Dear Colleagues,

Greetings!

The Catholic Institute of Cell Therapy (CIC) will hold the 12th Catholic International Stem Cell Symposium under the theme of "Organ-based Stem Cell Medicine".

The replacement of cells and organs through 'regenerative medicine' approaches is rapidly becoming a reality. Many treatments using regenerative medicine are already in the clinic and much more potential treatments are advancing through the clinical trials pipeline. The 12th Catholic International Stem Cell Symposium will highlight a diverse range of current and future cell therapy approaches and the underlying technologies that make them possible. Speakers from various academic fields will discuss their approaches to treating disease in this clinically-focused program with a view point of "Organ-based Stem Cell Medicine".

This year, we are also very happy and honored to hold a satellite symposium by Catholic University and Kyoto University together. A CiRA (Center for iPSC Research and Application) of Kyoto University is a world-leading stem cell institute. A CIC of Catholic University, founded in 2005, has supported bioethics-based research to develop cell therapy technologies under the mission of 'leading the adult stem cell researches based on the catholic bioethics'. We, CIC & CiRA, would like to celebrate the beginning of our collaboration for research and clinical application with adult pluripotent stem cell in this symposium.

The CIC cordially invite all the researchers, clinicians, students, and others who are interested in up-to–date experience in the stem cell researches and cell therapy. This symposium will be a good opportunity to discuss the possibility of cell therapy and share your valuable experiences in this field.