• June
8th Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium
Cord Blood Forum
June 3-5
Hyatt Regency San Francisco at Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, California

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
46th Annual Meeting
June 4-8
McCormick Place
Chicago, Illinois

European Hematology Association (EHA)
15th Congress
June 10-13
The Gran Via Conference Center
Barcelona, Spain

8th International Donor Registry Conference
World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)
June 16-19
Trinity College
Dublin, Ireland

International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
8th Annual Meeting
June 16-19
Moscone Center
San Francisco, California

Oncology Practice Reviews
Hilton Anatole
Dallas, TX
June 18-19, 2010

FOCIS 2010
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
June 24-28
Boston Marriott Copley Place
Boston, Massachusetts

• July
UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN)
Annual Science Meeting
July 12-14
University of Nottingham, East Midlands Conference Center
Nottingham, England, United Kingdom

Cryo 2010
Society for Cryobiology
47th Annual Meeting
July 17-20
Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel
Bristol, England, United Kingdom

• August
Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST)
Annual Scientific Conference
Aug. 13-14
Vancouver Congress Centre
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

• September
1st World Congress on Controversies in Hematology
Sept. 2-5
Rome, Italy

ISCT Europe Regional Meeting
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
Sept. 11-14
Best Western Hotel Villa Carlotta
Belgirate, Italy

International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH)
39th Annual Scientific Meeting
Sept. 15-18
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center
Melbourne, Australia

American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
36th Annual Meeting
Sept. 26-30
Westin Diplomat
Hollywood, Florida

• October
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology
6th International Symposium on Neuroprotection and Neurorepair
October 1-4
Yachthafenresidenz Hohe Düne
Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany

European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)
35th Annual Meeting
Oct. 8-12
Milano Convention Centre
Milan, Italy

American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
2010 Annual Meeting
Oct. 9-12
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland

International Society of Hematology (ISH)
33rd World Congress
Oct. 10-13
ICC Jerusalem International Convention Center
Jerusalem, Israel

European School of Haematology
8th International Conference
Oct. 14-18
Cascais, Portugal

ISCT Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
Oct. 17-20
Phoenix Seagaia Resort
Miyazaki, Japan

Histiocytosis Association of America (HAA)
Oct. 18-20
Boston, Massachusetts

European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ESGCT)
18th Annual Congress
Oct. 22-25
Stella Polare Convention Centre
Milano, Italy

• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
52nd Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-7
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida

• 2011
BMT Tandem Meetings
Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings
Feb. 17-21
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii

• 2012
BMT Tandem Meetings
Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings
Feb. 1-5
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
San Diego, California

• 2013
BMT Tandem Meetings
Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings
Feb. 13-17
Salt Palace
Salt Lake City, Utah

A Word from President John Barrett, MD

Mouse transplantation
For the well-bred laboratory mouse, treatment outcomes have never looked so bright in the field of stem cell transplantation (SCT). A huge diversity of transplant protocols is available to them in some of the top research institutes in the country, and (provided they are not allocated to a control group) the research subject can expect a complete cure of anything from GVHD to acute leukemia that may be induced during the trial. But how does all this industry reflect on the transplant prospects for the average mouse in the street, or for that matter human leukemia sufferers? Laboratory mice are different animals from their wild counterparts, let alone us. Mouse strains are inbred and humans are outbred. Mice have very different natural killer cells and mesenchymal stem cells, they have their own major histocompatibility complex molecules and antigens, they do not develop chronic GVHD and acute GVHD, and GVHD is hard to generate because of the improved hygiene of animal care. Despite these constraints, mouse transplant studies are popular. They are not only an easier option than going through the regulatory hoops required for clinical trials, but are also considered a purer form of science. Animal studies are more intellectually satisfying, command research funding and generate papers in high-quality journals because experimental conditions can be created (strain selection, knockouts etc) that are not available in man. Mouse transplant research is more likely to end up in the highest impact journals than human studies (who has not heard “But how can you be sure until you have proved it in the mouse?”). This state of affairs leads to a bias toward animal experimentation for its own sake at the expense of translational research in humans. Too many funded grants retain their endpoints within the murine world, meticulously proving self-fulfilling prophesies without any realistic forward look to human applications. While giving a nod to the idea that further development will follow the line of mouse experiments to large animal studies to human trials, the conclusions from animal experiments can be devoid of clinical relevance and become animal muddles rather than models. For example, approaches that test whether GVHD can be prevented while graft versus leukemia (GVL) is retained will fail to convince that the same is true in man if the “L” of the GVL refers to a leukemia cell line that bears little resemblance to a real disease.

Human studies
Fortunately today, clinically relevant SCT research is also flourishing. Human studies have been greatly facilitated by our increasing ability to characterize immune reactions, stem cell and tumor biology through molecular biology, cell culture and flow cytometry, and also by controlling transplant outcome through component cell therapy. When every donor-recipient pair represents a unique combination, the ability to study immune interactions at a molecular level is essential to interpreting outcome through cell biology. However, as we are all aware, human studies are slow to set up, slow to reach their endpoints and messy, and there are too many intervening factors that dilute the meaning unless the patient group is large enough. For a young investigator wanting to become established in research the prospect of, for example, designing some novel cell product, scaling it up to clinical grade and progressing through the regulatory hoops before setting up a clinical trial is daunting and time-consuming. Nevertheless, the most innovative studies can still find their place in high impact clinical journals, like our own BBMT.
 
Solutions
It is without question that mouse transplant studies have illuminated key principles in stem cell transplantation and critical components of the alloresponse. However, they serve us less well when it comes to the fine details of protocol design. Outbred animals, such as pigs, dogs and monkeys, offer more clinically relevant research, but the numbers of animals transplanted is limited by expense, and drug handling can be different. For example, the dog is not a good model for testing fludarabine, one of the most common components of reduced intensity preparative regimens, and when it comes to the higher primates (remember that chimpanzees share 98 percent of our genome) how comfortable do we feel about entering these trusting research subjects into potentially lethal procedures without their consent? There are other ways forward, like the SCID mouse and its ever more transplant-permissive variants that represent an informative middle ground where human cells can be put to work in a murine in vivo environment.
 
In the end, if we are to avoid the divergence of transplantation research into two different non-communicating universes, we need to continue to use animal models where they are best applied in defining the big picture, while developing and promoting human biology, using the increasingly powerful tools at our disposal. We should consider whether a particular line of research requires us to follow the classical path of mouse to large animals to man, or whether it is possible to advance our understanding and ultimately treatment success through studies of human biological mechanisms that underpin major transplant outcomes. To help clinical researchers with these issues, the ASBMT offers an annual Clinical Research Training Course where young physician scientists spend five days with leaders in the BMT field writing and refining their clinical transplant-related protocols. Maybe a change of emphasis towards human research is not as radical as it seems; after all what happened to that icon of medical animal experimentation in the guinea pig in stem cell transplant research?

-- John