Genopole® to Organize Advanced Course on Stem Cells and their Therapeutic Applications

From November 18th to 22nd, 2007, under the responsibility of Marc Peschanski, director of I-Stem(1), Genopole® is organizing an advanced course on stem cells and their therapeutic applications, aimed at exploring the latest advancements of research in this field, with input from 17 renowned specialists worldwide. Major topics to be covered include embryonic stem cells, mesenchymatic, hematopoetic, and organ stem cells and cloning.

Stem cells, whether embryonic or tissue-specific, are seen today as extremely useful tools showing therapeutic promising approach for many diseases. Reproduced and differentiated on demand, they can enable the transfers of biological products needed for gene and cell therapy or represent flexible and powerful tools for screening molecules for predictive toxicology or therapeutic efficacy trials.

The body of gathered knowledge, which is already very large, can be even further extended. A certain number of key mechanisms remain unknown, particularly the two main characteristics of stem cells: on the one hand, their ability for self-renewal and, on the other, for differentiation.

This area of research has become a top priority at Genopole; next September 11th, Genopole, in cooperation with the AFM, Inserm and Universite d'Evry-Val-d'Essonne, will be inaugurating the I-Stem laboratory, directed by Marc Peschanski, one of the first researchers authorized to work on stem cells in France.

The audience will be limited to 40 participants. This course is intended for biologists already involved in stem cell research and wishing to reach a more detailed understanding of this area.