Conference Schedule
The Conference Schedule is subject to change.
Day 1: Thursday, April 11, 2013
Moderator: Meredith Vieira, Correspondent, NBC News
8:30 AM Guest arrival
9:15 AM Greetings
Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
9:35 AM Overview of the Conference and 2013 Goals
Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and President of the Stem for Life Foundation
9:45 AM Video: Highlights from 30 Years of Adult Stem Cell Advances
9:55 AM Living With Chronic Illness and the Promise of Regenerative Medicine
Meredith Vieira, Correspondent, NBC News
10:05 AM Multiple Sclerosis: Hope for the Future
Moderator: Richard M. Cohen, Journalist
Panel:
Dr. Saud Sadiq, Director, The Tisch MS Research Center of New York
Dr. Richard Burt, Chief of Division of Immunotherapy, Dept. of Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Roxane Julia Beygi, Multiple Sclerosis Stem Cell Patient
Jim Danhakl, CIDP Stem Cell Patient
This session will look at current therapies for MS and the need for treatment that repairs or regenerates neurological damage. The session will highlight results from 120 patients who have undergone autologous (one’s own) hematopoietic (blood) stem cell transplantation performed in the inflammatory or active stage of multiple sclerosis which has demonstrated sustained treatment free remission for beyond 5 years and significant reversal of neurologic disability and improvement in quality of life.
11:35 AM Tcelna™: T-cell Immunotherapy for Multiple Sclerosis
Neil Warma, President and Chief Executive Officer of Opexa Therapeutics
Opexa Therapeutics is providing hope to Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis patients and their families with Tcelna™, a personalized cellular immunotherapy in late stage clinical development. Tcelna has the potential to address the significant unmet medical needs of the large multiple sclerosis patient population.
11:55 PM Break
12:10 PM Pontifical Hero Award
12:20 PM Panel Discussion: Contemporary Stem Cell Transplants and Current Research
Moderator: Dr. Max Gomez, WBCS-TV Correspondent
Panel: Dr. Edwin Horwitz, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Stephen Nimer, Director, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Amitabha Mazumder, New York University Cancer Center
A discussion of current uses and biological principles in stem cell transplants for treatment of leukemias, other cancers, and non-malignancies; the role of nonmyeloablative or “mini” transplants; engineering a graft vs leukemia response; sources for stem cells and their role as “helpers” rather than sources of differentiated cells.
1:15 PM Buffet Lunch and Breakout Lunches
• Living with MS with the Cohen/Vieira Family and Opexa Therapeutics (limited space)
• Student Ambassadors Lunch
2:40 PM Regulatory Realities: A Success Story
Dr. C. Randal Mills, President and Chief Executive Officer, Osiris Therapeutics
A review of the scientific, regulatory, and moral challenges encountered during the development and approval of one of the world’s first approved stem cell drugs, with specific emphasis placed on the unique obstacles of developing a therapy for children with a rare and lethal disease.
3:00 PM Stem Cell Therapies in 2050
Robin R. Young, President of RRY Publications and Robin Young Consulting Group
As of the end of last year, more than 1 million patients have been treated with stem cell therapies for a wide range of diseases. The safety profile for these therapies has been outstanding. What have we learned so far and how will stem cell therapies continue to evolve? Based on emerging trends, by 2050 stem cell therapies are likely to look very different than they do today. And, by 2050, they will be routine treatment for hundreds of millions of patients.
3:15 PM Video: Cardiovascular Cell Therapy
3:20 PM Discussion: Cardiovascular Cell Therapy – Patient and Physician Perspectives
Dr. Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, Vice President of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs, NeoStem
Don Robinson, Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Patient, AMR-001
Discussion by a cardiologist who will describe how heart attacks impact the heart and how cell therapy is used to treat heart attacks and an interview with a patient who will tell his personal story of cell therapy treatment.
