Panoramic view of the Fifth International Symposium on Stem Cell Therapy and Applied Cardiovascular Biotechnology, April 2008, Madrid (Spain).

ABSTRACT

The Fifth International Symposium on Stem Cell Therapy and Applied Cardiovascular Biotechnology was held on April 24th-25th, 2008, at the Auditorium of the High Council of Scientific Research of Spain (CSIC) in Madrid, as a continuation of a series of yearly meetings, organized in an attempt to encourage translational research in this field and facilitate a positive interaction among experts from several countries, along with industry representatives and journalists. In addition, members of the Task Force of the European Society concerning the clinical investigation of the use of autologous adult stem cells for repair of the heart gathered and discussed an update of the previous consensus, still pending of publication. In this article, we summarize some of the main topics of discussion, the state-of-the-art and latest advances in this field, and new challenges brought up for the near future.