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   Key-Note Speakers Speakers/Panelist Business Participants        |
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  Anders Björklund Lars Ährlund-Richter Arnold R. Kriegstein Jane Lebkowski Henrik Semb Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen (soon to come)
Anders Björklund, MD, PhD, Prof., Wallenberg Neuroscience Center, Division of Neurobiology, Lund University. Title: "Use of Stem Cells for Cell Replacement Therapy in Parkinson's Disease." Dr. Björklund received his MD and PhD in 1969 at Lund University, where he became an Associate Professor in 1973 and later full Professor in 1983. He has received Doctor Honoris Causa from University of Turin, Italy and from University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has served as the Chief editor of the Handbook of Chemical Neuroanatomy Series of Elsevier Biomedical Press since 1981. His numerous honors and awards include, Lifetime Fellow of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, UK since 1999, the Wakeman Award from Duke University (1984), Brooks Lecturer at the Harvard Medical School (1986), the Zulch Prize from the Max-Planck Society, Germany (1990), the Göran Gustafsson Prize and Award from the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1990), the IPSEN Prize in Neuronal Plasticity from the IPSEN Foundation, Paris (1990), the International Cajal Award from the Cajal Institute, Madrid, Spain (1991), the Söderberg Prize for Medical Research from the Swedish Society for Medicine (2000), and William H. Sweet Lecturer, Massachusett General Hospital, Boston, (2002). Research Interests Prof Björklund lab is an international leader in cell replacement therapies for Parkinson's disease. His research group has particular expertise in neural stem cells and cell transplantation to the central nervous system, and long experience with animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease. Selected publications (of a total of about 500): * Björklund, A., Stenevi, U., Svendgaard, N-A. (1976) Growth of transplanted monoaminergic neurons into the adult hippocampus along the perforant path. Nature 262: 787-790. * Björklund, A., Stenevi, U., Dunnett, S.B., Gage, F.G. (1982) Cross-species neural grafting in a rat model of Parkinson´s disease. Nature 298: 652-654. * Gage, F.H., Dunnett, S.B., Björklund, A., Stenevi, U. (1983) Aged rats: recovery of motor coordination, impairments by intrastriatal nigral grafts. Science 221: 966-969. * Isacson, O., Brundin, P., Kelly, P.A.T., Gage, F.H., Björklund, A. (1984) Functional neuronal replace-ment by grafted striatal neurones in the ibotenic acid-lesioned rat striatum. Nature 311: 458-460. * Gage, F.H., Björklund, A., Stenevi, U., Dunnett, S.B., Kelly, P.A.T. (1984) Intrahippocampal septal grafts ameliorate learning impairments in aged rats. Science 225: 533-536. * Lindvall, O., Brundin, P., Widner, H., Rehncrona, S., Gustavii, B., Frackowiak, R., Leenders, K.L., Sawle, G., Rothwell, J.C., Marsden, C.D., Björklund, A. (1990) Grafts of fetal dopamine neurons survive and improve motor function in Parkinson´s disease. Science 247:574-577. * Martinez-Serrano A., and Björklund A. (1998) Ex vivo nerve growth factor gene transfer to the basal forebrain in presymptomatic middle-aged rats prevents the development of cholinergic neuron atrophy and cognitive impairment during aging. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A, 95: 1858-1863. * Piccini P, Brooks DJ, Björklund A, Gunn RN, Grasby PM, Rimoldi O, Brundin P, Hagell P, Rehncrona S, Widner H, Lindvall O (1999) Dopamine release from nigral transplants visualized in vivo in a Parkinson's patient. Nature Neurosci 2:1137-1140. * Kirik D, Rosenblad C, Björklund A, Mandel RJ (2000) Long-term rAAV-mediated gene transfer of GDNF in the rat Parkinson's model: intrastriatal but not intranigral transduction promotes functional regeneration in the lesioned nigrostriatal system. J Neuroscience 20: 4686-4700 * Björklund, A and Lindvall, O. (2000) Cell Replacement Therapies for CNS Disorders. Nature Neurosci. 