ISSCR Consortium

Advanced Stem Cell-Based Models in Drug Discovery and Development

The ISSCR Consortium on Advanced Stem Cell-Based Models in Drug Discovery and Development is a global consortium of industry and academic scientists along with regulatory experts formed to establish standards, develop tools, and build the collaborative infrastructure needed to accelerate responsible integration of stem cell-derived models into preclinical stages of drug development . This initiative is in line with recent shifts in national research, funding policies, and regulatory frameworks toward new approach methodologies (NAMs) and the prioritization of human-based research and development.

Objectives

The consortium will work to advance the field through: 

  • Developing unified standards & qualification criteria. 

  • Increasing industry awareness of the predictive power of stem cell-based models. 

  • Facilitating the transfer of knowledge and models adoption from academia to  industry. 

  • Contributing to efforts that develop and define a regulatory framework. 

  • Improving scalability, maturity, and reproducibility issues with stem cell-based models. 

Steering Committee

  • Shuibing Chen, PhD, Weill Cornell, USA (Co-chair)​

  • Daniela Cornacchia, PhD, AstraZeneca, Sweden (Co-chair)​

  • Luigi Aloia, PhD, AstraZeneca, UK​

  • Erica Bello, PhD, Milner Institute, University of Cambridge, UK ​

  • Kapil Bharti, PhD, NEI/NIH, USA​

  • Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, Roche, Switzerland ​

  • Magdalena Kasendra, PhD, Cincinnati Children’s, USA​

  • Henning Kempf, PhD, GEM CELL hub at Novo Nordisk​

  • Christine Mummery, PhD, LUMC, Netherlands​

  • Steve Murry, PhD, Jackson Labs, USA​

  • Li Pang, MD, FDA, USA​

  • Hideyuki Okano, MD, PhD, Keio University, Japan​

  • Lee Rubin, PhD, Harvard University, USA​

  • Charis Segeritz-Walko, PhD, Novo Nordisk, Denmark ​

  • Clive Svendsen, PhD, Cedars-Sinai, USA​

  • Carlos Tristan, PhD, NCATS/NIH, USA​

  • Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, Stanford University, USA​

  • Matthias Zilbauer, MD, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK

Working Groups

  • Drug Discovery and Efficacy

  • Translational Safety and Pharmacokinetic Modeling

  • Precision Medicine

  • Model Validation: Benchmarking, Reproducibility, and Standards