Recap: ISSCR 9th Annual Meeting
June 15-18, 2011

Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Download the Final Program (10MB PDF)

Download the Poster Books: Thursday (18MB PDF), Friday (10MB PDF)

The ISSCR returned to Toronto this year with more than 3,600 attendees from 52 countries joining us for the ISSCR 9th Annual Meeting, co-sponsored by the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

All photos © ISSCR 2011

We would like to thank the 2011 Annual Meeting Program Committee, chaired by Dr. Haifan Lin, for their exceptional effort in developing this year's strong scientific program. In addition to recruiting an excellent panel of speakers from around the world, the Committee was able to draw on the considerable scientific depth of Toronto and Canada to capitalize on the excellent Canadian scientists, including Dr. John Dick, who gave the inaugural Ernest McCulloch Memorial Lecture.

This year, attendees were offered eight plenary sessions, 15 concurrent scientific tracks and a range of other educational and networking opportunities. More than 1,400 posters were presented over the course of the meeting, covering a wide range of topics. We thank all who participated, and extend our congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Junior Investigator Poster Awards (listed below).

In 2006, the 4th ISSCR Annual Meeting was also held in Toronto. It was at that meeting that Dr. Shinya Yamanaka first presented the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Five years later, the impact of that discovery on the field of stem cells was evident in the wide range of talks and posters at this year’s annual meeting. One plenary session was set aside to discuss developments in the field of reprogramming and the study of fate conversion, while multiple concurrent talks and posters were devoted to the use of iPS cell technology. Finally, Drs. Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka, the two authors of that paper initially describing iPS cells, received the inaugural McEwen Centre Award for Innovation in honor of that paradigm-shifting work.

Along with the annual meeting, we were pleased to offer a Public Symposium in association with the Stem Cell Network of Canada. This year’s event, entitled “The Stem Cell Promise: Moving to the Clinic,” brought together clinicians and patients with first-hand experience in clinical trials involving stem cell treatments. This session proved very popular with the audience of more than 200, including numerous patients and patient advocates. This mix stimulated the post-presentation discussion with many thought-provoking questions. Our special thanks to Lisa Willemse of the Stem Cell Network of Canada and the ISSCR Public Education Committee for their key role in making this a successful event.

The Industry Wednesday Symposium was again offered immediately prior to the opening of the meeting. Now in its fourth year, this symposium presented topical issues in stem cell science framed by industry leaders. Complementing these were the four new, member-organized Focus Sessions offering programs in support of science, society and education. Among these was a special symposium in honor of Dr. Ernest McCulloch. In total, eight well-attended parallel sessions were held.

The 2011 meeting opened with a talk from Dr. Janet Rossant, who gave an excellent overview of the history and future of stem cell research, from the seminal work of Drs. Till and McCulloch to the discovery of iPS cells and stem cell applications in regenerative medicine. This theme was continued in the keynote address from Dr. Robert Langer. Dr. Langer, who has made many contributions to the field of regenerative medicine, delivered a cross-disciplinary talk that covered multiple instances where biomaterials and tissue engineering could be applied to stem cells treatments for a variety of injuries and disease.

In addition to the McEwen Centre Award for Innovation, we were pleased to present two additional awards. The 2011 ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award was given to Robert Blelloch for his study of the roles of microRNAs in the control of stem cell behavior. In addition, the inaugural ISSCR Public Service Award was presented to Robert Klein, outgoing chairman of the Governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), for his outstanding contribution of public service to the fields of stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

One of the highlights of the meeting for many attendees was an address on Saturday morning by research and patient advocate Charles Sabine. A former correspondent for NBC News, Mr. Sabine has become an advocate for the freedom of scientific research, particularly in the areas of neurodegenerative disease. In his moving speech, Mr. Sabine detailed his experiences as a war correspondent and contrasted these with his family history and his own diagnosis with Huntington’s disease.

The meeting closed with the fourth annual Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture given by Dr. Nicole Le Douarin. In her talk, Dr. Le Douarin reinforced the importance of our understanding of early development and particularly focused on the contributions of neural crest derivatives to adult tissues and how they may inform, and confound, current work investigating adult stem cells.

