StemCells to take part in international networking event

Sep 22 2009

StemCells, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEM) announced today its participation in the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit to be held September 21 – 23 in Baltimore, Maryland. The World Stem Cell Summit brings together founding visionary researchers, clinicians, business pathfinders, key policy-makers, regulators, advocates, and experts in law and ethics to present compelling presentations, share information, and together chart the future of regenerative medicine. StemCells’ broad participation in this Summit reflects its leading position in the development and commercialization of cell-based technologies.

Martin McGlynn, President and CEO of StemCells, Inc., and Irving Weissman, M.D., Founder, Board Member and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of StemCells, Inc., have each been invited to speak at the Summit. Mr. McGlynn and Dr. Weissman will be among 100 experts in the stem cell field presenting to an audience of as many as 1,200 stakeholder attendees from more than 25 countries at this preeminent international networking event.

Mr. McGlynn will speak on the panel "Business Models for Successful Stem Cell Companies and Innovative Funding Mechanisms," scheduled for September 23^rd from 11:00 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. Eastern Time. Dr. Weissman will speak on the panel “The Promise of Stem Cell Research,” scheduled for September 22^nd from 1:30 p.m. to 2:55 p.m. Eastern Time.

Additionally, Stephen Huhn MD, FACS, FAAP, Vice President and Head of the CNS Program at StemCells, Inc., has contributed an article that will be published in the 2009 World Stem Cell Report to be distributed at the Summit. The article, entitled “Cellular Therapy for CNS Disorders: A Translational Perspective,” focuses on the rationale and potential for cell-based therapies to treat diseases and disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), the important areas that affect the translation of cell discovery to clinical testing, current clinical trial activity, and factors that are likely to impact the future pace of development, clinical success, and commercialization of cell-based therapies for the CNS.

StemCells also announced that the following four abstracts submitted by the Company have been accepted for inclusion in the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit Poster Forum:

1. CNS Transplantation of Purified Human Neural Stem Cells in Infantile and Late-Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis: Results of the Phase I Trial, N. Selden, S. Huhn, T. Koch, A. Al-Uzri, D. Sikora, S. Dean, J. Penfield, T. Sutcliffe, R. Bammer, H. Vogel, R. Steiner

2. Neuroprotective Strategies Using Human Central Nervous System Stem Cell Transplantation, N. Uchida, S. Tamaki, A. Capela, Y. Jacobs, M. Dohse, S. Huhn, A. Tsukamoto

3. Robust, Long-term Engraftment of Prospectively Isolated Human Adult Liver SC8+ hLEC Cells in a Mouse Model of Genetically-based Chronic Liver Disease, T. Austin, S. Lin, S. Lin, L. Osborne, M. Hu, D. Yu, R. Ibeid, M. Millan, A. Tsukamoto

4. Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Neural Stem Cells by Transient Plasmid Nucleofection Reprogramming in Chemical Inhibitor (iSTEM^®) Culture Medium, T. Gorba, J. Mee, J. Vives, J. Silva, T. Soubkhankoulova, T. Sambrook, A. Smith, P. Bello

StemCells will also have a booth at the Summit exhibiting the Company’s cell-based enabling technology and service offerings for use in research and by the pharmaceutical industry, including its SC Proven^® specialty cell culture media business and its development of CNS cell-based assay platforms for use in drug screening and drug development.

The 2009 World Stem Cell Summit is presented by the Genetics Policy Institute and hosted by Johns Hopkins University, the University System of Maryland, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Maryland Technology Development Corporation and Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.