Local researchers on speaking roster for World Stem Cell Summit
By Tom Henderson
Stem cells
Researchers and policy makers from Michigan will be front and center during the three-day World Stem Cell Summit that begins Monday at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.
The summit brings together some 1,200 researchers, patients, investors, ethicists, government officials and representatives from pharmaceutical companies. More than 150 speakers will make more than 50 hours of presentations.
On the home page of its Web site, summit organizers — it is put on by the Genetics Policy Institute, a Florida-based nonprofit — is a section called “Why Michigan” which touts Michigan's research resources such as leading universities and labs and public and private support for biotech.
The roster of speakers has heavy Michigan leanings:
• State Sen. Carl Levin will give the first keynote address at 8:30 a.m. Monday, followed by an address by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
• The first panel discussion at 9:30 a.m., “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Lessons for Stem Cell Researchers and Patients” — has a local speaker. Lacks was an African-American who died of cervical cancer in 1951, but not before cells were taken from here and cultured into cell lines that have become the cornerstone of researchers around the world — will be moderated by Edward Goldman of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
• The next presentation, at 11, will be by Dr. Sean Morrison, director of UM's Center for Stem Cell Biology.
• At noon, Alfred Taubman, founder and chair of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute and Dr. Eva Feldman, who directs it, will talk about the institute's work and promising early results from human clinical trials Feldman is overseeing at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where neural progenitor cells, which are stem cells that have been developed beyond the embryonic stage, are injected into patients with Lou Gehrig's disease.
• Afternoon panels will be moderated by Jack Mosher of UM; Sheri Mark, of the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research & Cures, an advocacy group that helped pass Proposal 2 in Michigan in 2008, which allowed embryonic stem cell research in the state; and James Shayman of UM, who will be joined in a discussion of oversight issues regarding embryonic stem cell research by WSU law professor Lance Gable.
• Stephen Rapundalo, the CEO of Ann Arbor-based MichBio, a nonprofit industry organization, will moderate a panel on Michigan as a center for regenerative medicine.
In all, 14 UM researchers will give presentations or be part of panel discussions. One of the more interesting promises to be a progress report by Dr. Max Wicha, director of the UM Comprehensive Cancer Center, who will speak about promising early results in treating women with advanced breast cancer, using experimental drugs to block the action of the stem cells in tumors. Those cells seem to be resistant to traditional therapies.
Wayne State will have four representatives or moderators during the conference — Gable; Graham Parker of the WSU School of Medicine, and Carol Brenner, an associate professor of physiology, will talk about cellular reprogramming; Economics Professor Allen Goodman will take part in a discussion on stem cells and regenerative medicine as an engine for economic growth; and Jim Eliason, director of TechTown's Stem Cell Commercialization Center and a colleague of Brenner's, will speak at one panel and moderate another.
Michigan State University will have two faculty speaking during the conference: Timothy Collier, on a panel on progress in treating Parkinson's and other neurological diseases; and Jose Cibelli, on a panel on pluripotent cells, which are adult cells tricked into becoming similar to stem cells.
Oakland University also will have two — Sumi Dinda will moderate a panel on the outlook for biobanking industries; and Rasul Chaudry will speak on a panel on clinical uses of stem cell blood derived from umbilical cord blood;
Gary Dunbar will represent Central Michigan University on a panel on disease modeling.
UM's Feldman said that while the conference is relatively young compared to other scientific conferences — the first was held in conjunction with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston — it has quickly established itself as a must-attend.
“It's becoming a bigger deal every year. This year, there is an exceptional group of national and international scientists who will be attending,” she said. “But it doesn't just allow scientists to talk to each other, it allows us to talk to the pharmaceutical community, too, to find out what they need from us.
“It's a very interesting meeting, the only one if its kind — with everyone who comes to the table. This is becoming a driver of science and technology as well as the political and social aspects.”
The summit, which is co-sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the University Research Corridor, which is made up of UM, MSU and WSU, will also feature 60 exhibitors. See www.worldstemcellsummit.com.
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