Plenary Sessions

Plenary I: PRESIDENTIAL SYMPOSIUM

Sponsored by: Bayer AG & BlueRock Therapeutics

The Presidential Symposium aims to showcase cutting-edge research from global leaders in the field of tissue stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, stem cell genomics and machine learning.

Magdalena Goetz, PhD
Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany

Tina Mukherjee, PhD
Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), India

Kathrin Plath, PhD
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, USA

Sarah Teichmann, FRS, FMedSci
Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK

Plenary II: New Technologies to Engineer and Phenotype Stem Cell Systems

Track: New Technologies

Recent technological and analytical advances have made it possible to characterize stem cell systems at an unprecedented resolution. This session highlights emerging single cell and imaging technologies to phenotype stem cells as well as to program or perturb cell fate.

Jonathan Weissman, PhD
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, HHMI, MIT, USA

Matthias P. Lutolf, PhD
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL), Switzerland
John McNeish Memorial Lecture

Susanne Rafelski, PhD
Allen Institute, USA

Fabian Theis, PhD
Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany

Jun Wu, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
2024 ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award Winner

Plenary III: Exploring the Basic Principles of Development using Stem Cells

Track: Pluripotency and Development

The principles of embryogenesis provide the foundation for expanding our knowledge of health and disease. Researchers that model embryogenesis using stem cells to explore such basic principles will present in this session.

Alfonso Martinez Arias, PhD
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain
Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture

Jennifer Nichols, PhD
University of Edinburgh, UK

Mansi Srivastava, PhD
Harvard University, USA

Maria Elena Torres-Padilla, PhD
Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany

plenary IV: Tissue Architecture and Stem Cell Function in Health and Disease

Track: Somatic Stem Cells, Cancer and Regeneration

Stem cells are linchpins of healthy organ renewal over an organism's lifetime, and stem cell dysfunction is a driver of regeneration, ageing and disease. This session spotlights emerging behaviors and strategies used by stem cells across organs and organisms.

Elaine Fuchs, PhD
Rockefeller University, USA
Ernest McCulloch Memorial Lecture

Fiona Doetsch, PhD
Biozentrum, Basel, Switzerland

Heinrich Jasper, PhD
Genentech, USA

Cristina Lo Celso, PhD
Imperial College London, UK

pLENARY v: Organoid Models of Disease

Sponsored by: Stem Cell Network

Track: Disease Modeling and Drug Discovery

Many organoid models are now sufficiently refined and readouts reporting disease phenotypes sufficiently reproducible that they can be used as robust screens for therapeutics. New drugs and gene therapies are now entering the developmental pipeline with increasing likelihood of success in clinical trials.

Flora Vaccarino, MD
Yale University, USA

Joo-Hyeon Lee, PhD
University of Cambridge, UK

Toshiro Sato, MD, PhD
Keio University, Japan

Sharon Gerecht, PhD
Duke University, USA

plenary vi: The Clinical Reality and Promise of Cell And Gene Therapies

Track: Clinical Applications

Hear from invited speakers from the various realms of regenerative medicine: ESC- and iPSC-derived cell therapies, gene therapies, and in situ reprogramming.

Robert Coppes, PhD
University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands

Michael Lai, PhD
Heartworks, USA

Cristiana Pires, PharmD, PhD
Asgard Therapeutics, Sweden

Catherine Priest, PhD
Neurona Therapeutics, Inc., USA

Mikael Rydberg
Lund, Sweden
Patient Advocate Address

plenary vii: Awards and Keynote session

This session is the capstone of the Annual Meeting and will include lectures from winners of the ISSCR Momentum and Achievement Awards in addition to the Keynote Address. Award winners can be found here.

Melissa H. Little, AC, PhD
Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Denmark & Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Australia
Keynote Speaker