The International Experimental Biology and Medicine Conference (IEBMC), a major scientific conference being jointly hosted by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and the Tennessee Institute of Regenerative Medicine (TennIRM), has been rescheduled with an updated speaker lineup. Originally slated for October 8-10, 2021, the conference is now set to take place April 29-May 1, 2022, at the Central Station Hotel in downtown Memphis.
The decision to reschedule was made out of an abundance of caution and concern for the health and well-being of conference participants and attendees. The annual event regularly attracts 250-300 attendees. As recently as early September, the virulence of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Shelby County, and the resultant increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, were still a cause for concern.
The conference is also sponsored by the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine and its journal, Experimental Biology and Medicine, and is supported by industry and foundation partners. Steve Goodman, PhD, vice chancellor for Research at UTHSC, is chairing the conference planning committee and was instrumental in bringing the event to Memphis.
“Every year, this international conference is on a topic of great interest to the global scientific community,” Dr. Goodman said. “This year, the topic is regenerative medicine, and the creation and rapid growth of TennIRM was an important factor in bringing the IEBMC to Memphis.”
Memphis is the first stateside location the global conference has chosen in its eight-year history.
Along with the new dates, a revised list of speakers was announced, which includes Arnold I. Caplan, PhD, director of the Skeletal Research Center and professor of Biology at Case Western Reserve University, as the new keynote. “We have an outstanding slate of speakers highlighted by our keynote lecturer, Dr. Arnie Caplan. Dr. Caplan is the researcher who discovered mesenchymal stem cells and is a leader in the field,” Dr. Goodman said.
Thought leaders from around the globe in the area of regenerative medicine will present as plenary speakers, addressing a wide spectrum of basic, translational and clinical research topics during five plenary sessions: Stem Cell Biology, Organoids, Organs on a Chip, Regenerative Medicine and the Cardiovascular System, and Regenerative Medicine and the Nervous System. The plenary speaker lineup includes participants from leading research institutions across the United States and globally, the FDA Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies, and local speakers from UTHSC and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The conference, which provides an opportunity for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to present their work to international experts, also extended the deadline for poster session abstract submittals to January 2022.
For registration information or to submit an abstract, visit the event website, iebmc.org. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Contact Greg Harris, senior director of Development, UT Research Foundation, at gharri28@uthsc.edu.
The Complete List of Speakers:
Opening Keynote: Arnold I. Caplan, PhD, Case Western Reserve University
Session 1, Stem Cell Biology: Jian Feng, PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo; Daniel Garry, MD, PhD, University of Minnesota; Hannele Ruohola-Baker, University of Washington; Shannon McKinney-Freeman, PhD, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Session 2, Organoids: Antonio Santos, PhD, Stanford University; Munemasa Mori, MD, PhD, Columbia University; Gábor Tigyi, MD, PhD, DSc, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Session 3, Organs on a Chip: John Wikswo, PhD, Vanderbilt University; Megan McCain, PhD, University of Southern California; Hyun Jung Kim, PhD, University of Texas at Austin; Peter Loskill, PhD, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB
Session 4, Regenerative Medicine and the Cardiovascular System: Robert Schwartz, PhD, University of Houston; W. Keith Jones, Loyola University Chicago; Y. James Kang, PhD, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Session 5, Regenerative Medicine and the Nervous System: Agnes Luo, PhD, University of Cincinnati; Guoli Ming, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania; Cindi Morshead, PhD, the University of Toronto
Closing presentation: Sung Kyung, PhD, FDA Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies