EuroSciCon will be holding a meeting entitled Maintaining stem cells and the regulation of their differentiation, on 27 April 2007 at BioPark Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City, UK
The chair of this meeting, Stefan Przyborski (University of Durham) said: "Much of the promise of stem cell biology and tissue engineering depends on the ability to maintain and differentiate cells into tissues in a robust and reproducible manner.
"We are only just at the beginning of understanding how to control cell growth in vitro and produce cell types that are of value to basic research, pharmaceutical development and potential therapeutic applications.
"This meeting is designed to bring together experts in the field to share their experiences of developing innovative ways to create a more realistic environment for cell growth and differentiation.
"There are many physical factors that are often taken for granted during the culture of cells, including the topography and nature of the substrate, oxygen tension, temperature, etc.
"Furthermore, the addition of exogenous factors to the culture medium and the development of co-culture models are of importance to more closely mimic the conditions cells experience in vivo.
"The aim of this symposium is to therefore recognise that the control of cell differentiation requires an in-depth understanding of the growth conditions and signals cells require in order to differentiate in a particular manner.
"This will be exemplified by a carefully selected panel of speakers who will share their experiences of controlling cell growth and differentiation using a range of alternative approaches".
This one-day Euroscicon meeting will include talks from both academic speakers and companies.
There will be informal question and answer sessions and networking during the breaks.
This format will offer scientists from both academia and industry a valuable opportunity to get up to date on the new developments in stem cell research.
