Symposium shares advances in cellular therapies

The Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and the Cellular Therapies Program at UCLA presented the Second Scientific Symposium on "Cellular Therapies: Engineering the Future," on June 13, 2019, at the Iris Cantor Auditorium at the David Geffen School of Medicine. The event was supported by a UCLA CTSI Catalyst Award and streamed live at LA BioMed, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, to an audience of over 70 people composed of scientists, clinicians, nurses and medical and graduate students. 

The event congregated speakers presenting the most recent advances in clinical translation of cellular therapy approaches; Bruce L. Levine, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) spoke about the historical development and late discoveries on CAR T cell therapy for cancer; Paul Weiss, PhD (UCLA) discussed cellular bioengineering approaches for biomedical applications; Mitchell S. Cairo, MD (New York Medical College) presented the introduction of haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplants for sickle cell disease patients; Donald B. Kohn, MD (UCLA) spoke about the most recent advances in gene editing technologies in hematopoietic stem cells; and Neena Kapoor, MD (CHLA/USC) presented the new technology of TCR-alpha/beta and CD19 depletion for engineering of hematopoietic stem cell grafts for clinical applications. 

“This event introduced to the audience the latest advances in cellular therapies, and was a inestimable opportunity for direct interaction with giants in the field at the heart of UCLA; we are working to use this event to leverage collaborations and foster innovations in translational research”, said Satiro De Oliveira, MD, organizer of the event. 

Recording of all lectures is available here.

Image source: UCLA

Image caption: During the symposium, Dr. Paul Weiss presented on cellular bioengineering.