concurrent sessions

concurrent track: Artificial Intelligence and BioEngineering

Showcasing engineering and computational strategies, including synthetic biology, lab-on-chip systems, and AI, to advance stem cell science, tissue and organ models, and therapeutic innovation.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

Self-Driving Labs and Automation

  • This session explores advances in self-driving laboratories for stem cell research, including robotics-enabled culture systems, automated cultivation, and AI-optimized experimental design, supporting reproducible, high-throughput drug screening and scalable cell manufacturing. 

Scalable Screening and Integrated Modeling

Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, Stanford University, USA  
Zhong Alan Li, PhD, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 

  • This session focuses on scalable cellular platforms that enable high-throughput perturbation screening, multimodal data integration, and translational predictive modeling, highlighting applications that bridges new in vitro systems with clinical applications.  

Synthetic Biology and Advanced Tissue Engineering

  • This session explores how synthetic biology, bioengineering, and AI are advancing the functional maturation of physiologically relevant human tissue models, including assembloids, vascularized and immunocompetent systems, and multi-tissue or whole-body models. 

Organoid Interfaces and Computing

Shoji Takeuchi, PhD, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Bianxiao Cui, PhD, Stanford University, USA

  • This session highlights the interface of electronics with electrically excitable organoid models, including neural organoids, to enable functional recording and stimulation. Applications include disease modeling, developmental studies, and emerging computing platforms, such as organoid intelligence.  

concurrent track: Development and Organogenesis

Highlighting advances in stem cell-based models of human development and organ formation, and their applications in therapeutic development.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

Metabolism as a Developmental Signal

Lydia Finley, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA 
Ashley Solmonson, PhD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA

  • This session explores how metabolism and metabolic states translate environmental inputs, such as nutrient availability, into changes in cell fate, developmental patterning, and morphogenesis.  

Applied Organogenesis

Sergiu Pasca, MD, Stanford University, USA
Melissa H. Little, AC, PhD, Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Denmark and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia 

  • This session showcases applications of developmental biology principles to generate functional tissues, model diseases, and develop therapies. Topics include organoids, assembloids, and tissue and developmental engineering approaches. 

Studying Developmental Mechanisms Using Embryo Models

Jianping Fu, PhD, University of Michigan, USA  

  • This session highlights stem cell–based embryo models as platforms for investigating early human development, enabling mechanistic insights, cross-species comparisons, and access to otherwise inaccessible developmental stages.  

Reproductive Modeling and Maternal-Embryo Crosstalk

Leqian Yu, PhD, State Key Laboratory of Organ Regeneration and Reconstruction, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

  • This session examines animal and stem cell models of reproduction, from endometrial remodeling through implantation and placentation, highlighting how maternal physiology and bidirectional embryo–maternal signaling shape developmental outcomes.  

concurrent track: Disease Modeling and Drug Discovery

Examining advances in in vivo, in vitro, and in silico disease models to enable drug screening, toxicity assessment, and therapeutic development.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

Advanced in Vitro Models

Anna Herland, PhD, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA and The University of Osaka and Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

  • This session explores microphysiological systems, multi-organ organoids, and assembloids that replicate physiological environments to model disease, inter-organ communication, and systemic drug response. 

Cancer Modeling and Precision Oncology

Ilaria Malanchi, PhD, The Francis Crick Institute, UK

  • This session examines the integration of stem cell-based models into the oncology pipeline, from elucidating mechanisms of tumorigenesis to accelerating drug discovery, informing clinical design, and advancing precision medicine. 

Modeling Human Life Stages

Cantas Alev, MD, PhD, Kyoto University, Japan
 Kristen Brennand, PhD, Yale University, USA 

  • This session examines longitudinal animal and in vitro models of the human life course, from reproductive health to age-related decline, highlighting advances in long-term organoid culture and complex in vitro systems for studying development and disease.  