3: 537-544. * Dunnett SB, Björklund A and Lindvall O (2001) Cell Therapy in Parkinson's disease-Stop or Go? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2:365-369. * Kirik, D., Georgievska B, Burger C, Winkler C, Muzyczka N, Mandel R and Björklund A. (2002) Reversal of motor impairments in Parkinsonian rats by continuous intrastriatal delivery of L-DOPA using AAV-mediated gene transfer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 99(7) 4708-13. * Kirik D, Rosenblad C, Burger C, Lundberg C, Johansen TE, Muzyczka N, Mandel RJ, Björklund A. (2002) Parkinson-like neurodegeneration induced by targeted overexpression of alpha-synuclein in the nigrostriatal system. J Neuroscience 22(7): 2780-91. * Englund U, Björklund A, Wictorin K, Lindvall O, Kokaia M (2002) Grafted neural stem cells develop into functional pyramidal neurons and integrate into host cortical circuitry. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 99, 17089-17094. * Kirik, D, Annett, LE, Burger, C, Muzyczka, N, Mandel, RJ, Björklund A (2003) Nigrostriatal a-synucleinopathy induced by viral vector-mediated overexpression of human a-synuclein: A new primate model of Parkinson's disease. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. February 24, 2003. * Kirik D, Björklund A (2003) Modeling CNS neurodegeneration by overexpressing disease causing proteins using viral vectors. Trends in Neurosciences, 26: 386-392. * Kirik D, Georgievska B, Björklund A. (2004) Localized striatal delivery of GDNF as a treatment for Parkinson disease. Nat Neurosci. 7(2):105-110. * Winkler C, Kirik D, Björklund A. (2005) Cell transplantation in Parkinson's disease: how can we make it work? Trends in Neurosciences, 28(2):86-92.
Lars Ährlund-Richter, PhD, Prof., Director, Unit of Molecular Embryology, Clinical Research Centre, Karolinska Institutet. Title: "Challenges for Achieving Clinically Eligible Cells." Dr. Ährlund-Richter received his PhD from the Department of Tumor Biology at the Karolinska Institutet in 1983. In 1987, he did a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory for Eucaryotic Molecular Genetics, at NIMR, London. In 1990 he became the Assistant Professor of Tumorimmunology and later became Professor and Director of Molecular Embryology unit at Karolinska Institutet in 2001. Dr Ährlund-Richter has been a group leader at the Department for Biosciences at Novum, Karolinska Institute from 1989-1994 and a group leader at the Department of Medical Nutrition, Karolinska Institute, from 1994-1998. He has also served as the Chief Consultant at the laboratory of the IVF unit, Sophia Hemmet Hospital, Stockholm and as a Scientific Consultant at the IVF unit, Huddinge University Hospital. Selected publications: * Inzunza J, Gertow K, Strömberg AM Matilainen E, Blennow E, Skottman H, Wolbank S, Ährlund-Richter L, Hovatta O. Derivation of human embryonic stem cell lines in serum-free medium using postnatal human fibroblasts as feeder cells, Stem Cells, in Press, 2005. * Imreh M, Wolbank S, Unger C, Gertow K, Aints A, Szeles A, Imreh S. Hovatta O, Fried G, Dilber S, Ährlund-Richter L. Culture and expansion of the human embryonic stem cell line HS 181, evaluated in a double-colour system. Stem cells and Development, 13:337-343, 2004. * Gertow K, Wolbank S, Rozell B, Sugars R, Andang M, Parish CL, Imreh MP, Wendel M, Ährlund-Richter L. Organized development from human embryonic stem cells after injection into immunodeficient mice. Stem Cells Dev. 2004 Aug;13(4):421-35. * Hovatta O, Mikkola M, Gertow K, Stromberg AM, Inzunza J, Hreinsson J, Rozell B, Blennow E, Andang M, Ährlund-Richter L. A culture system using human foreskin fibroblasts as feeder cells allows production of human embryonic stem cells. Hum Reprod. 2003 Jul;18(7):1404-9.
