BetaCellTherapy announces its training course “Transdifferentiation to beta cells”, organised with the support of the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and EU FP6.

The course is open to all members and to external scientists; participation for new member states is encouraged and will receive financial support from the EU. It will be held at the University of Bath (UK) on June, 26-28 2007; the deadline for applications is March, 1 2007.
This training course will provide a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms of cell type stability and cell type switching. It will explore the current strategies for making pancreatic beta cells from other cell types and their application for the cell therapy of diabetes.

“The objective of our training course is to teach participants the normal mechanisms of cell commitment and cell type switching, the techniques that may be employed to reprogram cells to a beta cell phenotype and the techniques for cell characterization and cell therapy,” says Dr Jonathan Slack, BetaCellTherapy member and organizer of the course. “That’s why it is a very good chance for all young investigators and PhD students whose research activity concerns developmental biology, stem cell biology, or the cell biology of diabetes.”

For more information www.betacelltherapy.org