The 9th meeting of the “Sociedade Portuguesa de Células Estaminais e Terapia Celular (SPCE-TC) organized by iBET and ITQB-NOVA was an enormous hit!

The meeting counted with over 130 national and international participants from the scientific, academic and medical communities as well as regulatory agencies, industries and SMEs with interests in fundamental, applied and translational stem cell research. Different areas of stem cell research, from biology to bioengineering towards application of stem cells in regenerative therapies, drug development and disease modeling were discussed during these two days. Recent developments in pre-clinical and clinical trials of stem cell therapy as well as quality requirements and policies were also addressed.

The Scientific Program was built in five sessions, each one of them with (i) invited oral speakers, (ii) selected oral speakers from the abstracts presented by authors and (iii) poster presentations. This program is completed by two renowned keynote speakers that shared their vision and main references on this fast growing field of research and a workshop focusing on how to “Move Cell Therapies to the Clinics” where a stimulating discussion on Clinical Challenges & Industry Highlights took place.

Two prizes were awarded for the best oral presentation (sponsored by ECBio) and the best poster presentation (sponsored by Grupo Tecnimede), voted from a panel selected from the participant list.

The award for Best Oral Presentation was attributed to Sílvia Arroz-Madeira, IMM, FMUL, Portugal for her work entitled “The neurotrophic factor receptor RET drives HSC survival & function”, while the award for Best Poster was given to Isabel Onofre, CNC-UC for her work entitled “Characterization of a human Machado Joseph Disease neuronal model derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells”, respectively.

Last but not least a mention to all those who made this meeting possible, including the organizing committee, speakers, participants but most importantly, to the companies and institutions who sponsored its organization.