Previous Focus Sessions

Organized by Allele Biotechnology

The field of iPSC-derived cell therapeutics has now moved near or at clinical stages in various disease areas. Building on our previous focus session presentations on resources and industry’s GMP capacities, this year’s Allele Focus Session will bring in executives from foundations, government agencies, and companies to present their front-line functional results from clinical trials and pre-clinical in vivo studies. In addition, the speakers will share lessons learned from industrial manufacturing, delivery strategy designing, and regulatory communications with the FDA, all of which should prove valuable to the audience who work in the field. More specifically, the focus session attendees will hear first-hand experience from iPSC-based cell therapy developers as to how they chose methodological approaches for such processes as iPSC generation, iPSC differentiation, GMP-compliant manufacturing, pre-clinical and clinical study designing, and clinical-trial management. The current session will also feature inside tales on how to apply recent mRNA advancements into iPSC-based therapeutic development. Following the presentations, a panel discussion featuring a Q&A session will provide an excellent opportunity for the audience to discuss and clarify the best ways for individual iPSC programs you may be interested in and this industry sector as a whole to progress into the next phase.

Organized by BlueRock Therapeutics

Induced pluripotent stem cell-based cell therapies have entered an era of clinical proof-of-concept and safety studies. This advancement illustrates the tremendous potential and opportunities of cell therapies. In recent years, the field made major advances related to defining key attributes of cell therapeutics, and developing at scale processes for cell differentiation and maturation. Commercial practices are constantly evolving to achieve quality control over physical and molecular stability of cells supported by technological advances such as single cell multiomics. In this focus session, we invited distinguished experts from academia, industry, and investor community to share their unique insights into key aspects that propel cell therapies to the clinic.Our speakers will share their experience from matching a cell type to a disease, to defining attributes and efficacy of cell-based products, to manufacturing with consistent, measurable qualities at clinical scale. We would like to shed light on lessons learned from non-stem cell based cell therapies in order to facilitate development in the stem cell field and provide future prospective for what is to come. Our goal is to inspire research and development that may strengthen and refine the next generation of cell therapies and to realize their transformative potential.

Organized by Evotec

Development of effective therapeutics for neurological disorders has historically been challenging due to limited understanding of complex disease pathology and lack of accurate model systems in which to investigate disease etiology. Despite major activities over the past decades, one of the major challenges in CNS drug development remains translation. Recent technological advances in the field of multi-omics profiling, patient centric molecular diagnostics, in vitro patient stratification and iPSC disease modelling have now made it possible to identify the variation and mechanisms underlying a patient's disease and hold great promise for the development of more efficacious and safer drugs. With this focus session we would like to give both academic and industry partners the opportunity to share their perspective on this rapidly evolving field of precision medicine that could provide a better understanding of complex diseases on a molecular level and shift the one-fits-all drug discovery paradigm towards precision drugs.

Organized by ISSCR Industry Subcommittee

New discoveries in stem cell research have rapidly expanded its boundaries of influence, leading to increased interfaces with other fields of science and technology. Unanticipated intersections of scientific disciplines and expertise are now yielding new and exciting applications, ranging from optimizing cell therapy manufacturing and launching stem cells into space, to solving global issues of food production and species conservation. This session will explore how unexpected collaborations across cell and developmental biology, robotic engineering, agricultural farming, bioinformatics, conservation biology, and astronautics have driven the emergence of exciting new avenues for stem cell research and the development of potentially disruptive new technologies and products.

Organized by Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF)

In this Focus Session, leaders from the stem cell and regenerative community in Maryland will present their cutting-edge research and latest breakthroughs in the field. The session will highlight how to successfully transition innovative ideas from the benchside to viable cell therapy products at the bedside through MSCRF's accelerating Cures initiative and its seven funding programs. Cell therapy products, including stem cells and CAR-T cells, intended to treat a variety of disease indications will be discussed. Hear from experts on developing, manufacturing, and delivering cell therapies to patients with unmet medical needs.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) is focused on funding and fostering cutting-edge research and innovation in the field of regenerative medicine in Maryland. Our Accelerating Cures initiative comprises funding programs that help commercialize human stem cell-based technologies as well as mechanisms to build and grow stem cell companies in Maryland. MSCRF has invested over $170 million in accelerating stem cell-based research, commercialization, treatment and cures, in addition to building a collaborative stem cell community in our region. Learn more about our mission and our funding opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and cell therapy companies at www.MSCRF.org.

Organized by NovoNordisk

Stem cell-derived cell therapies are moving into the next era of development with several potential product candidates in clinical trials. The field is facing several challenges and opportunities, such as defining the final cell product, mastering product formulation and medical device development. Efforts are also underway to gain a deeper understanding of the processes governing efficient integration of the cell product in the recipient. This session aims at shedding light on some of the challenges and opportunities, how they have been addressed by experts in the field, and how these approaches might pave the way for the next generation of cell therapies. Our examples include the development of investigational stem cell-derived therapies for individuals living with chronic heart failure and Parkinson's disease as well as the importance of including the patient’s perspective when developing cell therapies.

Organized by STEMCELL COREdinates

Supported by STEMCELL Technologies and Thermo Fisher Scientific

Stem Cell COREdinates (www.COREdinates.org) is an international consortium of human pluripotent stem cell-focused core facilities that share expertise with protocols, reagents, and technological advancements to establish “best practices" in the maintenance, derivation, differentiation and genetic manipulation of human pluripotent stem cells. Each of our member cores plays an important role in the research and educational missions of their respective institutions. The first part of our Focus Session will have selected presentations from Stem Cell COREdinate members and our sponsors. These presentations will cover a number of different areas of expertise including stem cell culture, gene editing and disease modeling. The second part of the session will feature invited speakers with a focus on advances in advancement in making more mature stem-cell derived lineages and tissue/organ engineering.