The Society for Regenerative Medicine & Tissue Engineering is conducting 'STEM - 2006', the 3rd Annual Conference on Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering on 15th & 16th April, 2006. The venue of the seminar is the Association of Physicians of India, API Bhavan, Bangalore.

The Sponsors for the event are three Bangalore based institutions: Vivus: The Heart Care Group, Cryo Stemcell Karnataka Pvt. Ltd and Sri Raghavendra Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. It is expected to attract around 200 participants across India from medical and scientific community.

The event is for Basic Scientists dealing with Stem cells & their application, clinicians using or intending to use Stem cells for their clinical trials, students from Biotechnology/Pharmacy/Life Sciences/Medicine background and general public for the awareness of Stem cell therapies and their applications, informed Dr. S.G. Ananda Rao, President - Society for Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering

The main objective of the Society is to bring together Scientists and Medical specialists in the emerging area of Regenerative medicine and Tissue Engineering. It will provide a common platform for these experts to meet and discuss the various issues connected with this field of specialization.

The earlier events were held at Nagarjuna University, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, and in association with Dayanand Sagar College / Sagar Apollo Hospital at Bangalore.

The chief guest for the event is Dr. Firuza R. Parikh, Director, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre for the occasion, the annual oration will be by Dr.C.M. Habibullah, Director, Centre of Liver Diseases and Dean, Deccan College of Medicine, Hyderabad.

The conference will provide an overview of the basics of Stem Cells, applications and therapy. The speakers include Dr. Asok Mukhopadhyay, NII, New Delhi, Dr. Gopal Pandey, Scientist, CCMB, Hyderabad, Dr. Aw Tar Choon, NUS, Dr. K.R. Suresh, Vascular Surgeon, Jain Hospital, Bangalore, Dr. P.S.R.K. Sastry, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. Dr. A.K. Bisoi, Addl. Prof. of Cardiac Surgery, AIIMS.

For the Panel discussion on Current Perspectives of Stem Cell therapy in cardiology, the moderator is Dr. S.S. Ramesh, Cardiologist, CMD - Vivus Group, Bangalore and participants include : Dr. Ajit Mullasari, Chief of Cardiology, Madras Medical Mission, Chennai, Dr. B.G. Muralidhara, Chairman & Chief Cardiologist, Trinity Heart Foundation, Bangalore, Dr. Subhashchandra, Consultant Cardiologist, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, Dr. S. Mukundan, Consulting Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Vivus Group, and Dr. Soma Guhathakurtha, Consulting Surgeon, Frontier Lifeline, Chennai.