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| March 3, 2008 |
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Top
Stories |
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Clinical
Research |
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Association
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Calendar |
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Monthly Journal |
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BMT
Tandem Meetings
Feb. 11-15, 2009
Tampa, Florida |
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| Calendar |
• March
Regenerative Medicine: Moving to the Next Generation of Therapies
12th Annual Hilton Head Workshop
March 12-16
Sea Pines Resort
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Stem Cell Therapies and Pediatric Diseases and Injuries
NIH National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource
March 13
Children's Hospital of Orange County
Orange, California
Emergence to Convergence: Management of High Risk Donors and Recipients
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
21th Annual Winter Symposium
March 13-16
Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa
Palm Springs, California
American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
2008 Spring Conference
March 28-29
Buena Vista Palace
Orlando, Florida
American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB)
12th Annual Spring Conference
March 29-April 1
Hyatt Regency Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
34th Annual Meeting
March 30-April 2
Fortezza da Basso
Florence, Italy
• April
Association of Community Cancer Centers
34th Annual Meeting
April 2-5
Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel
Baltimore, Maryland
Advances and Controversies in the Biology and Therapy of
Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and Myelodysplasia
Acute Leukemia Forum 2008
April 4
W Hotel
San Francisco, California
2008 Spring Meeting: Donor & Transplant Center Staff
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
April 7-8
Hilton Charlotte Center City Hotel
Charlotte, North Carolina
2008 Spring Meeting: Recruiters
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
April 8-9
Omni Charlotte Hotel
Charlotte, North Carolina
UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN)
Annual Science Meeting
April 9-11
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh, Scotland
American Society for Apheresis (ASFA)
29th Annual Meeting
April 9-12
Galveston Island Convention Center
Galveston, Texas
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
99th Annual Meeting
April 12 - 16, 2008
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California
7th International Donor Registry Conference
World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)
April 16-19
Kursaal & Conference Centre
Bern, Switzerland
• May
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPH/O)
21st Annual Meeting
May 14-17
Duke Energy Center & Hyatt Regency
Cincinnati, Ohio
Myelodysplastic Sydromes and Bone Marrow Failure
European School of Haematology (ESH)
May 15-18
Albufeira, Portugal
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
Annual Meeting
May 17-20
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Miami, Florida
Short Course on Preservation of Cells, Tissues and Gametes
Center for Translational Medicine
May 21-23
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cancer Epigenetics
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
May 28-31
Boston Park Plaza Hotel
Boston, Massachusetts
American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT)
11th Annual Meeting
May 28-June 1
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
44th Annual Meeting
May 30-June 3
McCormick Place
Chicago, Illinois
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| Top
Stories |
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Guidelines offered on public vs. private cord blood banking
At the request of the ASBMT Board of Directors, a committee has completed a study and report of data and expert opinion on public versus private banking of umbilical cord blood. Its conclusions, including recommendations for parents, appear in the March issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. 
ASBMT issues position statement on private banking
An ASBMT position statement provides five recommendations to guide health professionals and parents on the collection and preservation of umbilical cord blood for personal use.
Ob/gyn specialists weigh in on private banking
Doctors should tell pregnant patients considering umbilical cord blood banking about the advantages and disadvantages of public versus private cord blood banks, according to new guidelines issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The ACOG also said doctors who recruit patients for for-profit cord blood banks should disclose any financial interests or other potential conflicts of interest to patients and their families.
Scaffold could protect stem cells developing into cartilage, bone
Scientists in the United Kingdom are working to develop a “bioactive scaffold” to protect stem cells and encourage them to grow into bone or cartilage when they are placed in the body. Researchers initially will look at mending cartilage injuries, which do not tend to heal well, or bone fractures caused by severe trauma.
Device captures circulating stem cells
A new implantable device can be used to capture stem cells circulating in the blood. The device, being commercialized by CellTraffix, is a length of plastic microtubing coated with proteins called selectins that slow down the stem cells. According to a report in the March issue of the British Journal of Haematology, tests in rats resulted in the capture of very pure samples of active stem cells from circulating blood.
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 A Word from President Helen Heslop, MD
One of the messages presented with evangelical fervor in this Presidential primary season is the need for change. Last year ASBMT, itself, was faced with the need to make a change – albeit on a smaller scale.
For more than 20 years, transplanters had ritually dusted off their ski gear every second February and traveled to Keystone to convene in scientific sessions and on the slopes. In 2007, the leadership of ASBMT and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) made the emotional decision – at least for the board members eligible for AARP membership – that the BMT Tandem Meetings had outgrown their roots and could no longer be held at Keystone.
Now the boards are considering another big change: no longer meeting in the middle of winter.
Keystone had been a regular venue for BMT meetings since the initial gathering of fewer than 100 investigators in the 1980s. But in recent years the growth of the meetings made it increasingly clear that we no longer could fit, even into North America’s largest convention center at a winter sports venue.
It was a difficult break with tradition, but the wisdom of the decision was supported by the attendance at last month’s meeting in San Diego, which climbed above 2,500 for the first time. If you inspect a graph that tracks meeting registrations, you can see that attendance has more than doubled since we and CIBMTR merged our annual meetings 1999.
