High flyers head to Sydney for stem cell Think Tank

Sixty of Australia’s brightest young scientists are gathering in Sydney today for a Think Tank on new stem cell therapies and what they mean for the Australian health sector.

Recent advances have led to new revolutionary stem cell treatments but there are increasing concerns about a lack of regulation which, in some cases, has allowed untested and unproven treatments to be offered to patients.

Participants at the Australian Academy of Science’s 2015 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank, ‘The stem cell revolution’ aim to build a roadmap for the future of stem cell science in Australia, including:

• how regulation should change to keep patients safe from untested therapies
• the use of human embryos in research, and prohibition on human cloning
• new strategies for giving promising Australian stem cell therapies the best chance at success
• new directions in stem cell research
• emerging technologies that will accelerate progress in stem cell research.

The 60 researchers come from a range of disciplines including stem cell research, regulation, policy, and clinical translation, and will discuss the issues with leaders in their fields.

The Think Tank is being held at the Menzies Hotel in Sydney from 22 to 24 July, and is supported by the Royal Society—the national academy of science in the UK—through the Theo Murphy (Australia) Fund.

You can follow the Think Tank discussion through @science_academy and #TMthinktank.