Emerging Technologies

Takuya Yamamoto, PhD, CiRA/ASHBi, Kyoto University, Japan
Arjun Raj, PhD, Cellular Intelligence, USA  

  • This session showcases cutting-edge tools in disease modeling and drug discovery, including gene-editing platforms, AI and computational modeling, and 3D transcriptomics, with emphasis on their capacity to decipher complex cellular behaviors and enable high-throughput clinical translation.   

concurrent track: Disease Modeling and Drug Discovery

Examining advances in in vivo, in vitro, and in silico disease models to enable drug screening, toxicity assessment, and therapeutic development.

*Invited and abstract-selected speakers and session descriptions to be determined.

Ethics in Stem Cell Research

Shaping Science Policy

Manufacturing, Clinical Translation, and Regulatory Framework

ISSCR Consortium: Stem Cell Models for Drug Discovery & Development and NAMs

concurrent track: Preclinical Studies and Clinical Applications

Highlighting integrated gene and cell therapies, tissue niche modulation, advances in modeling cellular complexity for disease treatment, and translating regenerative insights into clinical applications.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

Manufacturing and Delivery as Determinants of Cell and Gene Therapies

Erin Kimbrel, PhD, Astellas Pharma Inc., USA 
Ivana Barbaric, DPhil, University of Sheffield, UK

  • Scientific and engineering strategies are needed to bridge industrial scalability with biological precision in cell and gene therapies. Join us for this session as experts address challenges and solutions to manufacturing strategies and their impacts on assuring in cell identity and quality, potency, and genomic safety, as well as how delivery biology affects biodistribution, safety, and durability of products as they transition from the lab to the clinic.  

Clinical Trials as Feedback to Biology

  • The first wave of cell and gene therapy clinical trials are providing critical insights into biological function that can be harnessed to inform the next generation of therapies. This session examines how trial design, such as dosing, endpoints, inclusion criteria, and biomarkers align or fail to align with mechanism and temporal biology, and how insights drawn from early-phase CGT trial data can be leveraged to improve future therapies. 

NAMs as Predictive Models: Innovation and Translation

  • This session explores how exciting advances in new approach methodologies (NAMs) are being adopted as complementary tools to animal models for preclinical efficacy and safety studies for CGTs. It highlights organoids, microphysiological systems, and AI-enabled approaches to predict efficacy, biodistribution, and immunogenicity, alongside new innovations in potency and release assays. 

Autologous and Allogeneic Cell Therapies: Developing with the End in Mind

  • Autologous and Allogeneic PSC-derived cell therapies are now both advancing in clinical trials, yet their intrinsic differences have important implications for the design, manufacturing, and commercial development of cell therapy products. This session highlights recent clinical insights and the biological and logistical trade-offs between autologous and allogeneic approaches. 

concurrent track: Somatic Stem Cells and Aging

Exploring somatic stem cell homeostasis, aging, regeneration, stem cell–niche interactions, and the role of stem cells in cancer across tissue types.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

From Aging to Disease and Cancer

Siddhartha Jaiswal, MD, PhD, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA

  • This session explores the transition from normal aging to disease, focusing on pre-cancerous states and other age-associated pathologies, including somatic mutation, tissue microenvironment changes, and early intervention strategies to intercept disease progression. 

Stem Cell Responses to Stress and Mechanical Forces

Noelia Urbán, PhD, Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Austria
Thomas A. Rando, MD, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 

  • This session highlights how physical forces, extracellular matrix dynamics, and engineered microenvironments influence tissue and cell behavior, examining how mechanobiology and bioenginnering approaches can reshape stem cell function, regeneration, and disease outcomes. 

Senescence and Senolytic Therapies

Guanghui Liu, PhD, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 

  • This session examines the molecular definition of cellular senescence, including biomarkers and tissue heterogeneity tissue and explores the therapeutic potential of senolytics and related strategies, including the opportunities and risks of their clinical applicability. 

Adult Stem Cell-Based Therapies

Satoshi Yamazaki, PhD, Celaid Therapeutics and The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan  

  • This session highlights advances in adult stem cell therapies, as well as in vivo (direct) and patrial reprogramming strategies for aging, and AI-guided reprogramming and differentiation approaches.