Stem Cell Technology For Genetic Rescue
September 17-20, 2023 / La Jolla, California
Participants from the 2023 Stem Cell Workshop in La Jolla, California | Revive & Restore
In September of 2023, we hosted our latest workshop: Stem Cell Technology for Genetic Rescue. The tremendously successful event was held in San Diego at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel and has been widely praised as “unparalleled” in a series of catalytic meetings designed by Revive & Restore.
Stem cell technology has been flagged for some time as the most promising addition to the conservation toolkit, and one with the power to transform current approaches to biobanking and species restoration. Specifically, the capacity for a somatic cell to be reprogrammed to a stem cell, or, ‘iPSC’, and then subsequently differentiated to any cell type in the body, including sperm and eggs, will be a game-changer for genetic rescue efforts.
Concerningly, this critical area of research is lagging well behind the types of advances we see in human medicine. With the help of our sponsors, Revive & Restore set out to advance the science for wildlife through an intensive world-first event.
From September 17–20, 45 global leaders across academia, industry, and zoos convened to tackle some of the biggest hurdles in this area. Their mission was to identify challenges and opportunities for bringing stem cell technologies to wildlife conservation. Over the course of the 3-day meeting, participants engaged in discussion through panel-led sessions and a series of talks designed to provoke inspiration and action. For the workshop component of the event, experts were partnered in collaborative exercises to reimagine the future of conservation.
In October 2024, the first paper to come out of this meeting was published in Development’s Special Issue – Uncovering Developmental Diversity: “Advancing stem cell technologies for conservation of wildlife biodiversity”.
Plenary Speakers
Opening Speaker: Jeanne F. Loring, Scripps Research Institute
Dr. Jeanne Loring is an internationally recognized pioneer in human pluripotent stem cell research, beginning her work on these cells more than 20 years ago. In 2021, her lab was the first to make iPSCs from any endangered species. She has extensive experience in both academia and industry, and is currently Professor Emeritus at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA, and advisor to Aspen Neuroscience, the company she founded to develop a cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease, using dopamine neurons derived from autologous induced pluripotent stem cells.
Keynote Speaker: Katsuhiko Hayashi, Osaka University
Dr. Katsuhiko Hayashi has been working on germ cell development and its reconstitution in vitro through his career. Since 2021, he has been a full professor in the Department of Genome Biology in the Graduate School of Medicine at Osaka University. Dr. Hayashi has worked and trained at a variety of institutions, including Meiji University, Tokyo University of Science, the Osaka Medical Center, University of Cambridge, and Kyushu University.
Keynote Speaker: Martin Pera, the Jackson Laboratory
Dr. Martin Pera is a Professor at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, the Chair of the Steering Group of the International Stem Cell Initiative, a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and Editor-in-Chief of the society’s journal, Stem Cell Reports. Pera’s research focus is the cell biology of human pluripotent stem cells. Pera was amongst the first to analyze heterogeneity in human pluripotent stem cell cultures, work that is critical to their use as models for human development.
