WORKSHOP ON
STEM CELL TECHNOLOGIES
August 7 - 13, 2008
Application Deadline: April 15, 2008

Workshop Leaders:
Erich Greiner, Evotec AG, Germany
Ron McKay, National Institute of Mental Health
Michael Shen, Columbia University College of P&S

Stem cells construct organs and tissues in development. They sustain tissues in the adult and restore them after injury. Because of these properties, isolating and manipulating stem cells has become a major new element in biomedical science. This workshop course will cover a series of biological subjects including: the cells of the early embryo, the nature of germ cells, the mechanisms that control the number of stem cells, their stability and transformation into other cell types, epigenetics and stem cell reprogramming etc.

This week-long discussion workshop will bring together leading researchers in the stem cell field with a small group of international students. A major aim of the workshop is to discuss in considerable detail the pros and cons of many of the emerging technoliogies relevant to stem cell research and development, including high throughput approaches, functional genomics and bioinformatics.

A key feature of the workshop is the easy access to the workshop leaders and the invited lecturers for informal discussion. The purpose of the workshop is to provide participants with an opportunity to achieve an advanced understanding of the scientific and clinical importance of stem cells.

Previous lecturers included:
Sohyun Ahn, National Institutes of Health
James Battey, National Institutes of Health
Bradley Bernstein, MGH Pathology
Joshua Brickman, University of Edinburgh, UK
Lewis Cantley, Harvard Medical School, UK
Curt Civin, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Howard Cooke, Medical Research Council, UK
Fiona Doetsch, Columbia University
Yukiko Gotoh, University of Tokyo, Japan
Gordon Keller, McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine
Wilhelm Krek, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Cheng-Yu Lee, University of Michigan, Life Sciences Institute
Anne McLaren, University of Cambridge, UK
Mark Mercola, The Burnham Institute
Masato Nakafuku, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation
John Niederhuber, National Cancer Institute
Shahin Rafii, Cornell University
Rosalind Segal, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Michael Shen, UMNDJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Allan Spradling, Carnegie Institute of Washington
Azim Surani, University of Cambridge, UK
Max Wicha, University of Michigan
Val Wilson, University of Edinburgh, UK
Mark Zervas, Brown University

We anticipate that a significant number of potential workshop attendees will also be interested in attending the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Stem Cells. Since we recognize that attending the Symposium and the workshop is likely to put a considerable constraint on your finances, we are offering sizeable scholarships for those planning to attend both symposium (open enrollment) and workshop (subject to normal course selection criteria). Please state clearly in your application letter AND in your request for financial support if you intend to attend both events.

The course will be held at the Laboratory’s Banbury Conference Center located on the north shore of Long Island. All participants stay within walking distance of the Center, close to tennis court, pool and private beach.

This course is supported with funds provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute