Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD

Registration opens on 4 May 2016

(Pre-registration now closed)

The UK Regenerative Medicine Conference being held at RIBA, London  on 20 and 21 September 2016 (with dinner on 20 September) will draw together leaders in the field from the UK and across the globe to present and discuss the latest advances in regenerative medicine. As capacity for this event will be limited, those interested in attending are asked to pre-register their interest to allow numbers to be managed and industry/academic balance to be maintained.  Whilst pre-registration will not guarantee a place, the registration link, once live, will be circulated to those who have been selected to register prior to tickets going on general release allowing you to confirm your place ahead of this date.

The draft agenda for the Conference can be found here.

To pre-register for the conference, please contact scientificevents@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk providing your name, affiliation, full contact details and also whether you would like to provide a poster presentation at the event.

Registration fees are £60/£160 for academic and industry delegates respectively, with an additional £40 payable if you wish to join the dinner on 20 September.

Pre-registration will close on 31 March and registration will open on 6 April with tickets going on general release on 4 May 2016.

Regener8 and the Medical Technologies IKC are to host a one-day conference, focussing on best practice in translating regenerative devices – a potential £1bn industry in the UK.

This year a session of the conference will be opened up for community-sourced content.  This means anyone (who fulfils the criteria) can apply to present. Shortlisted proposals will go to a vote across the Regener8 and wider med tech community to decide who they most want to see and hear.

If your proposal is shortlisted for the vote but does not win, you may be selected to provide content as an article for Regener8’s annual magazine, Regen, or for our websites.

Criteria for session proposals
To propose a session for the Regener8-IKC Annual Conference the proposer/proposal must:
• present a challenge within the scope of our Centres:
The translation of university and industry research in regenerative devices (regenerative therapies delivered as Class III medical devices) into commercial products and clinical benefits
• show a collaborative approach to solving the challenge/project, for example, working with academia, industry, clinicians, regulatory experts, IP experts
• include a partner (e.g. academic, industry or clinical to complement the role of the proposer)

The strongest proposals will include a mixture of perspectives in solving the challenge, e.g. clinical, industrial, academic, regulatory.

What happens to runners up?
Proposal shortlisted by our judging panel may be selected to provide content as an article for Regener8’s annual magazine, Regen, for our websites, or to present a poster at the conference

How do I submit the session proposal?
Further details can be found on the annual conference web page.

The deadline for submissions is 4 March 2015.

About the Regener8-Medical Technologies IKC Annual Conference
Regener8 is the conference for academics, business people, managers and researchers working with innovation, enterprise, knowledge transfer and exchange – with an interest in progressing regenerative therapies through to the clinic and the market.

Featuring world-class speakers, oral and poster presentation sessions and interactive panel discussions, the Regener8 Annual Conference 2016 will provide an excellent opportunity to disseminate, share and discuss the impact of university-industry collaborations in the field of regenerative therapies and medical technologies

A revised RMRC scheme has been launched from the 4th February RMRC Call

The revised scheme is focused in the early translational space, funding preliminary work or feasibility studies to establish the viability of an approach, thereby bridging a perceived funding gap in taking discovery science into preclinical research and ultimately through to human application.

The scheme will be flexible and responsive, offering potential support for a variety of opportunities to de-risk critical steps towards human application. Applicants will need to identify the key evidence needed to unlock progress, using smaller and shorter focussed proposals to bring projects to a state of maturity necessary to leverage larger scale translational investment.

The expectation is to fund about 10 awards each year, of 1-2 years duration, within a scheme budget of £2m pa.

For further details please see http://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/biomedical-catalyst-regenerative-medicine-research-committee/

Support for mature regenerative medicine proposals where more substantive funding is required to deliver a project with a clear pathway to product or clinical development will now be available through the sister programme to the RMRC, The Biomedical Catalyst: Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS)

The 3rd BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Conference will be hosted by the University of Oxford on 11-12 April 2016.

This two-day Regenerative Medicine Conference will examine the latest developments in regenerative medicine, and allow researchers from both countries to network, create links and discuss opportunities for further collaboration.

There are no registration fees for the 3rd BIRAX Conference and meals are provided. We have a limited amount of single rooms available for conference participants. Rooms will be
allocated depending on demand and availability. Travel to and from the conference is excluded

Participants are invited to submit papers for presentation. There will be a Student and Young Researchers symposium for early career researchers.
A limited number of travel grants are available for PhD Students and Post doctoral researchers from Israel.

For further details and registration please visit the BIRAX website through the following link;
https://www.britishcouncil.org.il/en/programmes/Science/News/BIRAX-3rd-conference

Hold the date

20 & 21 September 2016

The Inaugural UK
Regenerative Medicine Conference

Venue:  RIBA  66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

The Cell Therapy Catapult and UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP) are pleased to announce the Inaugural UK Regenerative Medicine Conference to be held on 20 & 21 September 2016 at the Royal Institute of British Architects in central London.

Building on the success of the 2012 Strategy for Regenerative Medicine and significant investment in the field from the UK government, the conference will draw together leading players in the field and highlight outstanding research and advances in regenerative medicine from both the UK and internationally.

Further information and registration details will be announced shortly.

The 2015 Report details the key components and developments in the £25M UKRMP since its establishment in 2013 by BBSRC, EPSRC and the MRC.

