Children’s Medical Research Institute head of Stem Cell Medicine Group Associate Professor Anai Gonzalez Cordero was recently invited by the NSW Government as a key opinion leader to present her research at the largest international convention on biotechnology.

Assoc Professor Gonzalez Cordero was part of a contingent of local scientists, working with NSW Health and Invest NSW to promote the innovative work being done across the state at the BIO24 event in San Diego in the US.

BIO24 is the largest international convention discussing topics related to biotechnology.

“It’s an incredible environment to meet people with industry peers ranging from pharmaceutical companies, biotech startups, academia, non-profits, and government, business development professionals or investors,’’ Assoc Professor Gonzalez Cordero said. “This enables an understanding of what are the hot topics in the field.’’

Assoc Professor Gonzalez Cordero talked about stem cells and organoid models and its ability to test new therapies.

“I presented on our know-how and technology on stem cells and organoids, showing the importance and potential of the human models we develop in the lab,’’ she said. “I showed how complex and reliable these mini organs are. If we take the eye as an example, retinal organoids grown in the lab can generate all retinal cell types and structures that sense light. I also explained that we than use these organoids to test new gene therapies or to transplant healthy cell to replace lost photoreceptor cells.’’

Not only did BIO24 present a wonderful opportunity to talk about research, but Assoc Professor Gonzalez Cordero said it was about encouraging investment.

“Such events on an international platform are important to place Australia at the forefront of such technologies. The technology is here but companies need to start embracing it and there will be an education period where the old established methodologies are replaced. It demonstrates that there is investment and state of the art research happening here in NSW.’’

CMRI was also represented at BIO24 by Chief Operating Officer Kate Gunn, head of Translational Vectorology Associate Professor Leszek Lisowski  and Dr Julia Hill from ProCan promoting our work to international biotechnology leaders.