International Coordination for Large Scale iPSCs Initiatives

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have numerous clinical applications ranging from in vitro models of disease, drug-screening protocols, regenerative medicine, to patient-specific cell-based therapies. Several international large-scale consortia have been created to deliver on the clinical promises of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hIPSCs). The main objective of this retreat was to bring the leaders of these programs together to focus on the technical aspects of hIPSC generation/application and to discuss how these large-scale initiatives can be best coordinated to maximise the resources available. The meeting combined technical and strategic discussions of the following areas: Applications of large-scale hIPSC collections; Technical challenges of large-scale derivation of hIPSCs; Intellectual property associated with reprogramming and commercial reagents; Ethics associated with patient recruitment for hIPSC derivation; Cell-based therapy; and Coordination of patient collections, open resources and repositories.

Scientific programme committee