Key Dates
6 May 2008
Notification of Acceptances
26 May 2008
Early Registration Cut-off Date
9 June 2008
Late breaking Abstract Submission Date
2 July 2008
Pre & Post Congress Tours
2 July 2008
Social Program Bookings
2 July 2008
Congress Day Tours
9 July 2008
Accommodation Bookings
9 July 2008
Accommodation Deposit deadline
9-10 August 2008
Postgraduate Weekend Courses
10-14 August 2008
Congress Opens
With thanks to
Prof Shimon Efrat
Shimon Efrat received his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1984 from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Between 1985-1988 he conducted postdoctoral research on oncogenesis in pancreatic islet cells at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Hanahan. In 1989 he joined the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and the Diabetes Research Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he raised to full professorship and worked until 1999. Prof. Efrat joined the staff of Tel Aviv University as an Associate Professor in 1995, and since 1999 also holds a Visiting Professor appointment at Albert Einstein.
Prof. Efrat's work has focused on the development of approaches for cell replacement therapy for diabetes. He has developed ways for differentiating human tissue stem/progenitor cells into insulin-producing cells, which could be transplanted into diabetic patients. He has shown that human fetal liver and adult human bone marrow cells can be turned in tissue culture into insulin-producing beta-like cells, which can replace beta-cell function in diabetic mice. In addition, his group demonstrated that adult human islet cells can be considerably expanded in tissue culture. This process involves loss of insulin production. Prof. Efrat's group is working on novel approaches for restoring proper function to the expanded cells.
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