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