Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope has joined forces with Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet to create an international coalition of stem cell researchers and scientists in related fields to accelerate promising therapies into clinical trials.

The International Translational Regenerative Medicine Center, or ITRC, will hold its inaugural meeting Feb. 14 in Argyros Auditorium.

Richard Jove (Photo by Walter Urie)

ITRC will facilitate and coordinate complementary research and manufacturing resources at City of Hope and Karolinska Institutet, as well as at institutions that participate in ITRC in the future, according to Mardi de Veuve Alexis, ITRC administrative director at Beckman Research Institute.

“We’re very excited to be creating an organization that holds so much promise for helping patients throughout the world,” de Veuve Alexis said.

Richard Jove, Ph.D., Morgan and Helen Chu Director’s Chair of Beckman Research Institute and co-director of ITRC, Ernest Arenas, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Swedish Center for Developmental Biology & Regenerative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, M.D., Ph.D., cardiothoracic surgeon and co-director of ITRC at Karolinska Institutet, will lead the meeting, which will include a discussion of the ITRC’s operating structure and vision.

In addition, scientists from City of Hope and Karolinska Institutet will discuss the initial research projects in the new collaboration involving stem cells and stem cells’ potential for treating diseases in combination with other therapies such as small molecule drugs and gene therapies.

The symposium will also inform attendees about research funding in stem cells and related areas, as well as opportunities and issues involved in collaborating across international borders.

The Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. Since 1901, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

For more information about the meeting and to attend, contact Mardi de Veuve Alexis at ext. 64904 or malexis@coh.org.