The International Symposium “Stem cells, Development and Regulation” organized by the “Stems Cells in Development and Disease” BSIK Consortium in collaboration with Cells into Organs and held in the Tropical Museum, Amsterdam (NL) on Oct 9-11, 2007 was a huge success and of great benefit to European stem cell scientists. Over 400 researchers attended this conference. The talks focused on the latest results in stem cell, developmental and molecular biology. Topics covered included: how pluripotency is maintained in embryonic stem cells, the epigenetic reprogramming that occurs in cell differentiation and dedifferentiation, the development of stem cells and tissue systems, vital imaging of developmental processes, cancer stem cells and medical translational aspects of stem cells. The Cells to Organs consortium supported three of the main speakers – Giulio Cossu, Jim Smith and Elaine Dzierzak. Members of the Cells to Organs consortium that attended the meeting benefited not only from the scientific sessions but also from discussions with the numerous participants of the symposium.

Jim Smith in action

A more detailed report can be found on the BSIK website

Speakerslist:

Elaine Fuchs; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Rockefeller University, USA
Austin Smith; Institute for Stem Cell Biology Cambridge University, UK
Ihor Lemischka; Dept of Molecular Biology Princeton University, USA
Catherine Verfaillie; Hematology Section, O & N University of Leuven, B
Ben Scheres; Faculteit Biologie Utrecht University, NL
Margaret Fuller; Dept of Developmental Biology Stanford University, USA
Hans Clevers; Hubrecht Laboratory NIOB, Utrecht, NL
Elaine Dzierzak; Dept of Cell Biology  Erasmus MC, NL
Christine Mummery; Hubrecht Laboratory NIOB, NL
Maarten van Lohuizen; Nederlands Kanker Instituut  Netherlands Cancer Institute, NL
Peggy Farnham; Genome Center & Bioinformatics Prog University of California
Scott Fraser; Division of Biology Caltech, USA
Marianne Bronner-Fraser;  Division of Biology Caltech, USA
IrvingWeissman; Dept of Pathology Stanford University, USA
Roger Patient; Weatherall Inst. of Molecular Medicine University of Oxford, UK
Magdalena Götz; Institute of Stem Cell Research GSF, G
Jürg Müller; Developmental Biology Unit EMBL, G
Lukas Sommer; Institute of Cell Biology ETH,  CH
Andreas Trumpp; Cancer genes and stem cells ISREC, CH
Norman Maitland; Biology University of York, UK
JimSmith; Gurdon Research Institute, UK
Giulio Cossu; Stem Cell Research Institute Dibit Scientific Institute San Raffaele, IT