This recap only touches on a fraction of what was presented at the meeting this year in Toronto. Please look for an in-depth scientific meeting report appearing in the ISSCR pages of Cell Stem Cell in October 2011.

ISSCR 2012: Save the Date!
June 13 – 16, 2012
Yokohama, Japan

The ISSCR will return to the Asia-Pacific for the ISSCR 10th Annual Meeting set against the culturally and scientifically rich backdrop of Yokohama, Japan. The meeting is co-sponsored by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University. Abstract submissions will begin in Fall 2011. Plan to join us!

Awards and Honors

2011 Junior Investigator Poster Awards.  Each year the ISSCR presents awards for outstanding poster presentations by Junior Investigators. This year’s winners received a $250 stipend, a one-year subscription to Cell Stem Cell and Current Protocols in Stem Cell Research, and complimentary registration to the ISSCR 10th Annual Meeting in 2012 in Yokohama, Japan.

Eric Lechman, University Health Network, Toronto – miR-126 bioactivity marks the primitive compartment on AML and regulates human leukemia stem cell numbers

Pulin Li, Children’s Hospital Boston – Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids regulate hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal during stress response and embryonic hematopoiesis

Shyh-Chang Ng, Harvard Medical School – The Lin28-Let-7 axis regulates embryonic and adult glucose metabolism in mammals

Satoshi Nori, Keio University School of Medicine – Transplantation of human iPS cell-derived neurospheres for the treatment of spinal cord injury in NOD-SCID mice

Peter van Galen, Ontario Cancer Institute/University Health Network, Toronto – Identification of human stem cell regulators through high-throughput functional screens

Cong Xu, Children’s Hospital Boston – Nanog regulates endoderm formation through the Mxtx2-Nodal pathway.

In addition, the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), awarded one of their Young Scientist Poster Awards, which consists of a $500 stipend, travel and accommodations to the SLAS 2012 Meeting in San Diego, February 4 – 8, 2012, with the opportunity to present their poster at the meeting. Congratulations to the following ISSCR Junior Investigator and recipient of the SLAS award:

Brian Cox, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute – Identification of mouse stem cell-surface proteins enables isolation of lineage progenitor cells directly from the mouse blastocyst using flow cytometry.

 2011 Travel Awards. Each year, travel grants are awarded to assist with travel to attend the ISSCR annual meeting. This year, 2011 Travel Grants for travel to the ISSCR 9th Annual Meeting were supported by: the ISSCR, the Australian Stem Cell Centre, BD Biosciences and the Stem Cell Network

ISSCR-supported Travel Grant Recipients

Ece Akhan Akhan Adi Alajem Brígida Almeida Lixia Bai Anannya Banga Ori Bar-Nur Uri Ben-David Jacob Blumenthal Tal Bruck Stefan Brunner Shannon Buckley Mi Cai Andre Catic Stuart Chambers Fang-Pei Chang Chien-Wen Chen Pakpoom Kheolamai Toshihiro Kobayashi Pooja Kumar Anujith Kumar Elisabeth Larsen Aaron Levine Guangnan Li Zhe Li Yuchun Liu Ilana Livyatan Angelo Lombardo Dongdong Ma Yo Mabuchi Shin-ichi Mae Mohammad Mandegar Sirikul Manochantr Giacomo Masserdotti Anna Mattout Yves Maury Freyja McClenahan Shai Melcer Giulia Meneghello Miguel Mitne Neto Sujata Mohanty Morvarid Mohseni Dafni Moschidou Laura Muertz Kristopher Nazor

