Stem cells promises have open the way to better knowledges and new therapeutic options for a large variety of diseases which cannot be cured up to now. Regenerative medicine is the most recent and emerging branch of medical science dealing with the hope to structurally and functionally repair damaged tissues or organs. Hopefully, this will help to provide breakthrough therapies to patients suffering from severe organic injuries or chronic diseases for which current therapies are inadequate.

The bone marrow and the umbilical cord blood are rich sources of stem cells, mainly CD34+ cells, including both Very Small Embryonic Like (VSEL) stem cells and Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSC), but also Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC). Study of their genetic or acquired defaults and their use in regenerative medicine are already widely ongoing.

The ambitious goal of this symposium, geographically located in the centre part of Europe, aspires to concentrate over 3 days researchers working on stem cells, coming from these various horizons and concerned in basic as well as in clinical research.

Even if some of the sessions will be specific, most of them will be organized according to main themes (pluripotent stem cells, CD34+ cells and their different sub-populations) and will therefore mix both fundamental and clinical applications to make an inventory of ongoing research in these fields.

We hope that this kind of brain storming meeting will, at short term, lead to fructuous collaborations and contribute to a rapid development of Regenerative Medicine, which, in our mind, is actually a conceptual revolution in the therapeutic approach of many diseases presently incurable

This symposium, being also my retirement meeting, will represent both the continuation and the full stop of the first meetings dedicated to peripheral blood stem cells we organized in Mulhouse in 1989 and 1991, which largely contributed to worldwide spreading of their knowledge

Ph. HENON