What are stem cells?
Stem cells are the foundation cells for every organ and tissue in the body. They are generically defined as undifferentiated cells that are capable of self-renewal through replication as well as differentiation into specific cell lineages such as skin, blood, muscle and nerve cells. Stem cells can regenerate themselves or produce specialized cell types. This property makes stem cells appealing for scientists seeking to create medical treatments that replace lost or damaged cells.

Type of stem cells
Stem cells can be broadly classified into 4 groups
1. Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) are derived from the inner cell mass of human blastocytes at the 5th to7th day of development.  ESCs are pluripotent stem cells which demonstrate the capacity to differentiate into all cell types of an human body including sperm. These unique properties have provided added impetus to this area of research, especially in the production of specific cell lineages for cell based therapy.  However, isolation of human ESCs is being an ethical issue even though hESCs have high potential for future development in regenerative medicine.
2. Embryonic germ cells  and fetal stem cells are isolated from primodial germ cells and fetus which also have high ethical issue. These stem cells contain capacity to differentiate into all cell types of the organ.
3. Cord blood stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells are derived from cord blood and umbilical cord after mother gives birth. These types of cells are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into many cell types.
4. Adult stem cells are found in a given tissue in our bodies and generate mature cell types within that particular tissue or organ. They are already specialized. These stem cells are pluripotent and multipotent which will produce only a certain number of cell types. Currently, most popular source of these stem cells are hematopoietic stem cells which obtained from  bone marrow and peripheral blood for cancer therapy.

Why are stem cells useful ?
The hot issue of stem cell utilization is stem cell therapy approach. The best known stem cell based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. This has been performed as a standard medical treatment by using hematopoietic stem cells for several decades. Besides bone marrow stem cells, there are many kinds of stem cells have been described in the last 10 years, particularly, mesenchymal stem cells and fat stem cells.  All of these discoveries have accelerated the rapid advancement of stem cell research worldwide.  Many researchers aim to use stem cells in regenerative medicine including cell replacement, tissue engineering and in vitro organ creation. One of mankind dream is to see stem cell therapy can be used as standard procedure to treat and cure a variety of diseases and injuries e.g. Parkinson's disease, stroke and diabetes. Moreover, they could provide a valuable source of human cells for testing drugs or measuring the effects of toxins on normal tissues without risking the health of a single human volunteer. Altogether, our world is now facing a great future of regenerative and reproductive medicine which will bring medical science into a new era of therapy and increase human lifespan potential.

Aims of Conference
1. To provide a platform for exchange and discussion of current international topics of medical stem cell research and stem cell therapy
2. To provide the workshop training opportunity on stem cell research to community

download Brouchure (TH)   download Brouchure (EN) download Poster