Arnold R. Kriegstein, MD, PhD, Prof., Director, Program in Development and Stem Cell Biology, UCSF School of Medicine. Title: "Developmental Biology as the Foundation for Stem Cell Research" Dr. Kriegstein received his BA from Yale University in 1971, then an MD and PhD (in Physiology) from New York University in 1977. He completed Neurology residency training at Harvard before joining the Neurology faculty at Stanford University in 1981. He subsequently moved to Yale University for two years, and then Columbia University in 1993. In 2001 he was named the John and Elizabeth Harris Professor of Neurology and became the founding Director of the Neural Stem Cell Program at Columbia. This summer he became the first Director of the Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at UCSF. Research Interests The process by which neurons are born and migrate to the cortex is of fundamental importance to a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders including birth defects, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and learning disabilities. We are using electrophysiological, optical recording, and molecular biological approaches to study intercellular signaling and proliferation in the embryonic cerebral cortex during fetal stages of development. Findings from our laboratory reveal that embryonic neuronal stem cells appear to be highly interactive, communicating with each other directly through gap junction channels and responding to their local environment through specific neurotransmitter receptors. In addition, we recently demonstrated that radial glial cells, present only in the embryonic and fetal developing brain and long thought to simply guide embryonic nerve cells during migration, are neuronal stem cells in the developing brain. We found that radial glial cells divide to produce nerve cells that often climb along their parent radial glial cells to reach the developing cerebral cortex. This finding suggests that a radial glial 'mother' cell generates and guides daughter neurons. More recently, we have found a second nerve cell precursor in the embryonic brain that undergoes a different mode of cell division in a distinct proliferative zone. This suggests new mechanisms for the generation of cell diversity in the developing cortex. The identification of the radial glial cell as a key neuronal stem cell in the developing brain has helped shift attention to the role of glial cells as neuronal stem cells in the adult brain, and has the potential to lead to innovative therapies aimed treating diseases of brain injury. Selected publications: * Noctor, S.C., Flint, A.C., Weissman, T.A., Dammerman, R.S., & Kriegstein, A.R.Neurons derived from radial glial cells establish radial units in neocortex, Nature, 409:714-20, 2001. * Noctor, S. C., Martínez-Cerdeño, V, Ivic, L, Kriegstein, A. R., Cortical neurons arise in symmetric and asymmetric division zones and migrate through specific phases, Nature Neuroscience, 7:136-44, 2004. * Weissman T.A., Riquelme P.A., Ivic L., Flint A.C., Kriegstein, A.R., Calcium waves propagate through radial glial cells and modulate proliferation in the developing neocortex, Neuron, 43:647-61, 2004.
Jane Lebkowski, PhD, Senior Vice President of Tissue Regenerative Medicine, Geron Corporation. Title: "Development of Human Embryonic Cell Based Therapeutics for the Treatment of Human Degenerative Diseases." Jane Lebkowski received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Princeton University in 1982. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Dr. Lebkowski joined Applied Immune Sciences in 1986, where she was Vice President of Research and Development. Following acquisition of Applied Immune Sciences by Rhone Poulenc Rorer, Dr. Lebkowski remained at RPR as the Vice President of Discovery Research (currently Sanofi-Aventis). During Dr. Lebkowski's tenure at RPR, she coordinated preclinical investigations of gene therapy approaches for treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease and nervous system disorders, and directed the vector development, formulation, and delivery programs. In 1998, Dr. Lebkowski joined Geron Corporation as the Senior Director of Cell and Gene Therapies, and is currently Senior Vice President of Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Lebkowski heads the human embryonic stem cell program at Geron, and coordinates both preclinical research and product development activities.
Henrik Semb, PhD, Prof. of Functional Genetics, Lund University, Co-Founder of Cellartis AB. Title: "Human Embryonic Stem Cells-Future Potential in Curative Medicine with Diabetes as an Example." Dr. Semb received his PhD in Medical Chemistry from Umeå University in Sweden in 1988. He did his Postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California San Francisco in Dr. Regis Kelly's laboratory. He joined Umeå University in 1991 as an Assistant Professor till he moved to the Institute of Medical Biochemistry, Göteborg University in 1998 as an Associate Professor and later became a Professor in 2003. Since 2003, Dr. Semb is Professor of functional genetics at Lund University. He is also the co-founder of Cellartis AB, a Biotech company focused on stem cell research. Selected publications: * Heins, N., Englund, M.C.O., Sjöblom, C., Dahl, U., Tonning, A., Bergh, C., Lindahl, A., Hanson, C., and Semb, H. Derivation, characterization and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells 22, 367-76, 2004. * Hansson, M., Tonning, A., Frandsen, U., Petri, A., Rajagopal, J., Englund, M., Heller, R.S., Håkansson, J., Fleckner, J., Nilsson Sköld, H. Melton, D., Semb, H.#, and Serup, P.# Artifactual insulin release from differentiated embryonic stem cells. Diabetes 53, 2603-9, 2004. # shared corresponding authorship. |
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