The third national festival and international congress on stem cells and regenerative medicine is inaugurated

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, the opening ceremony of the third national festival and international congress on stem cells and regenerative medicine was held in the presence of Dr. Hamidieh, Dr. Amirkhani, and Dr. Aghdami.

In the beginning of the ceremony. Dr. Amirkhani, the executive secretary of the festival, welcomed the audiences and participants and announced the attendance of more than 3000 participants in the festival, expressing that this level of welcome has been due to the satisfaction of students and researchers with previous rounds of the event.

Following that, Dr. Aghdami, the scientific secretary of the national festival and international congress on stem cells and regenerative medicine, explained about various parts of the event in the next four days.

During the inauguration ceremony, Dr. Hamidieh, secretary general of the festival, presented a lecture. First, he welcomed the domestic and foreign lecturers and audiences of the festival and explained about the ancient history of Iran in various fields such as arts, mathematics, literature and medicine, adding that in recent years, Iran has made remarkable progress in the field of medical rehabilitation, which at the same time, the state supported these the pioneers in this field, and an appropriate infrastructure for research was established. In the end, he described the reason for selecting the paisley pattern as the symbol of the festival, expressing that the pattern exists in almost all works of Iranian cultural and artistic heritage during the past centuries. This pattern is inspired from the ever-green tree of Cypress, which is the symbol of life, ever-lasting power, sustainability, and at the same time, humbleness. These features bring stem cells into mind, which restores life.

In this ceremony, Dr. Asghari, head of the food and drug administration, appreciated the holding of this festival and marked: currently, seven products in the field of stem cells are being evaluated in FDA of Iran. Three products have been able to achieve the approval license and two products are undergoing clinical studies. He added that this center is assessing the products with a high sensitivity and supports new and applicable ideas and products.

Dr. Ghaderipour, head of the strategic technologies development headquarter, pointed out that the commercialization of products in the field of regenerative medicine has been initiated only in the past decade, adding that Iran has had significant improvements in this area. In this regard, Ghaderipour announced the establishment of four regenerative medicines centers in cities of Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz, and Kerman. He also pointed out the slogan of “we can” and expressed his content with enhancements in holding fruitful startups.

Dr. Shadnoush, head of the transplantation and treatment center, presented a lecture and announced that the young researchers of this field will produce valuable events with their expertise.

It is noteworthy that the third national festival and international congress on stem cells and regenerative medicine will be held from November 24^th-December 1^st, 2018 by the stem cells sciences and technologies development headquarter.