Presentations from conferences are up now

As promised some of the presentations from the conference have been made available for you to view online.
You can find the presentations here.

Thank you to all

A big thank you to all presenters and delegates. The feedback we have had across the board has been really valuable, and we look forward to see you all again.
Presentations will go live in the next few days.

Very Last Few Days to Register for P2T 2012

Registration will close at midday on Monday March 19th - so if you have not already booked your place time is ticking away. Book now!

CPD Accreditation and Registration Period Extended

SSCN are delighted to announce that the Progress to Therapy 2012 conference will attract CPD accreditation of up to six points each day from the Royal College of Physicians.

Registration will now remain open to enable you to join us in Glasgow on March 21st – 23rd 2012.

With a panel of international speakers and a range of partners actively involved in developing stem cell and regenerative medicine products, this will be a major gathering of experts with the skills, knowledge and experience in this growing field of science, technology and medicine.

There is also still time to submit a poster abstract for this conference. For more information please contact Kirsten Smith on kirsten@sscn.co.uk

Dr Olivia Kelly to replace Allan Robins on Day 3 of P2T

Unfortunately Allan Robins is unable to be with us Progress to Therapy 2012. However, in his place, we will now welcome Dr Olivia Kelly, current Director of Cell Biology at Viacyte Inc. We are very grateful and excited to welcome Olivia to Glasgow and have her discuss her topic of ES Derived Islets to Treat Type I Diabetes with us on day three.

P2T Fully Accredited By Royal College of Physicians

Good News!

All three days of the Progress to Therapy 2012 conference have now been CPD accredited.

CPD Accreditation Applied For...

Progress to Therapy 2012 is currently in the process of obtainting CPD accreditation for its three day conference in March.

Hurry, last chance to reserve your place at this conference before registration closes on Friday....

New Speakers Added to Agenda

Dr John Purves is a life science consultant having recently retired from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) where he worked for 14 years, as head of sector for the quality of medicines, including classic biological and biotechnology products. He has been involved in the development of legislation, guidelines and of the review procedures for dossiers submitted in support of applications for Marketing Authorisations in many areas dealing with such products, including recombinant-DNA, biosimilar, influenza and advanced therapy products.

Prior to joining the EMA, Dr Purves was manager of the biotechnology and biological unit, for 21 years, at the UK Medicines Control Agency, now the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. At the UK agency, he was involved in the drafting of some legislation, and of a number of supportive European Union guidelines, dealing with the manufacture and control of recombinant-DNA products and products derived from human blood and plasma. Dr Purves also oversaw efforts to minimise the risk of the transmission of spongiform encephalopathies to humans through medicinal products.

Dr Christian van den Bos serves as Executive Program Manager at Lonza and drives Lonza’s development efforts for advanced stem cell products.

Dr van den Bos has over 15 years of experience in cell therapy work and has managed cell therapy projects ranging from early R&D to production, regulatory and clinical trials.

Prior to joining Lonza he served as Sr. VP, EU Affairs for Cytograft, USA, as Head of Development and Operations for Symetis, Switzerland &Germany, as VP of R&D for Viacell Europe, Germany, as Director, Biologics, for Spectra Stable Isotopes/Martek Biosciences, USA and as Sr. Scientist for Osiris Therapeutics, Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr Gert De Beckker is Head Regulatory Affairs at TiGenix NV, a late stage biomedical company that focuses on innovative local treatments for damaged and osteoarthritic joints. In the past 2.5 years he was responsible for the centralized marketing authorization application of ChondroCelect a cell based therapy. This lead product of Tigenix was granted marketing authorization on October 5th 2009.

Last Two Days to Register for P2T at Reduced Early Bird Rate

The early bird rate for P2T 2012 is coming to an end on Friday, Feb 10th. This is your last chance to register at this reduced rate for this three day conference in Glasgow (March 21st - 23rd), bringing together international experts to share knowledge and experience with the aim of accelerating Progress to Therapy in Regenerative Medicine.

Early Bird Registration Rate Extended until February 10th 2012.

