Members of staff from the cytogenetics and genetics dept. attented a stimulating workshop on stem cells organised by the Jordanian Society for Fertility and Genetics at The Farah Hospital.

The workshop entitled "FRONTIERS IN HUMAN PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS " discussed primarily recent advances in Patient-Specific Disease-Expressing Pluripotent Stem Cells for Medical Discoveries.

The workshop was in asociation with International Cell Research Organization (ICRO) with a renowned advisory committee H. Baharvand PhD (Iran), P. Braude MD (UK), H. Gourabi PhD (Iran), F. Kilani (Jordan), S. Kilani MD (Jordan), J. Pruszak MD (Germany, USA), M. Sarhan, MD (Jordan), P. Schlegel MD (USA), S. Schlatt PhD (Germany), J. Shay PhD (USA). The workshop organisers were Abdel Latif Abu Khadra, MD (Jordan); Rana Dajani, PhD (Jordan); Zaid Kilani, MD (Jordan); Maya Mitalipova, PhD (USA, Kazakhstan); Gerald Schatten, PhD (USA).  The topics discussed and demonstrated were: Pluripotent Stem Cells – G. Schatten Lab Demo: Culture, passaging and characterizations –C. Simerly, C. Easley     Genetic screening and diagnosis-analyzed embryos.

Marcus Hughes, MD, PhD (US) Stem Cells and PGD Frontiers   Patient-Specific PSCs Established by Induced Pluripotency Lab Demo: PSC derivations by iPS; Chas Easley, C. Simerly   Clinical Observations on Therapeutic Opportunities in Male infertility- Peter Schlegel, MD; Lab Demo: Male Germ Cell Transplantation - Stefan Schlatt, Dr. Jens Ehmcke, Dr Birgit Westernster   Neuroprogenitors from PSCs – Jan Pruszak, MD Lab Demo: Neuroprogenitor differentiation   Challenges and Opportunities iPSCs for Clinical Introduction B. Sarkardi (Hungary)   Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Transplantation -- Mahmoud Sarhan, MD   Cancer Stem Cells – Jerry Shay, PhD