FREE WEBINAR - CLINICAL GRADE CORDS - A NEW RESOURCE

JASON WEISS, CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

Did you know that Canadian Blood Services (CBS) supplies cord blood units for research as well as for the clinic? Unbankable cord blood is offered to the research community to support their studies and CBS has also recently expanded their program to support clinical trials. Listen in on this talk by Dr. Jason Weiss to hear more about how Canadian Blood Services can help advance your research.

When? January 16, 2020 at 12PM EST

Register now! 

More free webinars are coming this winter  - tune in once a month to learn from experts on all things GMP manufacturing, clinical trials and regulatory standards. The complete calendar of upcoming webinars for fall is available on our website. 

Register on our website  - it's free!

CellCAN's GMP WORKSHOP 3rd EDITION WAS A SUCCESS!

From November 17 to 19, 2019, CellCAN held the 3rd edition of its hands-on GMP Workshop at the Centre d'Excellence en Thérapie Cellulaire (CETC) in Montreal. More than 16 participants were able to learn the essentials of GMP requirements from experts illustrated by several projects from actual clinical trials.They also performed manipulations according to the GMP standards and experienced the workflow in a GMP facility.

This workshop was offered in partnership with 

Travel awards for this workshop were offered by Stem Cell Network and ThéCell who we wish to thank for their support.

We also want to thank our sponsors, Kimberly-Clark for providing some of the equipment for the workshop as well as GE Healthcare for supporting the Networking reception on November 18th.

Next Edition of the GMP Workshop

Stay tuned as more dates for the GMP Workshop will be announced soon. To be the first one informed, please complete the registration form on our website in order to signify your interest in participating in this workshop. 

SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS FOR CGTs: MASTERING THE 100-METRE DASH

This seminar will feature international experts and health care leaders discussing their experiences and solutions to supply chain and logistics challenges for the CGT industry, and sharing key considerations for the first and last 100 metres to get a treatment to the clinic. Participants will gain an understanding of global issues, the regulatory environment, how product is received on the clinic floor, and the physician's experience.

When? Monday, January 20, 2020, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where? Auditorium, Mezzanine Level, 700 University Ave., Toronto, Canada If you cannot attend in-person, register to attend a webcast version of the seminar. The speakers' slides and audio will be available via a live webinar.
Breakfast and refreshments will be served.
Registration for both options is free and closes January 10, 2020 - Register now!

WORKSHOP - BEST PRACTICES FOR THERAPEUTIC TRANSLATION: OPTIMIZING PRE-CLINICAL RESEARCH RIGOR AND REPRODUCIBILITY

The translation of discoveries into new clinical therapies is a multi-step process that requires careful planning and rigor at all stages. CellCAN is proud to be partnering with the Stem Cell Network and BioCanRx, in conjunction with our partners OIRM and ThéCell, to sponsor a new 2-day training workshop that will provide attendees with foundational knowledge in two key areas that are critical to establishing the robust experimental evidence necessary for successful clinical or commercial translation: Quality Best Practices and Preclinical Experimental Design and Reporting, both of which are cornerstones in achieving reproducibility, reducing experimental waste and improving the translational prospects of a discovery.

Workshop Dates: February 25-26 2020
Location: Toronto, Canada
Application Deadline: January 7, 2020
Notification of Award: mid-January 2020

To apply, please follow instructions provided on the Stem Cell Network web page.

THE MASTERMIND SESSION WITH DENIS CLAUDE ROY IS NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE

The first two webinars of our 2019-2020 series, Mastermind session: How to translate your research into a clinical application, by Dr. Denis Claude Roy, Director of the CETC and CEO of CellCAN and Extraneous Considerations for Manufacturing by Dr. David Courtman, OHRI are now available for streaming. Don't hesitate to engage with us if you have questions for our expert or would like to submit comments.

SAVE THE DATE! 

Following the success of the first two editions, CellCAN is proud to announce the third edition of the Pan-Canadian Cell and Gene Therapy Revolution. 

When? March 15-17,2021

Where? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Sponsorship opportunities are available! To get more information, please contact our Project Manager and Communications Coordinator. 

More information will follow shortly! 

 ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL WORKSHOP AT THE TILL & McCULLOCH MEETINGS

CellCAN presented its workshop iPSCs quality standards: Canadian and international perspectives on November 4th in Montreal, at the Till & McCulloch meetings (TMM). CellCAN has been hosting an annual workshop at this conference since 2015. This time, participants were able to learn about the validation and standard operating procedure development needed to standardize quality control of iPSC production to improve laboratory efficiency, experimental reproducibility and to optimize scaleability of manufacturing.

