iCeMS led Japan Delegation at World Stem Cell Summit in Florida
For the fifth year, Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell Material Sciences (iCeMS) co-organized the 2016 World Stem Cell Summit, held in West Palm Beach, Florida on December 6-9. The event, produced by Regenetive Medicine Foundation (RMF), attracted policy makers, academics, industry leaders and patient advocates from over 40 countries. The goal of the summit is to advance cell therapies by establishing a foundation for global stakeholders to accelerate lifesaving therapies and regenerative medicine.
iCeMS Founding Director Norio Nakatsuji greeted attendees as one of the co-chairs of the event, and delivered speech on the future of stem cell technologies and importance of cooperation between industry and academia.
A Japanese delegation represented by academic researchers and industry leaders in the biomedical and stem cell field was highly visible throughout the four-day event. At the iCeMS' led symposium titled "Industry-Academia Open Innovation in Japan for Application of Human ES/iPS Cell Lines," the Japanese panel highlighted recent key scientific findings as well as new products and technologies being developed to further advance the stem cell field. The speakers included Norio Nakatsuji, iCeMS founding director; Yuji Shiba, Shinshu University; Takuya Yokokawa, Fujifilm; Mitsuru Inamura, ReproCell; Hiroki Ozawa, Ajinomoto; Seigo Izumo, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; Margaret Ann Craig, Stem Cell & Device Laboratory.
Being invited by Nakatsuji, Yuzo Toda, Vice President of Fujifilm and Chairman of Forum for Innovative Regenerative Medicine (FIRM), also joined the summit and gave a plenary lecture. Also, at the session on safety issues on preclinical studies of pluripotent stem cell derived therapy Keiji Yamamoto from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Yoji Sato from National Institute of Health Sciences presented Japan’s efforts in screening of cells for safer regenerative medicine, and talked about the importance of global effort to advance the development.
Professor Takashi Asada (Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University) served as an organizer and moderator of the Japan symposium, as well as a poster judge for the entire summit. He also engaged in meetings with many individuals at iCeMS' booth to build potential business partnerships and forge academic collaborations.
Bernard Siegel, Director of RMF, was grateful for iCeMS' participation as a co-organizer at the summit. "Japan is surely one of the leaders in this field. We have a robust delegation from them, the biggest outside of the United States. We are honored to have a large presence from them."
