W. Dalton Dietrich, III, PhD
Kinetic Concepts Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery
Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology, and Cell Biology and Anatomy
Vice Chair for Research, Neurosurgery
Scientific Director, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

W. Dalton Dietrich, Ph.D., University of Miami School of Medicine, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, is Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology, and Cell Biology & Anatomy at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Additionally, he is Scientific Director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Director of the Neurotrauma Research Center, and Vice-Chair for Research in Neurological Surgery. His primary research interest is in CNS injury and repair, including both neuroprotective and reparative strategies.

Dr. Dietrich received the PhD from the Medical College of Virginia; he has over 200 peer-reviewed publications in well-respected medical and scientific journals. Prior to arriving at the University of Miami, Dr. Dietrich completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO.

As Scientific Director of The Miami Project, Dr. Dietrich leads a large research team that utilizes cell therapy to promote axonal regeneration following brain and spinal cord injury. His research colleagues are currently utilizing human embryonic stem cells to promote recovery after spinal cord injury; he is enthusiastic about promoting this research field to ultimately obtain the knowledge necessary to translate these studies into the clinical arena. Specifically, studies are being conducted to determine how to control cellular differentiation patterns once the cells are transplanted and mechanisms by which these cells may promote functional recovery.

Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D. (Moderator)
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences,
Columbia University, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Harold
and Margaret Hatch Professor, Professor of Pharmacology

Dr. Fischbach is interested in the formation and maintenance of synapses, the junctions between nerve cells and their targets through which information is transferred. He is particularly interested in the neuromuscular junction, a synapse that is easily accessible to experimental manipulation and has used cultured neurons and muscle cells to characterize the biochemical, cellular, and electrophysiological mechanisms underlying development and function of the neuromuscular junction. Beginning in the 1970's, Dr. Fischbach embarked on a search for molecules released by motor neurons that regulate the number of acetylcholine receptors on muscle cells. This work culminated in 1993 with the purification and cloning of a protein called ARIA (for acetylcholine receptor-inducing activity) that stimulates synthesis of acetylcholine receptors by skeletal muscle cells. This molecule is now known to be a member of a family of trophic factors called neuregulins that are thought to be involved in a variety of important developmental processes in the nervous system. Because ARIA and other neuregulins act by binding to tyrosine kinase receptors on target cells, Dr. Fischbach's work was key in demonstrating that synaptic development relies upon biochemical mechanisms that are broadly similar to those that underlie the action of nerve growth factor and other well known trophic molecules. His current focus is on trophic factors that influence the efficacy of inter-neuronal synapses as well as the neuromuscular junction.

Lawrence S. B. Goldstein, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego

Dr. Goldstein is also Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He received his B.A. degree in biology and genetics at UCSD and his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to moving to UCSD, he was Professor of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Harvard University.

Rudolf Jaenisch, MD
Member, Whitehead Institute
Professor of Biology, MIT

Rudolf Jaenisch is one of the founders of transgenic science (gene transfer to create mouse models of human disease). His lab has produced mouse models leading to new understanding of cancers and various neurological diseases. He also has made important contributions to cloning technology. Studies of cloned mice will help decipher how the genome from an adult cell is reprogrammed to create a new organism.

Jaenisch, a founding Member of the Whitehead Institute and professor of biology at MIT, received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Munich in 1967. He came to the Whitehead from the University of Hamburg in Germany, where he was head of the Department of Tumor Virology at the Heinrich Pette Institute. Jaenisch is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

In 1996, he was awarded the Boehringer Mannheim Molecular Bioanalytics Prize. He was named the first recipient of the Peter Gruber Foundation Award in Genetics in 2001. Jaenisch received the 2002 Robert Koch Prize for Excellence in Scientific Achievement. In 2003, he was awarded the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for basic research in oncology and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Douglas A. Melton, Ph.D.
Investigator, Harvard University

Dr. Melton is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor in the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and Research Associate at Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He received a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and a B.A. degree in history and philosophy of science from Cambridge University, England. His Ph.D. degree in molecular biology is from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr. Melton is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies.

