TEHRAN- The 3rd National Festival and the International Congress on Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine takes place from November 28 to December 1 in Tehran, according to the secretary of the council for stem cell sciences and technologies.

Introducing new science-based products made by Iranian companies is among the congress priorities, ISNA quoted Amir Ali Hamidieh as saying.

During the congress, 70 knowledge based companies will display their products; moreover, a tech market of stem cells products will be held where innovators can discuss their ideas with 10 major investors, he said. 

Technologies used in stem cells projects, immune cell therapy, gene therapy and gene editing, disease modelling with organoids, biomaterials, tissue engineering, cell banks, cell signaling and commercializing the products made based on regenerative medicine and cell science are among topics discussed in the conference, he said.

Over 3,000 researchers and students take part in this congress, said Hamidieh.

Scientists from the Netherlands, France, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, the U.S., Canada and Russia will attend the congress, he added.

The congress also included a separate event on November 26 and 27 which was devoted to start ups and rewarded the best among such companies.

According to Hamidieh, stem cell technology has led to creation of many jobs in the country. Some one hundred experts are now working in the field of stem cell technology and About 100 companies manufacture stem cell products, out of which, 80 are knowledge-based ones.

Moreover, in each stem cell company 20 experts are working on average, which has resulted in generation of more than 1,400 jobs. 

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, stem cell technology is a rapidly developing field that combines the efforts of cell biologists, geneticists, and clinicians and offers hope of effective treatment for a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. 

Stem cells are defined as totipotent progenitor cells capable of self-renewal and multilineage differentiation. Stem cells survive well and show stable division in culture, making them ideal targets for in vitro manipulation.

SJ/MQ/MG