Within the Report the Directors from each of the five interdisciplinary and complementary research Hubs provide details on their activities and advances made thus far.  The PIs from the five Disease focused awards outline the progress in their research projects.  Other strategic developments of the UKRMP in relation to the UK’s regen med environment are also presented.

The report can viewed and downloaded from the following link: UKRMP Annual Report 2015

Following on from the successful partnership of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Find A Better Way (FABW) in 2013 and 2014 (which has resulted directly in FABW approving grants for six major research projects), this Call for Expressions of Interest aims to stimulate the academic community to propose approaches to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine technologies for the treatment of blast injuries, primarily in countries in which the civilian population is affected by landmines and other unexploded remnants of war.

This Call seeks to identify and support research  with near-term translation potential: therefore, research which is unlikely to result in technologies that are deployable within five years are excluded unless they are exceptionally innovative.

FABW is prepared to commit around £5 million funding to support one or two major research project(s) arising from this Call.

For further details please see: www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/fabw/

The first patient has been treated with a new stem-cell-derived treatment for ‘wet’ age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as part of a pioneering clinical trial in London.

Using technology developed with MRC funding, the trial will test if it is safe and effective to transplant a type of eye cell called retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, grown from stem cells in the lab, to restore sight in people with severe visual loss from wet AMD. The cells are used to replace diseased ones at the back of the eye using a specially engineered patch. The patch is inserted behind the retina in a surgical operation which lasts one to two hours.

A woman was successfully treated last month and to date there have been no complications. The research team hope to assess the extent to which she has recovered her vision by early December.

Professor Pete Coffey of the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, who is co-leading the research, said: “We are tremendously pleased to have reached this stage in the research for a new therapeutic approach.  Although we recognise this clinical trial focuses on a small group of AMD patients who have experienced sudden severe visual loss, we hope that many patients may benefit in the future.”

The trial will recruit another nine patients over 18 months, each of whom will be followed for a year to assess the safety and stability of the cells and whether there is an effect in restoring vision.

Retinal surgeon and project co-lead Professor Lyndon Da Cruz from Moorfields Eye Hospital, who is performing the operations, added: “There is real potential that people with wet age-related macular degeneration will benefit in the future from transplantation of these cells.”

The MRC funded Professor Coffey in 2004 to carry out the basic research and preclinical development behind the cell transplants for retinal repair. With further MRC funding, Professor Coffey and his team have developed imaging techniques to allow them to look at the survival and function of the cells after transplant. The MRC also funded Professor Harry Moore at the University of Sheffield to establish a bank of human embryonic stem cell lines, one of which has been used to develop this technique.

The MRC, EPSRC and BBSRC have recently made a £1.5m award as part of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform to further support the Coffey team in developing this technology for use in the clinic.

The clinical trial is part of the London Project to Cure Blindness, a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Pfizer Inc.

Dr Rob Buckle, the MRC’s Director of Science Programmes, said: “This London Project to Cure Blindness/Pfizer trial is an exciting development in regenerative medicine and a great example of how funding discovery science in stem cell biology has led to a clinical trial with commercial partnership. This development would neither have been possible without the MRC’s long-standing support for the groundwork behind this technology, nor the hard work and investment from the London Project to Cure Blindness and Pfizer and others to bring the therapy to patients.”

Gateway to Research reference G1000730.

Photo image courtesy of Danny Hope on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Righ_eye_retina.jpg under CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

European H2020 partnering workshop: Regenerative medicine and cell therapies
BIS conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London
Tuesday 13 October 2015, 0930 – 1630

The UK Science and Innovation Network, in association with the Cell Therapy Catapult, UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, KTN and Innovate UK are organising a workshop in London to develop consortia for the following Horizon 2020 calls:

Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016 – 2017
SC1-PM-09–2016: New therapies for chronic diseases
SC1-PM-11–2016-2017: Clinical research on regenerative medicine

The workshop is open to researchers, SMEs, and representatives from Industry, seeking UK and other European partners to form consortia.

Participants will have the opportunity to develop new and successful partnerships through pitching, networking and round-table sessions.

Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/european-h2020-partnering-workshop-regenerative-medicine-and-cell-therapies-tickets-17950672946

Any questions, please contact alison.macewen@fco.gov.uk

The British Council in Israel and the Science and Innovation Network are pleased to inform you of opportunities for funding available to scientists in Britain and Israel in the field of Regenerative Medicine.

The scheme is designed to further research experience, establish or strengthen research links and develop scientific collaborations. Note that all opportunities are to support visits from the UK to Israel, or vice versa.

BIRAX Travel Grants (Fellowships) for regenerative medicine researchers

Timeframe: 1-6 month travel grant

Budget: £2,100 per month, plus £550 one time travel grant

Available to: Early career researchers

Submission deadline: Monday 28 September. 16.00 UK time

More Information: www.britishcouncil.org.il/en/programmes/science/birax/fellowship-scheme

Contact: biraxrmi@britishcouncil.org.il

SAVE THE DATE
The 3rd BIRAX Conference will take place on 11 – 12 April 2016 at the University of Oxford.
The Conference will bring together leading scientists from both the UK and Israel in the field of Regenerative Medicine to share latest developments in the field and to develop collaborations and will follow the launch of the 3rd Call for Proposals.
We will be inviting individuals to submit papers to present and offering travel grants for early career researchers. For more information and to receive updates email: biraxrmi@britishcouncil.org.il