We would like to thank our speakers and panelists who made this event a tremendous success: Dr. Thomas Durcan, Associate Director, Early Drug Discovery Unit (EDDU), Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (The Neuro), Dr. Stephen Sullivan Programme Manager & International Liaison Officer, Global Alliance for iPSC Therapies (GAiT) and Dr. Adam Hirst, Senior Scientist, Pluripotent Stem Cell Biology at STEMCELL Technologies Inc.

The TMM was also the occasion for CellCAN to engage with the community and we were very happy to engage with the early stage professionals and trainees that came by our booth to discuss. Congratulations to Jamilah Abusanah from McGill University who won a full conference pass for our next Strategic Forum in 2021!

WORKING WITH THE CTSG  - INVITATION TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS

The Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate (BGTD) hosts regular bilateral meetings with a number of national stakeholder organizations to discuss and consult on regulatory issues of mutual interest, exchange information, share expertise and, when appropriate, responsibilities. The Cell (and Gene) Therapy Stakeholder Group (CTSG), a group of representatives from across Canada, from cell and gene therapy manufacturing facilities, from not-for-profits involved in regenerative medicine, stem cells and immunotherapies, from academics and from clinicians; has been engaging since 2015 in bilateral meetings with branches of Health Canada such as the Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB), Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch (HECSB), Environmental Impact Initiative (EII), Regulatory and Operations Enforcement Branch (ROEB) and others, to discuss and affect policy changes as needed for the cell and gene therapy landscape.

We are now putting out a call to engage all interested parties who would like to participate in this stakeholder group. Representatives from this group meet twice a year with Health Canada in Ottawa, and are involved in preparing and presenting agenda items for those biannual meetings, as well as acting and disseminating on the decisions/discussions. Representatives typically physically attend meetings when they are involved in developing/presenting an agenda item to Health Canada, but teleconference participation is available and encouraged. Representatives should be engaged stakeholders, actively working in cell and gene therapy translation and have an interest in communicating with the regulators on policy issues, and be involved in disseminating information back to their networks. Please consult the list of representatives from a broad number of Canadian organizations and institutions to identify if you have a representative from your organization.

Interested groups are asked to put forth names of their representatives (along with details of their expertise, interest and relevance to the CTSG) to Dr. Sowmya Viswanathan, co-chair of the CTSG by Jan 21, 2020 to prepare for the spring CTSG meeting. Subsequent calls will have a rolling-deadline for recruiting additional members.

Leah Kesselman, Scientific Knowledge Manager at CellCAN now has a twitter account: @CellCAN_SKM. You can also follow our Chief Scientific Officer, Craig Hasilo: @CellCAN_CSO. Make sure to follow them to get in on all the action happening at the events we are hosting and attending. Also, get insight on emerging topics in the field of cell & gene therapy!

THE CDTRP IS RECEIVING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2019 CDTRP RESEARCH INNOVATION GRANT COMPETITION

The CDTRP, in partnership with the Addison Fund, the Canadian Liver Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Paladin Labs Inc., the SickKids Transplant & Regenerative Medicine Centre, l'Université de Montréal (UdeM), and the UHN Multi-Organ Transplant Program, is receiving applications for the 2019 CDTRP Research Innovation Grant competition.

For the 6th time, this competition provides funding to seed new and innovative pilot projects in the hematopoietic cell transplant, solid organ transplant and critical care / donation fields that will be integrated and supported by the national research structure of the CDTRP. The primary area of focus for this competition is to support new peer-reviewed pilot research projects that align with CDTRP's One-Transplant-For-Life vision, which is to fulfill every donor opportunity and turn transplant into a cure.

The deadline for applications to the CDTRP Research Innovation Grant Competition is February 19, 2020. For more information about the application process, including eligibility criteria, please visit www.cdtrp.ca/2019-cdtrp-research-grant

UPCOMING EVENT ATTENDANCE

Some of CellCAN team members will be present at the following events. If you would like to organize a meeting with us to explore new ways to collaborate at one of those meetings, let us know, we would love to chat!

• Phacilitate Leaders World, January 21-24, Miami, United States
• Annual meeting of ISCT, May 27-30, Paris, France