Shin-Yong Moon, MD
Seoul National University

As a director of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) and genetics laboratories Dr. Shin-Yong Moon's research interests include new culture technique of human embryos, adhesion molecules and implantation, and prenatal genetic diagnosis. He had played a central role in the development of CHIPS(chromosome imaging processing system) and FISH (fluorescence in-situ hybridization) analyzing system. Dr. Shin-Yong Moon, with other researchers, have become the first to successfully clone a human embryo.

Camillo Ricordi, MD
Diabetes Research Institute

Dr. Ricordi is the Scientific Director and Chief Academic Officer of the Diabetes Research Institute, a position he has held since 1996. He is also the Stacy Joy Goodman Professor of Surgery and Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cellular Transplantation at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Dr. Ricordi is a pioneer in the field of islet isolation techniques, having invented the machine that makes it possible to isolate large numbers of islet cells from the human pancreas. The procedure is now used by most laboratories performing clinical islet transplants. Acknowledged by his peers as one of the world's leading scientists in islet transplantation, Dr. Ricordi has trained the majority of islet cell transplant researchers worldwide and has developed highly innovative strategies in an attempt to transplant islets without the continuous requirement for immunosuppressive drugs.

Dr. Ricordi is founder of the Cell Transplant Society, and served as its president from 1992-1996, co-founder and steering committee member of the International for Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Association (IPITA), and co-founder of the National Diabetes Research Coalition, having served as chairman in 1996. Dr. Ricordi is also an active member of The Transplantation Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Federation of Clinical Research, and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Dr. Ricordi was selected for the 2002 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award by the American Diabetes Association, which recognizes research in diabetes that demonstrates particular independence of thought and originality. He was also awarded the Nessim Habif World Prize in Surgery from the University of Geneva for the invention of a machine or apparatus that has enabled significant progress in the field of surgery.

He received the 1987-88 National Research Service Award (U.S.A.) in Immunogenetics and Immunobiology of Islet Transplantation, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Research Grant Awards (1988-1996), and the 1991 Lilly Humulin Prize on Isolation and Transplantation of Pancreatic Islets. He A member of the NIH-NIAID Expert Panel on clinical approaches for tolerance induction, Dr. Ricordi was an invited speaker to the Pig to Human Transplantation Nobel Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, and was Chairman of the Fifth International Congress on Pancreas and Islet Transplantation, Miami Beach, Florida (1995).

Gerald Schatten, Ph.D.
Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Gerald Schatten is a Professor and Vice Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Additionally, he is the Director of the Pittsburgh Development Center (PDC) and the Deputy Director of the Magee-Women's Research Institute. Dr. Schatten is also a member of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Reproductive Biology Study Section and an active research investigator at the university.

Dr. Schatten holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been featured in several publications for his research efforts. Prior to arriving at the university, Dr. Schatten completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Reproductive Biology through the Rockefeller Foundation and was a Guest Researcher at the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg.

Currently, as Director of the Pittsburgh Development Center (PDC), Dr. Schatten's research focuses on understanding human reproduction and development and making contributions to molecular medical therapies by determining stem cell potentials and accelerating gene therapy

Professor Alan Trounson - MSc, Ph.D.
Scientific Director of Monash IVF
Monash University, Australia

Professor Alan Trounson's research during the late 1970s established IVF as a practical and repeatable method for the treatment of human infertility that was adopted worldwide. He has since initiated many new innovations in ART.

Professor Trounson leads the Monash IVF Scientific team. Alan has a firm conviction that IVF can still be improved and made easier and more successful for patients. As Monash IVF is 100% owned by Monash University, all the profits are donated to research in the field of human infertility. It is through this ongoing long term commitment to research that the Monash IVF team maintains their technology leadership position.

