WORLD STEM CELL SUMMIT: October 4-6, Detroit, Michigan
A personal note from Don C. Reed
Folks, maybe you have been tossing around the idea of attending this year’s World Stem Cell Summit, but you can’t quite make up your mind?
Let me help simplify the situation.
Do it.
There is a very special reason why you should.
Normally, I would recommend attending because it is the most invigorating three days any supporter of regenerative medicine could hope for.
You will spend time with 150 of the movers and shakers of the emerging field, make tons of important contacts, learn more new stuff than would seem possible—and it will be fun. This is the only meeting of its type in the world, and I never miss it. For all who work to make the dreams of cure a reality, it is “the Conference of Hope”.
But that is not the reason to attend.
Not this year.
You know me; for the past sixteen years I have worked to find a cure for spinal cord injury, so my paralyzed son Roman Reed might have a chance to walk again. I helped develop and pass a law to fund scientific research, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act, which provided the first state-funded embryonic stem cell research in the world, research now approaching human trial through Geron.
For cure to happen, the entire field of regenerative medicine must move forward. I served on the board of directors for Proposition 71, the campaign to pass a $3 billion initiative, the California Stem Cells for Research and Cures Act, which passed.
And I held my breath in the audience, as President Obama signed a decree overturning the Bush administration’s restrictions…
Never have I felt so heartened, so full of hope.
And yet, we may lose it all, if the anti-science forces have their way.
If we do not unify in the next few weeks, we risk losing cure research for a generation.
Do I exaggerate?
The ongoing court case Sherley v. Sebelius threatens to block all federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
And one political party has pledged to ban it altogether, public and private.
We must come together now: to plan, to strategize, to get ready for the greatest battle of our lives.
Please do not say, “I don’t have the time.” This is an emergency, and normal constraints do not apply.
Can’t afford it? Call the conference organizers and ask about reduced rate possibilities. I know Bernie Siegel, founder and co-chair of the World Stem Cell Summit, and he is dedicated to the pro-cures cause. He has always placed patients and their families first.
Find a way, make it happen.
Just come.
We need your help, we need your input; we need to come together.
That’s what the World Stem Cell Summit is all about.