Regenerating the heart: A Q&A with Dr Susanne Sattler
Tuesday June 20th 2017
Dr Sattler spoke with Caroline Brogan about her recently published work in Regenerative Medicine in a Q&A session published here.
Islet Cell Therapy Workshop
Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st May 2017
Professor James Shaw of the UKRMP Immunomodualtion Hub will be hosting a workshop on islet cell therapy from 30th – 31st May at Newcastle University’s Institute of Transplantation. The workshop will primarily be in conjunction with Cambridge and Newcastle Blood and Transplant Research Units (BTRUs) -focussing on organ preservation- and NHS National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). The workshop will also provide an opportunity for Cell Therapy Catapult to showcase their collaborative efforts in this area as well as their current facilities and sercvices that attending delegates may be interested in. The workshop will also highlight the ongoing clinical research with islets, specifically in the treatment of diabetes. For more information, please contact Prof James Shaw (jim.shaw@newcastle.ac.uk).
4th Liver Cell Therapy Workshop
Sunday 12th and Monday 30th May 2017
Miltenyi Biotec, in conjunction with Prof Philip Newsome of the University of the UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub will be hosting the 4th Liver Cell Therapy Workshop from 12th – 13th March 2017 at Ettington Park Hotel. This conference is being conducted to bring cell therapy in the liver to the fore, to illustrate current translational work and projects already progressing to the clinic. The hosts are looking again to engender a conducive and informal atmosphere with much discussion and sharing of experiences. Sessions start with a plenary session of talks on the Sunday evening to outline, update and contrast the scene, followed by the greater part of the meeting on the Monday, finishing late afternoon. Admission is by invite only. Please contact Prof Philip Newsome (P.N.Newsome@bham.ac.uk) for more information.
Follow up: UKRMP Niche Hub & UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub Commercialisation Workshop
Thursday 23rd February 2017
The UKRMP Niche Hub and Immunomodulation Hub held a Dragons Den Commercialisation Workshop on Thursday 23rdFebruary 2017 at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at KCL, London. The morning session included informative talks from a panel of industry experts; presentation topics focused on translation of research. The panel then judged 6 pitches from UKRMP researchers during the afternoon session. The winner of the workshop was Dr Kate Cameron (Hay Group, CRM, Edinburgh) who presented “Cytochroma: Stem cell derived liver cells in a screening platform to identify toxic compounds ”. The runner up was Dr Yvonne Reinwald (El Haj Group, Keele) who presented “MechaScan: linking bioreactor technology with Optical Coherence Elastography”. Both of these pitches will now take part in the TERMIS Business Plan Competition.”
UKRMP Niche Hub & UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub Commercialisation
Workshop Thursday 23rd February 2017
The UKRMP Niche Hub and the UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub are holding a Dragon’s Den event in London at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London.
The main aim of the event is to provide advice from industry experts to help shape the translational and commercial opportunities for the technologies being developed within the UKRMP Programme. The format of the meeting will be for the invited panel to identify key development milestones, regulatory issues and barriers to market that will help shape the downstream development and funding opportunities for these exciting regenerative medicine innovations. There will also be presentations from some of the Panel Members that will give more insight into the hurdles that need to be addressed for effective translation.
UKRMP Hub researchers (individually or in teams) will each submit an idea/abstract for a product or service that would be an output from their UKRMP research. Examples of outputs could include assays, ECM, cell therapies, tools and technologies etc. These ideas/abstracts will then be scored by the SABs from both Hubs; 7 ideas will be chosen and these teams will then pitch their idea at the workshop to our “Industry Dragons”. It is hoped that the advice and information gained from the workshop will help inform future work and develop new funding applications to further UKRMP research outputs.
Please contact Curtis Asante (curtis.asante@kcl.ac.uk) or Jennifer Cusiter (jennifer.cusiter@ed.ac.uk) for further information.
Workshop: Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: Roadmap to Clinical Translation
29th November 2016 – 30th November 2016
The UKRMP Immunomodulation and Safety Hubs hosted a highly successful workshop on mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) on November 29th-30th at the Centre of Stem Cells, Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London.
The workshop covered MSC activity in the UK for both clinical and basic research applications. The two-day programme consisted of short talks followed by small group discussions covering clinical practice, regulatory and manufacturing hurdles, and translational scientific activity.
The proceedings of the workshop and a discussion on the issues that impact on clinical MSC research and treatment, as well as how these issues might be tackled can be found in an article published in the December 2017 issue of the journal Regenerative Medicine.
Workshop Announcement: Immunomodulation of Stem Cells 2015
10th December 2015 – 11th December 2015
We are pleased to announce the Immunomodulation of Stem Cells Workshop, which will be held at the Academy of Medical Sciences, London. The Workshop will begin at 9 am on December 10th and will conclude on December 11th at 5pm.Leaders representing industry and academia will discuss the impact of the immune system in regenerative medicine. The workshop will provide a platform for international oversight and networking within and between the stem cell and the immunology communities.At the end of the event, delegates will have a better understanding of the main issues concerning the immune system and regenerative medicine strategies as well as the different approaches that industry has adopted to take cell therapies from bench to clinic.Our Speaker list includes:Irving Weissman, Hans Dieter Volk, David Mooney, Joseph Wu, Matthew Albert, Fiona Powrie, Frederic Geissmann, Caetano Reis e Sousa, Allan Bradley, Hongkui Deng, Stuart Forbes, Robert Deans, Kai Pinkernell, Kathryn Wood, Stefan Bornstein, Robert Lechler, Kevin Shakesheff, Mark Lythgoe, Alicia El Haj, Marcelo Rivolta.We are accepting 10 min talks and poster presentation from submitted abstracts.
Please see here for registration.
Please see here for a draft of the event programme.
May 5 2015: UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub Partner Prof Robin Ali publishes retinal gene therapy results
The article, published in New England Journal of Medicine shows that two trials of gene therapy on an inherited form of blindness in children can improve eyesight in some patients for a temporary period of time. Although the positive effects are only temporary, it is hopes the findings will lead to more potent and longer-lasting therapies. For article, please see; http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414221
May 5 2015: UKRMP Immunomodulation Hub Organisational Profile published in the latest Special Focus Issue of Regenerative Medicine, featuring interview with Hub Partner Francesco Dazzi and Paul Fairchild as Guest Editor.
The UK Regenerative Medicine Platform was launched in 2013 as a jointly funded venture by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) to address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating promising scientific discoveries into the clinical setting. The first stage of the Platform involved the establishment of five interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research Hubs and the final Hub, the Immunomodulation Hub, was formed in 2014. The Immunomodulation Hub comprises scientists from diverse clinical and nonclinical research backgrounds. Collectively, they provide expertise in tissues for which there is an unmet clinical need for regenerative treatments, in innate and adaptive immunity and in whole organ transplantation. Their vision is that by working together to determine how regenerative medicine cell therapies in a laboratory setting are affected by the immune system, they will make a substantial contribution to long-term clinical deliverables that include improved efficacy of photoreceptor cell therapy to treat blindness; improved repair of damaged heart tissue; and improved survival and functionality of transplanted hepatocytes as an alternative to liver transplantation. For full text, please see; http://www.futuremedicine.com/toc/rme/10/3
