Seven plenary sessions make up the core of ISSCR 2021, and focus on key areas of stem cell research and its application. Plenary sessions showcase speakers who can inspire and invigorate attendees with their cutting-edge research and ideas. Organized by the ISSCR Annual Meeting Program Committee. 

Featured Speakers

Presidential Symposium

Award Lectures

Plenary I: Presidential Symposium: What's in a Germ Layer?
Sponsor: BlueRock Therapeutics

Elaine Fuchs, PhD, Rockefeller University, USA

Meritxell Huch, PhD, Max Planck Dresden, Germany

Charles Murry, MD, PhD, University of Washington, USA

Lorenz Studer, MD, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, USA

Plenary II: Stem Cell Niches

Ernest McCulloch Lecture: Sean Morrison, PhD, UT Southwestern, USA

Anne McLaren Lecture: Susana Chuva da Sousa Lopes, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands

Ya-chieh Hsu, PhD, Harvard University, USA

Plenary III: Enabling Technologies/Emerging Technologies
Sponsor: T-CiRA

Runwanthi Gunawardane, PhD, Allen Institute for Cell Science, USA

David R. Liu, PhD, Harvard University, USA

Matthais Lutolf, PhD, EFPL, Switzerland

Timm Schroeder, PhD, ETH Zurich, Basel, Switzerland

Plenary IV: Self-Organization of Developmental Processes

Melissa Little, PhD, Murdoch Children's Research Hospital, Australia

Nicolas Rivron, PhD, IMBA, Austria

James Sharpe, PhD,  EMBL Barcelona, Spain

Takanori Takebe, MD, Children's Hospital Cincinnati, USA

Yi Arial Zeng, PhD, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, China

 
Plenary V: Cellular Identity
Sponsor: Vision Care, Inc. 

Amanda Fisher, PhD, UKRI-MRC & Imperial College London, UK

Samantha Morris, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine, USA

John Ngai, PhD, NIH Brain Initiative, USA

Ramesh Shivdasani, MD, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, USA

Plenary VI: Cellular Therapy and Tissue Engineering
Sponsor: STEMCELL Technologies

Shuibing Chen, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College, USA

Sonja Schrepfer, MD, PhD, UCSF and Sana Biotechnology Inc., USA

Paul Tesar, PhD, Case Western Reserve University, USA

Wolfram Zimmermann, MD, University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany

Plenary VII: Breakthroughs in Therapy Development
Sponsor: bit.bio

Keynote Address: Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, CiRA, Kyoto University, Japan

John McNeish Memorial Lecture: Viviane Tabar, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA

James E. Bradner, MD, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, USA

Sergiu Pasca, MD, Stanford University, USA