Highlights of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the
International Society for Stem Cell Research
June 23 – 25, 2005
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, California USA

Meeting Statistics. More than 835 abstracts were submitted, out of which 61 were chosen for oral presentation and 631 as poster presentations. Attendance was more than 2,100 people representing 45 countries.

Scientific Highlights. Many superb scientific talks and poster sessions presented at the meeting showed exciting data from a variety of laboratories. Mouse and human stem cells, adult and embryonic stem cells are all being studied. Some studies were already published in scientific journals and some were preliminary, giving scientists an opportunity to interact with each other on the very latest laboratory work.

This conference provided an excellent opportunity for scientists from all over the world to interact with industry, lawyers, clinicians, patient groups and the media. Such interactions are necessary to translate global research on stem cells into meaningful therapies. Results in many important areas were presented.

• Researchers are actively trying to understand how stem cells become the specialized cells in different tissues, which is how the cells differentiate. Since scientists have isolated embryonic stem cells and can grow them in culture dishes, many laboratories are now trying to define the specific pathways within cells that allow them to become specialized into cells like neurons or heart cells or blood cells. Some experiments are aimed at identifying specific markers on the cells so that the stem cells can be followed through their differentiation. Others are looking at gene expression patterns within the cells, finding the specific genes that are required to allow this differentiation to occur.
  
  
• Some researchers are working to compare mouse and human stem cells. Since mouse stem cells have been studied for about 30 years, there is a wealth of data that can be applied to human stem cells, both embryonic and adult. However, scientists are now finding that there are subtle differences between mouse and human stem cells--differences in the conditions needed to grow them in culture, as well as differences in their behavior when grown under certain conditions.
  
  
• Some scientists, many from outside of the United States, are studying human embryonic stem cells. They are learning better ways to grow these cells in culture and also ways to manipulate them to form other more specialized cell types. This is very important because it is not the embryonic stem cells in their most undifferentiated state that would someday be used for treating patients, but the more specialized cells obtained from them. Scientists are also finding more efficient ways to make new human embryonic stem cell lines from human blastocysts. The experiments to derive new human embryonic stem cell lines from specific patients using somatic cell nuclear transfer were also presented.
  
  
• Many scientists are studying human and mouse adult stem cells obtained from a specific tissue. They are using these cells to identify whether there are certain signals that the adult stem cell will respond to in various tissues. For example, perhaps specific signals in the skin could make a skin stem cell become a more specialized cell type. They are also trying to develop ways to efficiently grow adult stem cells in the laboratory in the undifferentiated state, to obtain enough of them to study the pathways involved in their differentiation and to use them for future therapies.

The progress made over the past year was significant. Many scientists walked away from this meeting with a renewed level of excitement for the stem cell field. Although it will take much more painstaking work, scientists are enthusiastic and eager to continue studying these cells in animal models and in humans to learn more and more about how they function and how they can be used for regenerative medicine and for research into the origins of cancer and developmental defects and for drug development.

Keynote Address. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Robert Klein. Mayor Newsom opened with an exciting announcement that he had just signed a lease for the San Francisco headquarters for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Robert Klein, author of the landmark California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, then delivered an riveting keynote address. “You are my heroes,” he told the assembled scientists.