Introduction by Prof.

Dame Julia Polak: Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Regenerative medicine is an emerging field that approaches the repair or replacement of tissues and organs by incorporating the use of cells, genes or other biological building blocks along with bioengineered materials and technologies. Advances in stem cell biology, including the isolation and characterization of adult, embryonic and post-natal somatic stem cells, have made the prospect of tissue regeneration a potential clinical reality. Leading clinical scientists, from centres of excellence such as University College, London, Imperial College, London; Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Hadassah University, Jerusalem, Blood Transfusion Center, Slovenia as well from the engineering sciences community and regulators from the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Frankfurt are active members of our consortium. An important purpose of our incentive is to enable representatives from major patient organisations / medical / biological research communities specialized in clinical stem cells research and technologists from the bioengineering area with ethicists to convene and and to generate joint activities that can be undertaken in the near future to the benefit of the patients and the Society. Prof Dame Julia M. Polak Former manager of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine (TERM) Centre, Division of Investigative Science Imperial College London. RECENT HONOURS: Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) (2003) Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield (2005) Honorary Doctorate from the University of Computense, Madrid, Spain (1997) Honorary Fellowship of the Association of Clinical Pathologists (2003) Visiting Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas (2004) Life Time Achievement Award for contributions to Endocrine Pathology, March 2006.

Mission Statement
The TransEuropeanStemCellTherapy Consortium (TESCT) was founded in 2006 to encourage the speedy transfer of stem cell technology from laboratory to clinical practice with the focus on the patient.

Why Here, Why Now?

The TESCT Consortium strongly believes in the power of stem cell therapy which holds the key to treating many medical conditions and improving people`s quality of life across the world. Switzerland provides very good conditions for stem cell research and translation due to its central location, tolerant government policies, and active scientific and pharmaceutical community. The speed of progress depends mostly on closing the gap between currently available government or private funding and the many clinical projects in need of financial support. The Foundation will strive to ensure that this happens.

Founders

Dr. Marco Traub Prof. Miomir Knezevic Rosie Graham Steering Group Members

Dr. Stephen Minger MD, Ph.D, University College, London Prof. Nissim Benvinsty MD, Ph.D, Hadassah University, Israel Prof. Tomas Ekstrom, Karolinska InsKtute, Sweden Prof. Dame Julia Polak, Imperial College, London Dr. Kishore Bakoo Ph.D, Imperial College, London

Project Evalua.on
The research commiNee of the SCLF is responsible for the evaluaKon of project applicaKons and to ensure they meet the obligaKons of addressing paKents views and needs as well as of bioethics and legal boundaries. Successful applicaKons will be able to demonstrate that they are primarily driven by paKent need. Each member of the exisKng boards of SCTF may apply for a grant but is not allowed to evaluate or parKcipate in the process of evaluaKon. In addiKon, an external advisory board shall be established to scruKnise the applicaKon process. The FoundaKon intends to promote applied research so that new developments and treatment concepts can be made available at pracKce level more quickly, backed by sucient tesKng. For this reason, the SCTF FoundaKon will give nancial support to scienKc projects in the eld of clinical applicaKon of stem cell research and regeneraKve medicine with a primary focus on safety.