3:30 PM Break
3:45 PM Panel Discussion: Best Cell Therapies for Cardiovascular Disease: Autologous vs. Allogeneic
Moderator: Edward Tenthoff, Senior Research Analyst, Piper Jaffray
Panel: Autologous Cell Therapies:
Dr. Douglas W. Losordo, Northwestern University
Dr. Piero Anversa, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Andreas Michael Zeiher, University of Frankfurt
Allogeneic Cell Therapies:
Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Athersys
Dr. Donna Skerrett, Chief Medical Officer, Mesoblast
View a video on Mesoblast here »
This panel will highlight the exciting progress being made with adult stem cell therapies to treat cardiovascular disease. Leading physicians from Europe and America along with representatives from global biotech companies will discuss on-going clinical trials and debate the pros and cons of autologous versus allogeneic approaches.
5:00 PM How Do You Turn a Cell Into a Therapy?
Dr. Robert A. Preti, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Progenitor Cell Therapy
Cell therapies are “manufactured”, following and adapting many of the guidelines of traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing, but keeping in mind that these are complex biological products and have their own unique requirements. The cells must be carefully collected, transported, processed, stored, and delivered to the patient.
5:20 PM Key Innovator Award Presentation
6:00 PM Cocktail Reception at the Vatican Museums
7:00 PM Private Tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Day 2: Friday, April 12, 2013
Moderator: Bill Hemmer, Anchor, Fox News Channel
8:30 AM Guest Arrival
9:00 AM Opening Remarks
Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and President of the Stem for Life Foundation
9:10 AM The American Landscape of Stem Cell Politics
Tommy G. Thompson, Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
A former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (2001-2005) under President G.W. Bush, Tommy Thompson will provide an overview of how the stem cell culture debates divided the United States, and much of the world.
9:20 AM Panel Discussion: The Politics, Perceptions & Promise of Stem Cell Therapies
Moderator: Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and author
Panel:
Norm Coleman, Former U.S. Senator, Minnesota
William Hurlbut, Former Member, President’s Council on Bioethics
Tommy G. Thompson, Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Dr. Chris Mason, University College London
The long, painful, fifteen year debate over stem cell research and therapy is changing – because the facts of the debate have changed. The most promising therapeutic breakthroughs are being made in the area of adult stem cell research, while fetal research, the source of so much anguished disagreement, has unexpectedly yielded less impressive results. How does all this change the stem cell debate in the Western
democracies? Where does the debate stand? What is next? What is needed?
10:35 AM Keynote Speech: Dr. John Gurdon, 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine Winner
11:05 AM Break
11:20 AM Pontifical Hero Award
11:30 AM Panel Discussion: Organ & Tissue Repair
Moderator: Bill Hemmer, Anchor, Fox News Channel
Panel:
Dr. Paolo De Coppi, Head of Surgery Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health
Dr. Christopher J. Centeno, Centeno-Schultz Clinic
Dr. Dolores Baksh, Director of Research & Development, Organogenesis Inc.
This panel will examine the latest developments in organ and tissue regeneration, including stem cell-supported tracheal transplantation, the use of stem cells in knee osteoarthritis, and skin repair using cellular material.
12:20 PM Pontifical Hero Award
12:30 PM Buffet Lunch and Breakout Lunches
• Healing the Heart with Dr. Emerson C. Perin, Texas Heart Institute (limited space)
• Student Ambassadors Lunch
1:55 PM Video: Hope for the Future, featuring Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly
2:00 PM Panel Discussion: Adult Stem Cells & Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
Moderator: Dr. Martin M. Bednar, Executive Director, Neuroscience Research, Pfizer
Panel:
Dr. David C. Hess, Professor and Chairman Dept. of Neurology and Co-Director of The Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute at Georgia Regents University
Dr. Charles Cox, Pediatric Program in Regenerative Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Dr. Dong H. Kim, Professor and Chairman, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Dr. Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, Vice President of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs, NeoStem
The panel will provide an overview of neurorestorative clinical trials for various central nervous system (CNS) disorders, with an emphasis on traumatic brain injury. Over the early part of this decade, there has been a shift toward the increasing use of autologous stem cell approaches in clinical trials for CNS disorders. Although there has been a significant increase in neurorestorative clinical trials for traumatic brain injury, many of these studies employ growth hormone to encourage neurorestoration, with the number of adult stem cell approaches remaining constant in the current decade.
