Blue Skies — the future of regenerative medicine, with Stephen Minger

December 30, 2014

Dr. Stephen Minger is one of the world’s leading experts on stem cells. In this talk, he will review the state of play with stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and cell-based therapies, before covering some “Blue Skies” technologies that will revolutionise the future of medicine even further.

About the speaker:

Dr. Stephen Minger is Chief Scientist, GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

Stephen received his PhD in Pathology (Neurosciences) in 1992 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. After post-doctoral work in central nervous system gene therapy, neural transplantation and neural stem cell biology at UCSD with Professor Fred “Rusty” Gage, he moved to the UK in 1996 and was appointed a Lecturer in Biomolecular Sciences at King’s College London in 1998. He was appointed a Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology in 2005 and was the Director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory from 2002 until joining GE Healthcare in 2009.

Over the past 20 years, Stephen’s research group has been at the forefront of human stem cell research. In 2002, together with Professor Peter Braude and Dr Susan Pickering, his research team was awarded one of the first two licenses granted by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for the derivation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells and his group was the first to deposit a human ES cell line into the UK Stem Cell Bank.  Stephen was also one of the first two groups in the UK to be granted a research license by the HFEA in 2008 to pursue Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) to generate “hybrid human embryos” for fundamental research into genetic forms of neurodegenerative conditions.  He was actively involved with the UK Department of Health and with the Minister for Public Health in the consultation with both Houses of Parliament that led to the passage of the Human Embryo Bill of 2009 and the inclusion of new forms of animal-human embryos within primary legislation.

Stephen was the Stem Cell Expert and a Member of the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (GTAC) at the Department of Health from[masked] and was the Focal Point for Regenerative Medicine, Drug Discovery and Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China for the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills from 2006-2009. He has also been a an external consultant and reviewer to the European Commission Framework Programmes (FP6 and FP7) since 2003 to promote European-wide biomedical research, a member of the Grants Working Group of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine since 2004, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Canadian Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine.

In the summer of 2013, Stephen was appointed Chief Scientist for Cellular Sciences, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, and is now responsible for long-term global research strategy for technology development in cell therapy, regenerative medicine, cellular technologies, in vivo diagnostic imaging and molecular pathology/personalized medicine.

Meeting Logistics:

2pm-4pm, Saturday 31st January 2015.

Venue: Room TBA <To Be Announced>, Birkbeck College, Torrington Square WC1E 7HX, London.

Room TBA is on the TBA-th floor in the main Birkbeck College building, in Torrington Square (which is a pedestrian-only square). Torrington Square is about 10 minutes walk from either Russell Square or Goodge St tube stations.

Coffee and other light refreshments can be purchased from the Costa Coffee shop in the reception area of the building, either ahead of or after the meeting.

The event will be followed by a chance to continue the discussion in a nearby pub – The Marlborough Arms, 36 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HJ.

Event hashtag:

#LonFut

Covering meeting costs:

A small fee (£5) is payable to attend this meetup. This fee covers room costs. Please pay in advance, online.

This will be refunded if the meeting is cancelled or rearranged, or if the attendee cancels at least 3 days before the meetup.

Alternatively, if there are still seats available, payment can be made in cash at the door on the day. (Requesting payment in advance assists with accurate planning of the event.)

Journalists are welcome to attend the meeting free-of-charge – please contact the organiser, notifying us in advance of your plans to attend.