University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Hosts Symposium on Stem Cells and Aging May 30 and 31

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Leading stem cell scientists from around the world will gather at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on May 30 and 31 for the Stem Cells and Aging Symposium. The symposium will advance an integrated understanding of the effects of aging on stem cells and how stem cells can be used to treat age-related diseases, an emerging field in which UC is already doing pioneering work.

Keynote speaker Judith Campisi, a world-renowned researcher from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, will speak on the enormous promise of stem cell therapies and the challenges that aging presents to the use of these therapies. Campisi is widely recognized for her work on senescent cells--older cells that have stopped dividing--and their influence on aging and cancer. Recently her lab has been investigating the effect of this process on adult stem cells.

Other presentations will address underexplored areas of investigation at the intersection of stem cell biology and aging. Sessions include "Insights on aging from the embryo," "Aging of tissue-specific stem cells," "Aging and the stem cell niche," and "Epigenetics and aging."

Organized by the UCSC Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells, the symposium is sponsored by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), the Ellison Medical Foundation, and the University of California Research Opportunity Fund. Program directors are Camilla Forsberg, assistant professor of biomolecular engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC, and Lindsay Hinck, professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at UCSC.

Details and registration information are available online at stemcell.soe.ucsc.edu/symposium_2013. The deadline for registration is May 1.