Written by Eva Åström, member of OIFE Medical Advisory Board

OI symposium in Vellore India

The Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Christian Medical Collage in Vellore, India arranged a two day symposium on OI and stem cell treatment on the 6th – 7th of February 2019. The aim was to provide a platform for scientist and physicians working in this field of research to come together and discuss the recent developments for better diagnosis and management of OI. Invited speakers from Australia, India, Sweden, UK and USA were participating in person, by video link or recorded video lecture followed by skype discussions.

“Translational research in OI & Cell Therapy”

The main focus for the first day was “Translational research in OI & Cell Therapy” with the main topics: prenatal diagnosis (Suresh), clinical assessment and management (Åström), radiological assessment (Gibikote), update on OI classification (Sillence), molecular diagnosis (Shah), surgical management (Fernandez), medical management (Åström/Sillence), Quality of Life, physiotherapy (Hill), cell therapy (Horwitz) fetal Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) therapy (Götherström), BOOST2B collaboration (Madhuri) and role of DXA (Paul).

“Current Regulatory and Ethical Requirements for Conducting Cell Therapy Based Clinical Trials/Research”

The theme for day 2 was “Current Regulatory and Ethical Requirements for Conducting Cell Therapy Based Clinical Trials/Research”. Main topics were the need of dialogue between regulators and investigators and industry (Srivavtava), current challenges in regulations of production, distributing end export/import (Hedenskog), regulations in India (Gopta) and Europe (Franzén), regulatory changes in India (Nair), manufacture and quality assurance of MSC (Walther-Jallow), requirements for reconstitution (Goos), graft manipulations for allogenic SC-transplantation (Mathews), requirements for a new cell-scaffold product trial in India and clinical trials using them (John/Madhuri) and finally clinical concerns and regulatory strategies for implementation (Walther-Jallow).

During two intense but extremely well-organised days in beautiful surroundings and an outdoor temperature of 35 degrees we connected and learned from each other.

Eva Åström (OIFE Medical Advisory Board member): Front row, second from right