The 4th annual conference was held on September 16-17, 2016. The purpose of the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center's annual conference is to update physicians, scientists, nurses and other healthcare professionals, trainees and the general public in the greater Midwest region on:

1. The past, present, and future of adult stem cell therapy
2. New developments in adult stem cell research
3. Diagnosis and treatment guidelines related to cell therapy for various medical conditions
4. Management of patients using these new cell transplantation technologies
5. The ethical use of regulated adult stem cells

Objectives

• Assess the latest advances in adult stem cell therapy and technologies
• Discuss past, ongoing and emerging clinical trials using stem cell therapy in various medical conditions and their effects on patient outcomes.
• Describe the basics of processes necessary for effective translation of adult cell therapy.
• Recognize patients and diseases who can potentially benefit from cell therapy
• Discuss the debate related to the ethical use of stem cells

Agenda

Day 1, September 16

Session I: New Concepts in Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Moderators: Arshed Quyyumi and Brian Annex

8:00 a.m. Cardiac Microvascular Endothelium as a Target - Brian Annex

8:20 a.m. Stem Cell Metabolism Relevant for Cardiovascular Repair - Gangian Qin

8:40 a.m. Extracellular vesicles: Cell therapy Sans Cells - Ewa Zuba-Surma

9:00 a.m. Adipose stem cell-derived exosome-rich concentrate provides broad rescue from ischemia: from brain to kidney and heart - Keith March

9:20 a.m. Personalized Regenerative Medicine: Role of Autologous Exosomes - Phillip Yang

9:40 a.m. Regenerative capacity as a new risk factor - Arshed Quyyumi

10:00 a.m. Panel Discussion - Quyyumi, Annex, Qin, Zuba-Surma, March, Yang

10:10 a.m. Coffee Break

Session II: Cell Therapy in Hematology and Cancer Moderators: Joseph McGuirk and Linheng Li

10:20 a.m. Preclinical Cell Therapy of Cancer - Deryl Troyer / Tom Yankee

10:40 a.m. Targeting Drug-Resistant Leukemia Stem Cells - Linheng Li

11:00 a.m. Preparing Cells for Therapy in Humans - Rupal Soder

11:15 a.m. Wharton's Jelly MSCs for Graft vs. Host Disease - Joseph McGuirk

11:35 a.m. Patient Story - Rebecca Hertzog

11:45 a.m. Patient Story - Haley Daniels

11:55 a.m. Panel Discussion - McGuirk, Li, Troyer, Yankee, Soder

Session III: Exciting Multisystem Cell Therapy Possibilities Moderators: Ewa Zuba-Surma and Deryl Troyer

12:05 p.m. Lunch Break

12:45 p.m. Rescue of Femoral Head During Avascular Necrosis - Atta Behfar

1:00 p.m. Electrospinning scaffolds for Tissue Engineered Blood Vessels - Clay Quint

1:15 p.m. Adult Stem Cell Derived Functional Cardiomyocytes for Cell Therapy - Rajasingh Johnson

1:30 p.m. Cell Therapy for Neuronal Injury - Jay Vivian

1:45 p.m. Nano Bioactive Materials for Cardiac Repair - Arghya Paul

2:00 p.m. Regenerative Potential of Skin Stem Cells - Xiaoyang Wu

2:15 p.m. Replicating Kidney Tissue with Cells and Biomaterials - William Chang

2:30 p.m. Panel Discussion - Zuba-Surma, Troyer, Behfar, Quint, Johnson, Vivian, Paul, Wu, Chang

2:40 p.m. Coffee Break

Session IV: Heart Repair: Bench to Bedside to Community Moderators: Joseph Wu and Randy Mills

2:50 p.m. iPSCs for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine- Joseph Wu

3:10 p.m. Wharton's Jelly MSCs for Acute Myocardial Infarction - Marcin Majka

3:30 p.m. Facilitating stem cell translation: The CIRM experience - C. Randy Mills

3:50 p.m. Keynote Address: Therapeutic regeneration of the "irreversibly" injured myocardium- Eduardo Marban

4:50 p.m. Panel Discussion - Wu, Mills, Majka, Marban

5:10 p.m. Poster Session

6:30 p.m. Adjournment

Day 2, September 17

Session V: Cell-Based Approaches for Neurological Diseases Moderators: Richard Barohn and Peter Smith

8:00 a.m. New Approaches for Direct Conversion of Patient Fibroblasts into Neural Cells - Justin Ichida

8:20 a.m. Mesenchymal Stem Cells for ALS Therapy - Hiroshi Nishimune

8:40 a.m. Healing the Brain with Bone Marrow Cells - Paul Camarata

9:00 a.m. Use of Adult Stem Cells as Potential Therapy for Huntington's Disease - Gary Dunbar

9:20 a.m. Panel Discussion - Barohn, Smith, Ichida, Nishimune, Camarata, Dunbar

9:30 a.m. Coffee Break

9:40 a.m. Keynote Address: Regenerative Medicine Buildout - Andre Terzic

Session VI: Road to Translation Andre Terzic and Lisa Stehno-Bittel

10:40 a.m. Encapsulation Promotes Cells as Therapy and Cells as Reagents - Lisa Stehno-Bittel

11:00 a.m. Cell therapy for liver regeneration - Taro Takami

11:20 a.m. Hurdles and Opportunities for Stem Cell Cell Translation - Theresa Deisher

11:40 a.m. Successful conversion of concepts into tissues and organs - Julie Allickson

12:00 p.m. Lunch Break

12:40 p.m. Preclinical assessment of cell therapy products Wei Liang

1:00 p.m. Panel Discussion - Terzic, Stehno-Bittel, Takami, Deisher, Allickson, Liang

1:15 p.m. Introduction

1:20 p.m. Special Guest Speaker - Kansas Governor Sam Brownback

1:55 p.m. Introduction

2:00 p.m. Keynote Address: Stem Cell Revolution: Awareness and Opportunities envisioned by the Vatican Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, The Vatican

3:00 p.m. Coffee Break

Session VII: Collaborative and Global Initiatives on Stem Cell Therapy Msgr. Tomasz Trafney and David Prentice

3:10 p.m. Cell Delivery for Peripheral Arterial Disease Robert Simari

3:30 p.m. Accelerating cures: The Maryland initiative to augment stem cell research - Dan Gincel

3:50 p.m. Midwest stem cell therapy center: A unique approach in Kansas- Buddhadeb Dawn

4:10 p.m. Global outlook for stem cell therapy - David Prentice

4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion - Msgr. Trafny, Prentice, Simari, Gincel, Dawn

5:00 p.m. Adjournment