Inspiring intersections at Latest Advances in Stem Cell-based Disease Modelling and Drug Screening
An exhilarating couple of days at the symposium Latest Advances in Stem Cell-Based Disease Modelling and Drug Screening brought together a cross section of over 200 researchers at the forefront of stem cell-based disease modelling and drug screening.
The symposium opened with an inspiring keynote from Christine Mummery (reNEW Leiden), presenting work on hiPSC derived cardiovascular cells for drug screening and pharmacology – and closed with a fascinating presentation about fate, maturation, and age in human PSC-based models from Lorenz Studer (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). In between, a fantastic program of presenters from around the world showcased diverse perspectives within stem cell research, disease modelling, and drug screening – including speakers from all three reNEW nodes: Kevin Watt (reNEW Melbourne), Richard P. Davis (reNEW Leiden) and young scientists Janko Kajtez and Astrid M. Baattrup from reNEW Copenhagen.
A lively intersection of diverse perspectives on disease modelling and drug screening came from both industry and academia. As well as lots of academic researchers, there were many participants from local and international companies, including speakers Henning Kempf (Novo Nordisk), Malene Ambjørn (Lundbeck), Peter Reinhardt (Abbvie), and Olivier Pourquié (Cellular Intelligence). Cutting-edge technologies were exhibited by Yokogawa, Hamilton, CultiXcell A/S, STEMCELL Technologies, A/S Ninolab, Proteintech, BioNordika, Stem Genomics, Thermo Fisher, Omni Life Science and QKine.
Motivated young scientists brought great energy to discussions at the poster session, short talks and in breaks. Poster prizes sponsored generously by Disease Models & Mechanisms, EMBO Molecular Medicine, and Stem Cell Reports were awarded to Francesca Giulia Urso (reNEW Copenhagen), Morten D. Krebs (Institute of Biological Psychiatry), Colin O’Hern (Michigan State University) and Astrid M. Baattrup (reNEW Copenhagen), for their excellent scientific presentations.
“Latest Advances in Stem Cell-based Disease Modelling and Drug Screening was a brilliant opportunity to catch up with researchers and projects from the StemScreen network, all three nodes of reNEW, and beyond. It was exciting to see the level of interest and interactions from all the participants, and I am anticipating plenty of productive collaborations springing from here.” said Kim Bak Jensen, Project Lead of StemScreen & Professor and Node Director at reNEW, University of Copenhagen.
The symposium was co-organised by the Danish Stem Cell Society, DASCS (http://dascs.dk/) and the StemScreen Center for Stem Cell-based Disease Modelling and Drug Screening (https://stemscreen.ku.dk/). StemScreen is supported by Innovation Fund Denmark and comprises an imaging-based high-content screening facility based at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine – reNEW at the University of Copenhagen; and a network of researchers from Bioneer A/S, Synklino A/S, and the University of Copenhagen.