Yee Sook Cho Hong Seo Choi Hyung Jun Choi Diana Coronado Victor Dayan Valdo Jose Dias da Silva Dasa Dolezalova Kalina Draganova Marleen Eijkholt Kim Erwes Fernando Ezquer Marcelo Ezquer Tiago Faial Yiping FAN Faranak Fattahi Joji Fujisaki Yifan Ng Anja Nitzsche Aya Ogura Mariaestela Ortiz Bruna Paulsen Gioia Petrighi Polidori Ulrich Pfisterer Sarah Pringle Stephanie Protze Li Qian Tali Re'em Paulo Henrique Rosado de Castro Ricardo Rossello Piriya Sasajala Katja Schulze Bryce Seifert S.W. Steven Shaw Hiroko Shimada Maria Shutova Ng Shyh-Chang Karim Si-Tayeb Esther Son Hathaitip Sritanaudomchai Ryohichi Sugimura Zeinab Taghizadeh Jignesh Tailor Naoya Takayama

Mariana Garcia Marcela Garita-Hernandez Astrid Gillich Renee Gordon Yvonne Gruber Mica Donny Hanjaya-Putra Nicholas Hannan Garrett Heffner Ahmed Hegab Dominic Heng Huimei Hong Justin Ichida Banu Iskender Linda Jansson Zi-Bing Jin Junghyun Jo Hitoshi Takizawa Yu-Zhen Tan Koji Tanabe Daiki Tateyama Derk ten Berge Adrian Teo Eirini Trompouki Alicia Vaca Yu-Chieh Wang Xiaoqun Wang Qingjie Wang James Wood Min-Zu Wu Yao-Ming Wu Lina Xiang Liangqi Xie Cong Xu Swathi Yadlapalli Kohei Yamamizu Taiji Yamazoe Hongyao Yu AzadehZahabi Zhiyong Zhang Jianhong Zhu Lili Zhu Limor Zwi-Dantsis

Australian Stem Cell Centre-supported Travel Grant Recipients

Yen-Shun Chen Tracy Heng Danika Khong

Juan Carlos Polanco Chew-Li Soh Nilay Thakar

Charlotte Yap Qing Cissy Yu

BD Bioscience-supported Travel Grant Recipients

Jerome Artus Daniela Bueno Na-Yu Chia Brad Dykstra Sanae Hamanaka Chia-Ling Hsieh

Peggy Janich Joseph Klim Rong Lu Daniel Ortmann Sharon Paige Tea Soon Park

Nils Pfaff Enrique Salero Gen Shinoda Eszter Varga

Stem Cell Network-supported Travel Grant Recipients

Rajesh Alphonse Peggy Assinck Tzvi Aviv Steffen Biechele Melanie Bilodeau Jennifer Bruin Natalie Farra David Fluri Simon Fortier Catherine Frelin Marco Gallo Tia Gareau Sylvie Gervier Borhane Guezguez Lamis Hammoud S. M. Mahmudul Hasan Karin Hermans Corinne Hoesli Megan Hunt Rosario Isasi Melanie Kardel Shahryar Khattak Véronique Lecault Poh Soo Lee Bernard Lo

Ashley Calder Pearl Campbell Paul Cassar Aaron Cheung Chun-Yi Chiang Brian Cox Mandy Lo Anthony Mak Angela McDonald Michael Milyavsky Emanuel Nazareth Thu Minh Nguyen M. Cristina Nostro Kento Onishi Krishna Panchalingam Ben Paylor Feodor Price Iran Rashedi Shanti Rojas-Sutterlin P. Joel Ross Ryan Salewski Mehdi Shafa Andrey Shukalyuk Shreya Shukla Sabrina Sicilia

Elizabeth Csaszar Eric Deneault Julia DiLabio Andrea Ditadi Ugljesa Djuric Shaalee Dworski Darek Sikorski Rita Silva Kim Snyder Vahab Soleimani Hannah Song Brenna Swift Mark Ungrin Jie Ting Tina Wang WeiJia Wang Amy Wong Akihiro Yamashita Gustavo Yannarelli Jonathan Yeh Telford Yeung Hang Yin Yan (Mary) Zhang Regan-Heng Zhang

 

• Support/Exhibit

Our Supporters

Platinum Supporters

Gold Supporters

Silver Supporters

Bronze Supporters

General Supporters

• Media Partners