Due to demand we have extended our Early Bird registration rate for 10 days until Friday, February 10th 2012. This means you can save nearly £100 when registering for the full three days. P2T 2012 is an interdisciplinary three day conference in Glasgow bringing together international experts to share knowledge and experience with the aim of accelerating Progress to Therapy in Regenerative Medicine.Don't miss out, register your place now.

Dr Joseph F Amaral (Johnson and Johnson) Confirmed for P2T 2012

Vice President of Surgical Technology and Science at Johnson and Johnson, Dr Amaral is internationally recognized as a pioneer in laparoscopic surgery.

Most recently, Dr Amaral was President and CEO of Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) and its pediatric division Hasbro Children’s Hospital from 2000 to 20007 and also served as its COO for 3 1/2 years. During this period, he led a financial turnaround while at the same time investing over $450 million in renovation projects, new technologies and new facilities and tripling externally funded research.

Dr Amaral was instrumental in the success of Ultracision, a start-up company, by developing the company CEO Tom Davison, Ph.D., the Harmonic Scalpel, the first and still leading ultrasonically activated cutting and coagulating surgical device. He has served as a consultant, advisory board member and board member to multiple leading healthcare biotech and start-up companies.

He is Professor of Surgery at Brown University School of Medicine, member of 25+ professional societies, author of 80+ papers and book chapters and has delivered 250+ national and international presentations.

Dr Amaral will be discussing 'Clicnical Trials to Reimbursement' as part of one of our workshops on Day Three.

New Speaker Confirmed for P2T 2012 - Dr Allan Robins

Allan Robins, Ph.D. was appointed ViaCyte's Acting Chief Executive Officer in July 2011 and concurrently serves as Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. Prior to ViaCyte, Dr. Robins served as Chief Scientific Officer at BresaGen, Inc. and under his leadership, BresaGen, Inc. was awarded significant support for its stem cell research from the National Institutes of Health. Prior to BresaGen, Inc., Dr. Robins was Chief Scientific Officer at BresaGen Limited, where he helped raise over $30 million and developed a proprietary expression system which continues to be used in the production of protein pharmaceuticals.

Dr Robins’ P2T 2012 presentation will be titled ES Derived Islets to Treat Type I Diabetes

Confirmed Speakers

We are pleased to announce the following speakers have confirmed for Progress to Therapy 2012:

• Andrew Baker (University of Glasgow
• Colin Berry (University of Glasgow)
• Chris Breuer (Yale, USA)
• Robert Deans (Athersys, USA)
• Chris Denning (Nottingham)
• Joyce Frey (Pharmanet, USA)
• Timothy Kieffer (Diabetes Research, Vancouver)
• Nick Mills (University of Edinburgh)
• Bruno Peault (University of Edinburgh)
• Paul Riley (Oxford) 
• Jozef Bartunek (Eindhoven University, Holland)

• Costanza Emaneuli (University of Bristol)

• Steve Duncan (Medical College of Wisconsin, USA)

• Molly Stevens (Imperial College London)

• Allan Robbins (Viacyte Inc)

Find out more about the speakers here.

Professor Chris Breuer - Keynote speaker

New speaker added to 2012 P2T Conference. Prof Chris Breuer, Yale University, will speak about their cardiovascular regeneration studies, from Bench to Bedside and back again.

Welcome to the blog for Progress to Therapy Conference 2012.

What's special about this conference?

We in the UK are rapidly progressing towards therapies in regenerative medicine with an enviable global reputation. Against this backdrop, SSCN are bringing together experts of international stature to visit the question "What are the challenges and opportunities facing progress to regenerative medicine therapies?". 

What's it going to cover?

The first day of the conference will focus solely on cardiovascular disease and will be run in association with the HealthTech and Medicines KTN and British Heart Foundation.

The next two days will include Keynotes on a variety of topics including Minimally manipulated Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, Cultured Tissue Stem Cells, Cultured Pluripotent Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering and Medical Devices as well as Advances in iPS technology.

Mixed through these presentations will be world expert led interactive workshops on topics such as The Regulatory Environment, Imaging, Manufacturing to ATMP Compliance, Bioinformatics, Engaging Healthcare providers and The Business Pitch.

Amazing, how can I register?

Registration will open shortly and a link to the registration page will be available on this blog.