School of Medicine, Japan
Kathrin Plath, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, USA
Hans R. Schöler, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany
Austin G. Smith, Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research & Institute for Stem Cell Biology, UK
Deepak Srivastava, Gladstone Institutes, USA
Masayo Takahashi, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Japan
Elly Tanaka, Institute of Molecular Pathology, Austria
Joanna Wysocka, Stanford University, USA
Shinya Yamanaka, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Japan/Gladstone Institutes, USA
Ex Officio
Leonard I. Zon, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA
Rudolph Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, USA
Janet Rossant, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Canada
10 February, 2017