Majlinda Lako, Institute of Genetic Medicine, International Centre for Life, University of Newcastle, UK and
Miodrag Stojkovic, Human Genetics, Medical Faculty, University of Kragujevac, Serbia

On a beautiful Saturday morning of the 15^th of October, the fourth largest city of Serbia, Kragujevac welcomed a large number of international stem cell scientists to celebrate the 7^th Young Investigator Award (YIA) of Stem Cells for 2011. The name of the city is derived from the Serbian word “kraguj” – or “Hawk” and the name Kragujevac translates as, “the Hawk’s nest”.  This is a beautiful region of Serbia, made all the more stunning by the colours of Autumn but the famous Serbian hospitality and their delicious traditional food and drink made this a truly memorable meeting place. Kragujevac was the first capital of modern Serbia and has been known for a while as the country’s biggest auto manufacturer but in the last ten years the city has seen major academic and scientific developments so that the Medical Faculty of Kragujevac University figures as one the top 5 five scientific institutions in Serbia. It is no wonder that both the Medical Faculty and the city of Kragujevac were the main driving force and sponsors for such a prestigious annual event organised by the “Stem Cells” journal.

Place: Keystone, CO
Date: 15^th to 20^th February 2010

Keystone Symposia has served the bioscience community for 38 years by providing a forum to publicise high quality scientific data in a relaxing environment conducive to the establishment of links between researchers. One of the best features of Keystone meetings is that they are not too large and one gets a chance to talk to some of the best researchers in the field and more often than not they are willing to share as yet unpublished results. The current meeting which took place in the Keystone conference centre was no exception to this.

‘Keeping an eye on Neural Stem Cells in light of Photoreceptor Degeneration’

Intensive research efforts worldwide have now brought us closer to understanding how we might drive the differentiation of stem cells towards functional somatic phenotypes and improve cellular integration for visual reconstitution in various forms of retinal degeneration.

First-In-Man Experience of Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Transplantation in the Treatment of Patients with an Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (APOLLO Trial - Cytori).

H.J. Duckers*; Patrick Serruys**

* Erasmus Medical Centre, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
** Department of Interventional Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Centre, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Introduction:
A number of pilot trials as well as two larger randomized trials have shown a significant benefit of treatment with bone marrow mononuclear cells in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Autologous adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRCs) can be obtained from subcutaneous adipose tissue in sufficient amount for therapy and require no cell culture step before use. While similar to bone marrow derived adult stem cells in differentiation potential, the usual abundance of adipose tissue in human patients and the higher frequency of adult stem cells per unit mass (including mesenchymal stem cells and EPCs) allows fast isolation of an efficacious number of cells without having to culture expand them. Preparation of therapeutic doses of ADRCs involves no cell culture and can be achieved in less than two hours from the time of donor tissue acquisition. This allows for treatment during the same procedure as the harvest of the adipose tissue and can thus be appended to the primary percutaneous coronary interventional treatment (PCI) of an acute myocardial infarction.

Report from the 6th Annual Meeting of the International Federation of Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS)

Toulouse, France October 24-26, 2008

IFATS, the world’s only interdisciplinary fat tissue society, recently held their 2008 annual meeting in Toulouse, France. This conference was the largest in the organization’s history, bringing together 200 scientists from over 13 different countries, to share knowledge and ideas, and discuss applications and issues regarding the use of stem cells derived from fat to regenerate and repair tissues. Investigators in basic and translational science and therapy attended 5 plenary sessions, designed to cover the most recent advances in stem cells and regenerative medicine, in addition to 35 oral abstract presentations and 85 poster presentations.