Latvian Annual IVF - Cell therapy meeting

iVF Riga international conference “Latvian Annual IVF - Cell therapy meeting” took place on February 7, 2020. The conference was organized and hold by iVF Riga Clinic and iVF Riga Stem Cell Centre.

Leading experts from Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, United Kingdom and Spain have acquainted the participants of the conference with the new researches and advanced techniques in the field of cell therapy and reproductology.

Medical and biology students, doctors-specialists, both Latvian and foreign researchers interested in the application of stem cells and new treatment opportunities attended the conference. The conference was supported by the partners of iVF Riga clinic.

Topics of the conference were dedicated to cellular technologies and regenerative therapy, the possibilities of creating male germ stem cells, to treat oncological diseases using stem cells.

Professor Jorma Toppari, specialist in Pediatrics, Pediatric Endocrinology, Andrology, Diabetes care, Professor and chairman of Physiology, University of Turku, Finland, told listeners about Regulation of Sertoli cell cycle quiescence by retinoblastoma protein. Professor Jan-Bernd Stukenborg, senior researcher and group leader of NORDFERTIL research lab, Stockholm, at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Childhood Cancer Research Unit, Karolinska Institutet and University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, shared his experience in rebuilding the human testis in vitro.

Skype lecture “Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with different malignancies” by Doctor of Medicine Domas Vaitiekus from Lithuania, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, was of high interest and impression. Dr Domas Vaitiekus told about the possibility of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and that our neighbors from Kaunas have been successfully applying it for several years.

Jose Medrano, PhD, scientific researcher from University of Valencia, Spain, shared his experience and some secrets in creating germ cells in vitro and how close are we.

Roderick Thomas Mitchell, PhD from UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, Honorary Consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology, Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, told the audience about fantastic spermatogonial stem cells and where to find them.

Dr. Violeta Fodina, head of iVF Riga Holding, shared the experience and the first positive results of iVF Riga team applying PRP-treatment in the complicated cases of infertility for endometrium and ovaries restoration: “PRP-therapy: advanced methods for the female infertility treatment.”

The goal of the conference was to present new, advanced scientific achievements in the field of cell technology and regenerative therapy and to provide a communication platform for specialists from Latvia and all Europe, and we are convinced that this goal has been achieved.

We hope that our conferences are a good opportunity for doctors to gain new knowledge, so that later they can use it in their own practice, and it will soon be possible in our country to help patients using the most advanced and personalized medicines, treatment methods and technologies.