University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan welcomed more than 160 scientists from around the world to Vermont and UVM for the tenth anniversary and sixth “Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology and Lung Diseases Conference” at an opening session on July 27, 2015 at the Marriott Courtyard Burlington Harbor hotel. The meeting, held biannually at UVM since 2005, was co-founded by Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., UVM College of Medicine professor and pulmonary and critical care specialist. The opening of the first full day of the conference featured a video welcome and remarks from Vermont delegates Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT). The conference took place in UVM’s Davis Center through July 30, 2015.
"It’s the stuff of science fiction," says Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., University of Vermont College of Medicine professor and pulmonary and critical care specialist, of the stem cell and cell therapy research innovations that were the focus of the symposium.
Originally called “Adult Stem Cells and Lung Biology Conference,” the event is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year with its sixth meeting in Burlington, Vt. The first conference – which Weiss co-founded with Darwin J. Prockop, M.D., Ph.D., of Texas A&M – featured more than 100 biomedical researchers from around the world and aimed to discuss research discoveries, roadblocks, methods and goals. The research has evolved into the broader arena called regenerative medicine, a rapidly advancing field that encompasses disciplines ranging from fundamental basic biologic and biomedical research to clinical trials, novel biomedical engineering applications, industry cross-fertilization, and commercialization.
Grant funding from the National Health Lung and Blood Institute has supported the meeting since 2005. Additional supporters include the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, American Thoracic Society, Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, among others.
“This remains the leading conference in this area and has put UVM solidly on the map in this rapidly-progressing, cutting-edge field,” says Weiss, who adds that the conference is widely known as the “Vermont Stem Cell Conference.”
Over the past ten years, the meeting has promoted the development of clinical trials of cell therapies for pulmonary diseases and critical illnesses including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis/septic shock, pulmonary hypertension, asthma, and more, including the groundbreaking trial of mesenchymal stem cells (found in bone marrow) for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) conducted in part at UVM.
The discussions and decisions made at this conference have made an enormous impact on the field, Weiss says.
“The symposium has fostered national and international collaborations and been utilized by the NIH and other governmental agencies, as well as non-profit respiratory disease foundations, to craft research and funding directions,” he says.
Another focus of the meeting is to bring together and provide a high-level forum for rising young researchers in the lung stem cell/bioengineering field. Trainee exchanges among labs across the U.S. and world have resulted from the research collaborations initiated at the conference, which has also worked to promote the participation of women and a culturally diverse group of researchers in these fields.
Weiss’ own research has included several significant discoveries and grant awards over the past ten years, including work in the lung bioengineering arena with former postdoctoral fellow Darcy Wagner, Ph.D., who is deputy chair of this year’s symposium and now a Whitaker International Fellow at the Comprehensive Pneumology Center at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. In 2015 alone, Weiss has received nearly $1.3 million in federal grant funding to continue his research in this area. Weiss and Wagner were interviewed July 29 for a news story broadcast on the local ABC22/Fox44 television affiliate.
Link to more information about the conference here.