Mayo Clinic physicians and scientists are sharing their expertise in regenerative biotherapeutics at a global conference in Paris this week. The International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) conference, Celebrating Progress, Building the Future, is bringing together roughly 2,000 people from around the world that work in industry, academia, government and health care. Together they will address ways to overcome barriers to bringing regenerative medicine to patients with few or no other therapeutic options.

Julie Allickson, Ph.D., the Michael S. and Mary Sue Shannon Family Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics, is a founding member of ISCT and co-chair of this year's conference.

"Mayo Clinic leaders will share knowledge on topics and expertise of cell and gene therapy as well as tissue engineering," says Dr. Allickson. "They will participate in roundtable sessions that work toward solving some of the greatest challenges in the field. These sessions allow for rich discussions that explore potential solutions."

Dr. Allickson is also the Otto Bremer Trust Director, Biomanufacturing and Product Development, Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics.

ISCT focuses on emerging regenerative therapies for orthopedics, cardiology, neurology and many other areas of medicine. This year, an emphasis is on celebrating progress and building the future. One roundtable discussion will discuss advancing induced pluripotent stem cells into patients in early phase clinical trials. Induced pluripotent stem cells are cells that have been brought back in time to an embryonic state where they can be reprogrammed to become any type of cell in the body. Mayo Clinic uses them in research to track disease progression and test new therapies.

"We're studying how we can accelerate this technology, induced pluripotent stem cells into a phase 1 clinical trial," says Dr. Allickson. "Our discussions will include topics such as working with the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate this technology in first-in-human clinical trials."

Mayo Clinic presentations

Prathibha Varkey, M.B.B.S., president of Mayo Clinic Health System, will lead a plenary session on the future of health care focused on artificial intelligence, digital health, next-generation biotherapeutics, and the need for a platform approach for achieving the same.

One of the Mayo-led roundtable sessions features a debate on the use of a patient's cells versus donor cells considering many different cell types. Some of the discussion will discuss chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapy. CAR-T cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that engineers a patient's T cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells. In this session, Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a hematologist and oncologist, will discuss developing CAR-T autologous cell therapies to improve patient access and patient outcomes. Autologous cells are a patient's own cells.

Mayo Clinic will be sharing its knowledge in these additional roundtables:

Mayo roundtable: Accelerating regenerative biotherapeutics to the patient

• Yi Lin, M.D., Ph.D., associate medical director, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics
• David Lott, M.D., associate director, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics, Arizona
• Wenchun Qu, M.D., Ph.D., associate director, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics, Florida
• Burcin Taner, M.D., chair, Department of Transplantation, Mayo Clinic in Florida

Overcoming barriers to bringing induced pluripotent stem cells to market

• Timothy Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

Ensuring broad access to advance therapeutics

• Manu Nair, chair, corporate development, Mayo Clinic

Regaining trust in research after COVID-19

• Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., dean of education, Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi and Mayo Clinic laboratory medicine and pathology specialist

Expanding the ranks of cell and gene lab leadership

• Allan Dietz, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic transfusion medicine specialist

Tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting

• Dr. David Lott, head and neck surgeon, Mayo Clinic in Arizona

Regenerative sciences education poster session:

• Richard Hayden, M.D., associate director of education, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics

Mayo Clinic is also well represented in conference attendance.

Beside networking and sharing knowledge, conference leaders will write a white paper and produce a webinar on induced pluripotent stem cells. These resources are examples of how work at the conference may assist in advancing more cell and gene therapies toward clinical translation for patients.

ISCT Paris 23 runs from May 31–June 3, 2023.

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