Leading scientists to highlight annual stem cell research symposium

A cadre of North America’s leading stem cell scientists will land in Madison April 16 for the third annual Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium.

The public symposium, coordinated by the University of Wisconsin Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center and the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute, will center on the conserved biological mechanisms of stem cell control and regeneration.

Featured speakers include some of the top names in the world of stem cell research, including Judith E. Kimble and James Thomson of UW–Madison; Sean J. Morrison of the University of Michigan; Kenneth D. Ross of Duke University; Janet Rossant of the University of Toronto; Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado of the University of Utah; Allan Spradling of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; and Richard Young of the Whitehead Institute.

The symposium’s emphasis this year will be on the primordial molecular controls of stem cells, evolutionarily conserved mechanisms likely to be of clinical significance. Topics include stem cell controls in the embryo, stem cells and cancer, and the molecular controls of regeneration.

The daylong symposium, which is open to the public with a registration fee of $90, will be held at Promega Corporation’s BioPharmaceutical Technology Center, 5445 E. Cheryl Parkway, Fitchburg.