ARCHIVE
LONDON
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE NETWORK
Thursday 7th September 2006
The next monthly meeting of the London
Regenerative Medicine Network will be held in the evening
of Thursday 7th September at King's College London, Guy's
Hospital Campus at London Bridge, London SE1
(Harris Lecture Theatre, Hodgkin
Building, Guy's Hospital Campus at London Bridge, London
SE1). The
meeting will focus on three key areas:
1] Keynote presentation from Professor Dame Julia
Polak (Imperial
College London) on the origins and hopes for the future of
tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
2] The controversy of patenting stem cells -
Dr. Gareth
Williams - Marks &
Clerk (Cambridge, UK)
3] Drug development deploying stem cells -
Dr. Emer
Clarke - StemCell
Technologies (Vancouver, Canada)
SPEAKERS
We are absolutely delighted that Dame Julia has very kindly agreed to give the Keynote to commence the start of a new year of London Regenerative Medicine Network meetings. Dame Julia was instrumental in starting and maintaining the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine movement in the UK. Dame Julia's presentation will describe the origins of tissue engineering and how two apparently disparate disciplines: stem cell sciences and biomaterials, have lately converged to create the field of “regenerative medicine”.
Professor Dame Julia Polak became Professor and Director of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Centre at Imperial College in 1997. She is a member of a number of distinguished boards and panels including:
- Scientific Advisory Board of the Imperial College Institute of Biomedical Engineering
- Scientific Advisory Board of the joint MRC/UK Stem Cell Foundation
- Panel of the new EPSRC Peer Review College (2006 – 2009)
- Panel of the MRC College of Experts (2006 – 2010)
- Steering Group of the UK Stem Cell Immunology Programme
Dame Julia is also the author of 987 original papers, 116 review articles and editor/author of 25 books and is one of the most highly cited researchers in her field. She is a co-founder and Director of the regenerative medicine company, NovaThera. In addition, she has received a number of honours and won a number of prizes including:
Recent honours include:
- Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) (2003)
- Tea with the Queen and Prince Phillip to celebrate the Pioneers of the Country (October 2003)
Recent medals include:
- The Ellison-Cliffe Medal - Royal Society of Medicine (2004)
- Pathology Society Award for long service to pathology (2004)
- Feyrter-Oberndorfer Medal and Certificate for ENETS Lifetime Achievement Award, Prague (2006)
Dr. Gareth Williams is a Partner in the biotechnology group of Marks & Clerk, one of the leading firms of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys in Europe. His work covers patent filing and prosecution worldwide in a range of biotech fields, and he has written and spoken extensively on stem cell patenting in particular. He is a co-author of the Marks & Clerk Biotechnology Reports for 2005 and 2006. Before entering the patent profession, he obtained a DPhil in the field of molecular biology.
The patentability of stem cell-related inventions, and particularly human embryonic stem cells, is a highly contentious matter. In the European system, there is an explicit provision for ethical issues to be taken into account when assessing patentability, and it is this which has led to much debate as to exactly what is patentable. This presentation will review the legal basis for patentability requirements in Europe as well as the United States, and will look at the current issues which remain to be resolved. Examples of granted and pending patents will also be given, as will a brief review of which companies are filing patent applications, and where.
Dr. Emer Clarke is Scientific Director of Contract Service and Education for StemCell Technologies Inc, Vancouver Canada. StemCell Technologies is one of the World's leading stem cell companies. Following completion of her PhD in haematology in Dublin (1990), Emer undertook her post-doctoral training at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Seattle Washington. She then joined Cell Therapeutics in Seattle to work on regulatory molecules in haematopoiesis (the process of blood production). In 1995 she joined The National Blood Service, Bristol, England as a Clinical Scientist evaluating new potential cell selection systems for processing bone marrow for transplantation. Emer joined StemCell Technologies in March 1998 to continue research on bone marrow and mesenchymal stem cells, and for the last 5 years has lead the Contract Service team providing expertise in the areas of haematopoietic toxicity testing as well as the biological control of primitive stem and progenitor cells with various molecules.
In an attempt to search for efficient and cost effective ways to screen potential new drugs and eliminate late drug failures, a number of assays can be utilised to assess the effects of compounds on stem and progenitor haematopoietic cell populations. These robust standardised assays allow the detection of toxicity on specific haematopoietic progenitor subsets (red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelet precursors) to evaluate potential adverse conditions, as well as mesenchymal stem cell progenitors to evaluate potential damage to structural components (bone and connective tissue). The toxic effects of known compounds have been tested on the growth of the specific progenitors. Results indicate that each compound displays a unique spectrum of toxicity on each progenitor lineage showing different relative susceptibility to toxicity depending on the compound tested. Inhibition of progenitor growth in vitro has correlated with decreased mature blood cell numbers in vivo, an unwanted side-effect which causes anaemia, immunosuppression and potential blood clotting abnormalities in patients.
DETAILS
This meeting is free of charge to everyone through the generous financial support of our principle sponsors; GlaxoSmithKline and the Guy's, King's & St Thomas' Annual Fund, plus invaluable support from the Department of Biochemical Engineering, UCL and the the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, KCL.
PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO LECTURE THEATRE SEATING CAPACITY + CATERING ARRANGEMENTS, IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND THIS EVENT YOU MUST REPLY AS REQUESTED, OTHERWISE UNFORTUNATELY YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GAIN ADMISSION. Seat allocation is on a first come first served basis. If you wish to attend, all that is required, is to email the Secretary - secretary@regenmednetwork.com and type "Please add me to the guest list - Thank you" or something similar!!!
To reserve a place, please just email the Network Secretary, Dr. Louise Mason: louise.mason@regenmednetwork.com
AGENDA
18.00 - Registration over tea and coffee
18.30 - Welcome - Dr. Chris Mason (UCL) - Co-organiser of the Network
18.35 - Keynote: "Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: reflections on the past and hopes for the future" - Professor Dame Julia Polak - Imperial College London
19.05 - "Patentability issues relating to stem cells" - Dr. Gareth Williams - Marks & Clerk, Cambridge, UK
19.25 - Q+A Session
19.35 - "Drug toxicity testing using stem cell assays" - Dr. Emer Clarke - StemCell Technologies, Vancouver, Canada
19.55 - Q+A Session
20.05 - Closing remarks - Dr. Stephen Minger (KCL) - Co-organiser of the Network
20.10 - 22.00 - Networking reception - enjoy a glass of wine or two in the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, KCL
Please only request a place if you can definitely make the meeting. Replies must go to: Network Secretary, Dr. Louise Mason: louise.mason@regenmednetwork.com
We look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday 7th September for the start of the new year of LRMN monthly meetings!
Stephen Minger + Chris Mason
Co-organisers, London Regenerative Medicine Network.
www.regenmednetwork.com
www.lrmn.com
PRINCIPLE
SPONSORS
Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Annual
Fund
London
Regenerative Medicine Network
"Bringing the regenerative medicine, stem cell and tissue
engineering community together..."