This Symposium will explore the recent progress in liver development and stem cell differentiation in the context of cell therapy for chronic liver disease. The symposium provides a unique opportunity for basic and clinical researchers to interact and receive up-to-date training on the application of pluripotent stem cells to regenerative medicine.
The liver provides essential metabolic, exocrine and endocrine functions. Many forms of human liver disease can currently be treated only with orthotopic liver transplant. Biological and technical advances related with human embryonic stem cells suggest that pluripotency may provide an alternative cell-based therapy for liver disease. Development of methods and tools to engineer stem cells is necessary to generate renewable cultures of functional human hepatocytes for clinical-grade, cell therapies.
Session topics:
LIVER DEVELOPMENT - This session will assess the current concepts of liver development and how the molecular pathways that specify endoderm may provide insights for generating hepatocytes from pluripotent cells.
DIFFERENTIATION OF STEM CELLS TO HEPATIC PROGENITORS - This session will examine some of the recent advances in directing human stem cells to the hepatic lineage. Discussions will include the specific conditions required to obtain hepatic progenitors and how such progenitors may be identified purified and maintained.
STEM CELL BIOENGINEERING - This session will focus on different tools for developing chemically-defined culture systems and for site-directed recombination that will greatly facilitate the use of stem cells in regenerative strategies.
PERSCPECTIVES: CLINICAL APPLICATIONS - This session will focus on recent progress made with disease modeling in vitro and with transplantation of hepatocytes in animal models and in humans, with the goal of discussing problems which still must be solved in order to develop clinical-grade, cell-based therapies.
PERSPECTIVES: PHARMACO/TOXICOLOGY - This session will focus on the utility of pluripotent-derived human hepatocytes as models of toxicology testing and drug discovery.
For further information and to register, please visit: http://www.liv-es.eu Please note that no registration fee is charged. However, the number of attendees is restricted. Participants will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis
