This four-day Keystone Symposia conference focuses on three important aspects of the rapidly developing area of regenerative biology: 1) The biology of the stem cell, with a focus on single-cell transcriptomics, deduction of cell lineage, pluripotency control and epigenetic regulation; 2) The tissue level, including the stem cell niche, organ generation, organoids and dysregulation of these processes in disease; and 3) Biomedical engineering and various types of disease modeling. Focusing on these three particular areas will prevent the meeting from being spread too thin over the entire realm of regenerative medicine, but will at the same time provide insights into research fields where progress currently occurs at blistering speed. The overall goal of the conference is to provide both late-breaking data for the experts in the fields as well as overviews in areas that will interest a broad scientific community. Across the three main themes, the aim is to blend discussions on a range of organs, such as liver, heart, bone and skin, with talks that cover novel tissue engineering and organoid biology principles. Speakers from both academia and industry who are at the forefront in disease modeling, organs-on-chips and drug discovery will present. With this three-pronged thematic approach, the conference will be focused, yet broad enough to foster an exciting cross-disciplinary discussion among speakers and attendees, which will be highly stimulating for the regenerative medicine community in Hong Kong and the rest of the world. This is vital for training the next-generation stem cell biologists and clinicians and to accelerate the pace at which basic science discoveries can be converted into clinical applications.
- Regenerative Biology and Applications: Cell Differentiation, Tissue Organization and Biomedical Engineering