In December in Nantes, an International Forum dedicated to regenerative medicine was held, bringing together 250 participants from 14 different countries. Based on the feedback we’ve received, the attendees highly appreciated the scientific quality of talks and the “human size” of the event.
The Bioregate Forum 2018 was driven by Bioregate team and members and also Bioregate European partners. For this event Bioregate was assisted by Atlanpole Biotherapies cluster and GoLiver Therapeutics.
The Bioregate Forum 2018 activities:
- International networking morning followed by an informal networking lunch
- Conference sessions with industrial & academic experts with 100% of internationally reknowned keynote speakers
- An exhibition area (20 sponsors, 13 company booths, 1 Westbiotherapy booth, 1 organizers booth)
- Poster sessions & Poster competition (new, prize offered to J. Pichon, PhD student, PanTher by HTL Biotechnology)
- Young researcher pitch competition (new, prize offered to L. Frapin, PhD student, RMeS by GoLiver Therapeutics)
- An afternoon of One2one session that generated (new), 123 meetings
- A gala dinner
The international networking morning allowed presentations of EU projects and opportunities and most of all of Atlanpole Biotherapies and Bioregate international partnering ecosystems.
In particular Bioregate was keen to welcome 4 of its international partners such as ThéCell (Québec, Canada), Custom (Center for Stem Cell & Organoid Medicine) (Ohio, USA), Curam (centre designing the next generation of smart medical devices) (Galway, Ireland) and Biowin representing Ulg and UCL Bioregate partners. It was the occasion to further discuss bilateral Bioregate partnering and also make its partners know each other to set up an effective international hub. To achieve that existing ongoing EU projects and next calls for proposals were presented (calls opened by Bioregate, by NEXT in the context of an increased ambition for Nantes University and calls dedicated to regmed in H2020 framework).
The 2018 edition brought top level speakers coming from prestigious labs or companies and also was organized in sessions of various topics of the large regmed field thus being a great opportunity to update attendees’ knowledge and make emerge new ideas of projects.
The 2018 Bioregate Forum was also a great occasion to mix and make meet most of the key innovative actors in the field of regmed with informal discussions during nice breaks or in the context of more formal meetings during the One2one afternoon (123 generated meeting generated, including 84 transnational ones). We already know that some organizations have found collaborations and Bioregate has also gone deeper in existing international collaborations and has confirmed the set up of a partnering with one of its US identified spot!
Compared to 2016 edition, all 2018 key figures were increased and the ambition to be an event even more international was fulfilled.
A third Bioregate Forum should take place in 2020 hosted by one of the Bioregate international key partner…already in progress!
TESTIMONY OF PARTICIPANTS FROM ACADEMIA AND COMPANIES
Takanori Takebe, CUSTOM, USA (Invited speaker):
” Congratulations on the great success for Bioregate 2018 meeting!
I truly enjoyed the Bioregate meeting 2018 and amazed by extremely active discussion among the bioengineer and stem cell scientists. Social gathering including terrific food was fantastic as well! Cincinnati Children’s initiated the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM, https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/divisions/c/CuSTOM) and aimed to enhance the international collaborative activities. With this in mind, we’re looking forward to interacting friends at Bioregate very much! “
Ross Macdonald, Cynata Therapeutics, Australia (Invited speaker):
“I found the 2018 Bioregate Forum an excellent opportunity to gain a better understanding of the many interesting programs being undertaken in a broad range of regenerative medicine fields in Europe. The agenda focused not just on cell & gene therapy and stem cell biology and therapeutic applications, but also on the complementary areas of biomaterials and tissue engineering. I look forward to staying in touch with many of the participants.”
Kimberly Homan, Wyss Institute, Harvard, USA (Invited speaker):
“Bioregate 2018 provided a great forum to meet people across Europe and beyond undertaking important studies in cell engineering, bioprinting, and biomaterials aimed at regenerative medicine applications. I look forward to future meetings.”
2018 BIOREGATE FORUM IN FIGURES
250 participants (academic and business) including nearly 15% from outside France.
14 countries were represented: the USA, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, UK, France, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Czech Republic, and Sweden
20 sponsors, of which 13 had a booth
123 formal meetings
100 participants at the Nantilus Gala Dinner