In 1977, Dr. Trounson, working with Professor Carl Wood, showed that IVF was a practical method for treating human infertility, by the use of fertility drugs that led to the growth and maturation of numerous oocytes that could be fertilized in one IVF treatment. His work in devising culture methods for fertilization and the early development of the IVF embryo, resulted in the birth of normal IVF babies for many couples. He established IVF as a suitable technique for the treatment of human infertility, and this approach was adopted worldwide.

Since fertility drugs led to the formation of more embryos than could be transferred safely during one IVF treatment, Alan developed freezing techniques that would avoid discarding any embryos or transferring too many embryos to a woman. He also showed that successful IVF births could result from the donation of oocytes to women without functioning ovaries and that embryo donation could allow older women to successfully give birth. He was nominated for the Axel Munthe International Prize in Reproduction in 1982.

Dr. Trounson was appointed as Director of the Centre for Early Human Development, Monash University in 1985 and Deputy Director of the Institute of Reproduction & Development in 1990. He was awarded a Personal Chair at Monash University in 1991 and has received numerous medals and awards for his contributions to medical research, including the Wellcome Australia Award in 1992, the British Fertility Society Patrick Steptoe Memorial Medal in 1994 and Singapore's Benjamin Henry Sheares Medal in O&G in 1995. He spends significant time overseas at conferences informing IVF practitioners and discussing his current research interests, which include male infertility, ovarian tissue transplantation and embryonic stem cells. No doubt important discoveries will soon come from these interests.

John Wagner, MD
University of Minnesota

Dr. John Wagner, Scientific Director of Clinical Research of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program and Stem Cell Institute, was part of the medical team that made medical history in 1990 by performing the first umbilical cord blood transplant in the world for leukemia.

Noting the promise of cord blood stem cells to create healthy blood, Wagner and the team successfully treated a four-year-old boy with a rare blood disease called juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia. Since then, the uses of umbilical cord blood have expanded remarkably. It is now used to treat a variety of childhood blood diseases and cancers. Today more than 3,500 cord blood transplants have been performed around the world. Wagner's own research and the clinical programs at the University of Minnesota continue to expand the applicability of cord blood transplants and improve success rates.

Even so, that's not enough for Wagner. "The results are very promising, but we're never satisfied. That's why our research program is so broad, deep and aggressive. We're always looking for better treatment tools, better ways to improve survival to the goal of 100 percent." Recruited by the University of Minnesota Medical School from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1991, Wagner has created one of the top umbilical cord blood research programs in the country that has received national and international attention.

Ian Wilmut, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Head, Gene Expression & Development
Roslin Institute

Dr. Ian Wilmut, the man who headed the research team which introduced a seven-month old Finn-Dorset lamb named Dolly into the world, transgressed long-standing barriers and evoked dormant ethical questions in their place with the arrival of Dolly. Dolly has since been joined by Molly and Polly - two genetically identical lambs carrying human genes that produce a factor for the treatment of haemophilia.

Dr. Ian Wilmut is a member of the Roslin Institute and one of the foremost authorities on biotechnology and genetic engineering. He gained his PhD from Cambridge University on research into freezing boar semen and post-doctoral embryos. The research resulting in Dolly's cloning stemmed from efforts to genetically engineer sheep and cows in order that their mild would contain human proteins with medicinal properties.

In response to the controversy surrounding Dolly's cloning, Dr Wilmut replies that although there are concerns about the research being misused "I don't have any sleepless nights. I believe we are a moral species". He tackles the question of cloning ethics in his presentations, whilst outlining the future of research in the field, previewing the incredible progress which will ensue in pharmacology, genetics, husbandry and agriculture.

Featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, Dr Wilmut has also appeared frequently on television as well as giving numerous lectures. In his lectures, he explores the future benefits of cloning technology and how it will lead the way to countless new advances in every area of science.

Dr Wilmut offers his audiences an insight into a future that only a short while ago was considered science-fiction.