3:15 PM Break
3:25 PM Discussion: Targeting Diabetes, from Immunoregulation to Replacement Strategies
Moderator: Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and President of the Stem for Life Foundation
Panel:
Dr. Camillo Ricordi, Director of Cell Transplant Center and Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami, Florida
Dr. Jonathan Lakey, Director of Research and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine
The high cost of healthcare is directly associated with the increase in mortality and morbidity of diabetes. More than 20% of the health care dollars in the U.S. is spent for the care of people with diagnosed diabetes. While investment in diabetes prevention offers the opportunity to generate savings three times higher than the future costs associated with the diseases, adult stem cells offer the opportunity to develop cost effective therapeutic strategies. Another tactic, cell transplantation of isolated islets from piglet pancreases, offers a model of viable cells for transplantation.
3:55 PMT-cell Immunotherapy for Diabetes
Dr. Andrew Pecora, Chief Medical Officer of NeoStem
4:10 PM Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders and Scholars Through Education
Dr. Anthony J. Cernera, President and CEO of the Center for Interreligious
Understanding Education has always been an important element in the building of the human community. In the 21st century, cultivating the knowledge, skills, competencies and imagination for a world of rapid and constant change is essential.
4:25 PM The Student Ambassador for a Cellular Age Program
Catherine Vaczy, Trustee of the Stem for Life Foundation
Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, Pontifical Council for Culture
4:30 PM Ethical Considerations in Scientific Discovery
Dr. Antonio Gioacchino Spagnolo, Director of the Institute of Bioethics, School of Medicine at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome
4:45 PM Education, Faith, Science & Culture in a Cellular Future
Dr. Philip Sloan, University of Notre Dame
Fr. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, Providence College
5:15 PM Social & Cultural Considerations for Cellular Therapies
Dr. Malik M. Hasan, Founder and CEO of HealthTrio
The ability to extend the healthy life span would have profound social consequences in the sciences, arts, and economics.
5:30 PM Cord Blood and Placental Stem Cells: Perceptions and Opportunities
Dr. Robert Hariri, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics
Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood and the post partum placenta have an established track record as therapeutics for human disease. The versatility and unique biological advantages of cells derived from a living, newborn donor make this highly scalable source one of the most powerful platforms for the pharmaceuticalization of cell therapy. Those attributes and current experience with the clinical development of placental cells as the treatment for multiple clinical indications will be described.
5:50 PM Key Visionary Award Presentation
Day 3: Saturday, April 13, 2013
Moderator: Dr. Max Gomez, WBCS-TV Correspondent
7:30 AM Guest Arrival
8:00 AM Opening Remarks
Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and President of the Stem for Life Foundation
8:10 AM Pontifical Hero Award
8:20 AM Stem Cells, Cancer and Aging — A Search for Solutions.
Stem Cells as a Solution to the Global Aging Dilemma
Dr. Vincent C. Giampapa, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CellHealth™ Institute
VSELs and Aging
Dr. Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, Director of the Developmental Biology Research Program, James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville
Can Aging be Reversed?
Dr. Ronald A. DePinho, President of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
What Questions Haven’t Been Addressed with Respect to Stem Cells, Cancer and Aging?
Dr. Wayne A. Marasco, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
9:05 AM Break
9:15 AM Panel: How a Genetic Mutation Can Increase Life Span and Prevent Cancer and Diabetes
Moderator: Dr. Max Gomez, WCBS-TV Correspondent
Panel:
Dr. Nir Barzilai, Director of the Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einsten college of Medicine
Maria Angelini: Longevity Study Subject
Dr. Valter Longo, Director of the Longevity Institute, University of Southern California, Davis
Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, University San Francisco/Instituto IEMYR, Ecuador
Norman Alexander Apolo-Ramirez, Laron Syndrome Study Subject
This panel will examine the new frontiers of cellular research pertaining to longevity, epigenetics and disease resistance, with a unique look at patients with Laron syndrome and their absence of cancer and diabetes.
10:00 AM Key Philanthropy Award Presentation
10:10 AM Closing Remarks
Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and President of the Stem for Life Foundation
Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, Pontifical Council for Culture