We currently have contracts with convention centers and hotels for the BMT Tandem Meetings through 2012. We’re now about to begin looking at potential locations for 2013. It’s been suggested that we consider moving the meetings to late spring. What do you think?
A May or June meeting has advantages. For instance, it would open the possibility of many new venues. Our current February dates restrict us to fair-weather locations in the southern states or Hawaii. A spring meeting would allow us to consider places such as Seattle or Boston.
On the other hand, residents of the Frozen North may prefer escaping to the warmer latitudes for five days in February.
There are other advantages and disadvantages to moving the meetings to the spring. We’ve prepared a list of the pros and cons. You may have other reasons that we haven’t thought of.
The question about moving the meetings to the spring is posed in this month’s interactive reader poll in the adjacent left-hand column. You’re encouraged to use it to give us your thoughts about February versus May or June. We’ll let you know the results of the poll next month.
If history and this year’s meeting are reliable indicators, we can expect the quality of the BMT Tandem Meetings to continue its ascent, no matter the month. This year’s program, lead by Drs. Marcel van den Brink and Stella Davies and their Organizing Committee, was superb in every way.
At this year’s meeting, we used ASBMT funds and matching grants from pharmaceutical companies to give research awards to eight new investigators. I would expect that among those award recipients are some of the invited speakers who will be on that scientific program in 2013, be it in February or May or June.
– Helen
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| Clinical Research |
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Adult stem cells treat autoimmune, cardiovascular conditions
Patients with certain kinds of cardiovascular disorders or autoimmune diseases may benefit from treatment with adult stem cells harvested from blood or bone marrow. According to a report in the Feb. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, reviews of studies of blood- or bone marrow-derived stem cells showed significant benefits for patients with autoimmune disease and modest improvements in cardiac function for patients with coronary artery disease.
Implanting stem cells with retrovirus does not cause cancer
Two groups of researchers have shown that adult human and mouse skin cells can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, which are similar to embryonic stem cells. According to a report in the Feb. 14 issue of Science, these stem cells can then be implanted using a retrovirus without fear of causing cancer.
Immune system blood cells created from embryonic cells
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found a way to create functioning immune system blood cells using embryonic stem cells. According to a report published in the online edition of Blood, scientists used a previously discovered protein to create self-renewing blood cells.
Scientists grow jaw replacement from patient’s stem cells
Researchers in Finland have used a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from a patient’s fatty tissue to replace his upper jaw. Researchers attached the patient’s mesenchymal stem cells to a scaffold made from a calcium phosphate biomaterial, then put it inside the patients’ abdomen to grow for nine months. The block was transplanted into the patient's head and connected to the skull using screws and microsurgery to connect arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.
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Dates changed, deadline extended for clinical research course
The dates for this year’s ASBMT Transplant Clinical Research Training Course have been changed to July 30-Aug. 4, and the deadline for applications extended to March 15. The course, to be held in Park City, Utah, assists young clinicians and investigators on career paths toward successful clinical research in blood and marrow transplantation.
Helen Heslop installed as ASBMT President
Helen Heslop, MD, professor of medicine and of pediatrics and director of Adult Stem Cell Transplantation at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, has been installed as ASBMT president. A. John Barrett, MD, section chief for Stem Cell Allotransplantation in the Hematology Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, is the newly elected vice president, to become president in 2010.
ASBMT Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Rainer Storb
The 2008 recipient of the ASBMT Lifetime Achievement Award is Rainer Storb, MD, head of the transplant biology program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. Dr. Storb has pioneered less toxic forms of allogeneic marrow and blood stem cell transplants for malignant and non-malignant blood diseases. The award presented at the BMT Tandem Meetings is supported by Pfizer, Inc.
BMT Tandem Meetings attendance exceeds 2,500
Registration for the BMT Tandem Meetings in San Diego was 2,501 – 34% greater than the previous year in Keystone and 23% above the record set in 2006 in Honolulu. Attendees came from 41 countries.
Claim CME online by March 20 for the San Diego sessions
March 20 is the deadline for claiming continuing medical education (CME) credit for sessions attended at the 2008 BMT Tandem Meetings. Evaluations and CME credit applications are online. A certificate can be printed at the conclusion of the online session.
Six abstracts chosen as best at Tandem meetings
A total 509 abstracts submitted by investigators in 31 countries were accepted for the 2008 BMT Tandem Meetings. Six of the abstracts were selected for awards by the abstract review committees.
BMT Tandem Meetings abstracts are searchable online
Abstracts accepted for the BMT Tandem Meetings were published in the February 2008 issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (Vol. 14, No. 2, Supplement) and also are indexed and accessible online.
Recordings available for San Diego presentations
Audio CDs, synchronized audio/visual CDs and MP3 downloads can be purchased for BMT Tandem Meetings plenary and concurrent scientific sessions, symposia and oral abstract sessions. Also available are the recordings of many presentations at the parallel conferences of the transplant nurses, BMT pharmacists, BMT center administrators and clinical research professionals.
Two new investigators win BBMT editorial awards
Two medical scientists are the recipients of editorial awards for new investigators for their articles published this past year in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
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