Stem cell meeting of the minds in Yokohama, Japan

This past week several people from CIRM have been in Japan at the yearly meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. These meetings are a great chance to stay current with stem cell science and see where the field is moving. If we’re going to accelerate new therapies, our science officers need to be out there meeting the people who are carrying out those groundbreaking discoveries.

The meeting is also a chance to sit down with our international collaborative funding partners (here’s a list of those partners). It’s not every day collaborators from Spain, Germany, Australia, the UK, Japan and others can gather around a table to discuss the best ways of moving the field forward.

A developmental biology blog called The Node summarized of the first day of the meeting, including a quote from NBC journalist Charles Sabine, who was recently diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and who spoke about his hopes for stem cell research at the opening plenary session.

“In a world of total darkness, a glimmer of light emboldens human spirit”

You can read the blog to learn more about some of the individual topics of discussion. The writer summed the day up like this:

While the topic of the day’s talks varied widely, the singular mood was one of forward-facing hope for the future of stem cells and their use in regenerative medicine. Looking up into the neon-tinged night sky, I felt the potential for our research was as high as the towering skyscrapers of Yokohama Bay.

A.A.