October 7, 2006

 

Dr Andrew Marks, President

International Academic Friends of Israel (IAFI)

500 Fifth Avenue, 45th floor

New York, NY  10110

 

Dear Andy,

 

            On behalf of Prof. Itskovitz-Eldor and myself, we would like to express our deep gratitude to you and to all the IAFI donors for your support to the second France/Israel meeting on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine that took place in Haifa (Technion) on September 2006.

           

            The conference's objectives were to bring together Israeli and French leaders on the topic of Stem Cell research and therapy and to send a broad message of solidarity to Israeli scientists.  The conference, which was attended by many scientists and students, achieved those aims thanks to the high quality of the scientific presentations that allowed extensive discussions on cognitive, clinical and ethical issues.

 

            According to the previous meeting held on 2003, the participants unanimously declared their wishes to make regular such meetings in the future and to extend the scientific interactions that already lead to collaborative research and exchange of people and knowledge.

 

May we wish you a Happy New Year.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Daniel Aberdam, PhD

Head of INSERTECH, Technion

Director of Research INSERM, Nice

 

Israel-France Symposium on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

September 17-18, 2006

 

 

Technion, Haifa, Israel

 

With co-sponsorship provided by

IAFI and The Harold Grinspoon Foundation

 

Scientific Program

Conference Announcement (pdf)

 

 

Sunday, September 17

 

09:00-09:15:            Official welcome

 

09:15-09:45:            Keynote on Stem Cells: Prof. Nicole LE DOUARIN (Collège de France)

           "The stem cells of the neural crest"

 

09:50-13:45:           Embryonic stem cells: (Chairmen: M. Revel and M. Puceat)

 

09:50-10:15             Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor (Technion)  Human embryonic stem cells: sources, derivation and culture

 

10:15-11:40             Daniel Aberdam (Nice)  ES cells as cellular model for normal and pathological skin development

 

11:40-12:05             Michel Revel (Rehovot)  Production of nerve myelinating oligodendrocytes from human ES cells and assay in the shiverer mouse model

 

~ COFFEE BREAK ~

 

 

12:25-12:50             Michel Puceat (Evry) Oct-3/4 dose-dependently regulates specification of embryonic stem cells toward a cardiac lineage and early heart development

 

12:50-13:15             Karl Skorecki (Technion) Applications of human embryonic stem cells in cancer and aging research

 

13:15-13:40             Lior Gepstein (Technion) Cell therapy for myocardial disease

 

 

13:45-15:00         LUNCH

 

 

15:00-17:25:        Gene therapy: (chairmen: K. Schwartz and G. Rechavi)

 

15:00-15:25          David Klatzmann (Paris) Bypassing stem cells by intrathymic gene delivery for generation of T-cells in Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

 

15:25-15:50          Ketty Schwartz (Paris)  Gene and cell therapy of heart failure

 

15:50-16:15          G. Rechavi (Rehovot)  TBD

 

16:15-16:40          Marina Cavazzana-Calvo (Paris) Human hematopoietic stem cells: biological advances and clinical applications.

 

16:40-17:05          Jonathan Leor (Tel Aviv) Biomaterials for myocardial regeneration and self-repair

 

17:05-17:30          Dan Gazit (Jerusalem) Stem cell based skeletal tissue engineering

 

 

Monday, September 18

 

08:30 –10:35:      Somatic stem cells: (chairmen: Y. Reisner and M. Weiss)

 

08:30-08:55         Raphaël Scharfmann (Paris) Control of pancreas development

 

08:55-09:20         Yaïr Reisner (Rehovot) Embryonic pig pancreatic tissue transplantation for the cure of diabetes: A narrow gestational ‘window’

 

09:20-09:45         Sarah Ferber (Tel Hashomer) Liver to pancreas transdifferentiation: autologous cell replacement therapy for diabetes

 

09:45-10:10         Mary C. Weiss (Paris) Liver stem cell lines from embryonic and adult mice

 

10:10-10:35         Fred Relaix (Pasteur I.) Pax3 and Pax7 function in myogenic stem cells: from the embryo to the adult

 

 

~ COFFEE BREAK ~

 

 

11:00-12:55:        Neural and retinal stem cells

 

11:00-11:25         Bernard Zalc (Paris) Precocious segregation of neuronal and glial progenitors: His's model (1887) revisited

 

11:25-11:50         Chaya Kalcheim (Jerusalem) Mechanisms of neural crest formation and emigration

 

11:50-12:15          Hervé Schneiweiss (Paris) Differential isolation and characterization of tumoral stem cells in brain tumors

 

12:15-12:40          Jose Alain Sahel (Paris) Photoreceptor cell rescue: paracrine effects of cell therapy

 

 

12:50-14:00         LUNCH

 

 

14:00-16:55:        Hematopoiesis: (chairmen: T. Lapidot and B. Peault)

 

14:00-14:25         Bruno Peault (Pittsburg) Vascular origin of multipotent stem cells in adult tissues

 

14:25-14:50         Tsvee Lapidot (Rehovot) Immune regulation of bone remodelling and hematopoietic stem cells: The unique role of bone resorbing osteoclasts

 

14:50-15:15         Eliane Gluckman (Paris) Current use of cord blood cells

 

15:15-15:40         Dov Zipori (Rehovot) Cell and gene therapy for multiple myeloma

 

15:40-16:05         Anne Cumano (Paris) Hematopoietic cell development, in the mouse embryo

 

 

16:10:                    Final conclusions

 

C. Brechot (Director of INSERM) and I. Perlman (Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Technion)

 

~ COFFEE BREAK ~