Day two: First Townhall meeting RegMed XB successful!

This is the report of day two, please find day one here.

Last Thursday 11 and Friday 12 March 2021, RegMed XB’s first online Townhall Event took place instead of the planned Annual Meeting. A diverse and interesting program was offered over these two days, ranging from showcasing the scientific progress in the RegMed XB Moonshots, the abilities of industrial partners to very relevant hot topic sessions.

On Friday, over 100 participants joined the virtual meeting, where the Director of the Dutch Diabetes Foundation, Etelka Ubbens, and the director of DON , Floor Dijkgraaf, started the Diabetes Moonshot session by stressing the importance of this research for diabetes patients. Eelco de Koning (LUMC) and Aart van Apeldoorn (UM), both Moonshot leaders of the Diabetes Moonshot, showed the impressive progress made over the last year and what 2021 could bring.

The next Moonshot was introduced by Jan-Willem Förch, Director of the Dutch Arthritis Foundation. He discussed the importance of the Moonshot in view of the 1.5 million patients suffering from osteoarthritis. Finding solutions is a main priority, otherwise there will be a doubling in number of patients! Keita Ito (TU/e), Moonshot Leader of the OA Moonshot, and Mylène de Ruijter UMCU) discussed the impressive progress in the moonshot and underlined the importance of the collaboration within the RegMed XB network.

The morning continued with two presentations of industrial partners, Henriette Valster of HCM Medical and Nol van de Mortel together with Nienke de Roode of Access2bone. As RegMed XB partners, they showcased their company’s work and capabilities in view of regenerative medicine.

The last scientific contributions of the day were the Hot Topic Sessions. Denise de Bont, (UM) discussed the development of the delivery device of the diabetes moonshot and Robert van Boxtel (MD Project) shared his insights regarding the challenges to get to an approvable medical device.

The other Hot Topic Session on ATMPs was covered by Bahareh Rajaei (LUMC) and Pauline Meij (LUMC). Bahareh shared with us the important research showing the capacity of hPSCs-derived cells to secrete glucose-responsive insulin, whereas Pauline shared her very interesting insights regarding the clinical translation of an advanced therapy medicinal product.

This last session concluded the Townhall Session. A big THANK YOU to all presenters and attendees, and also for Frank Luyten who was the Chair of the Day.

Like Thursday, after the scientific session, participants had the opportunity again to meet up with each other in a virtual world. All in all, the Townhall Sesions showed enormous progress and enthousiasm!