Conferences
When a conference is on, that’s a unique opportunity for getting your science field into the press. You’ve invested time and energy on getting top thought leaders together in place.
We can help you to make the most of it: from putting out a press release and getting the buzz up in the lead-up, to building a conference media room and even organising an outside broadcast on site.
We can also set up and manage conference media centres, with facilities for journalists and media briefings, and put together special media and public events and photo opportunities.
For more information, or help running your conference media email: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
Below is a list of conferences and related media releases we have published in past years:
- RACI Centenary Chemistry Congress, 23-28 July 2017
- 15th World Congress on Public Health, 3-7 April 2017
- Joint 13th Asia Pacific Physics Conference and 22nd Australian Institute of Physics Congress, 4–8 December 2016
- 21st Australian Institute of Physics Congress incorporating the Australian Optical Society Conference, 7–11 December 2014
- AIP Congress, incorporating the 37th Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology, 9–13 December 2012
- Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries Conference, 27–29 November 2012
- International Conference on High Energy Physics, 4–11 July 2012
- World Congress of Asian Psychiatry, 31 July – 4 August 2011
- International Botanical Conference, 23–30 July 2011
- IUGG Conference – Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, 28 June – 7 July 2011
- United Nations DPI/NGO Conference: Advance Global Health – Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, 30 August – 1 September 2010
- RACI’s 13th International Convention and the 12th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry, 4–8 July 2010
- International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 22–26 February 2010
- Nanophotonics Down Under 2009 Devices and Applications, 21–24 June 2009
When will stem cells save more lives?
Melissa Little and her colleagues worked for six years to bring the world’s largest stem cell meeting to Melbourne this week.
What did she learn? What are the next big steps should we should be watching for in curing diseases and saving lives with stem cells?

Melissa can also talk about her own research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She’s made mini-kidneys that are a step towards stopping a silent killer, chronic kidney disease.
The International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting closes today. 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 53 countries heard from 150+ speakers.
Treating haemophilia and eye disease with gene therapy
Katherine High (USA) will report today on an FDA approved gene therapy for a form of blindness, and on a clinical trial in people with haemophilia. [continue reading…]
Today
It’s Day 3 of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2018 Annual Meeting at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre: more than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers, including:

Lab-grown mini-brains make new connections
Fred ‘Rusty’ Gage (USA) is making mini-brains from human stem cells in the lab. But in order for these new tissues to function, they need to become well-connected.
Fred is pioneering research to explore how transplanted human neural organoids (mini-organs) can mature into tissues with blood vessel and nerve connections. This work could lead to methods of replacing brain tissue lost to stroke or disease, and repairing spinal cords damaged by trauma.
[continue reading…]

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers including:
Lab-grown mini-brains make new connections
Fred ‘Rusty’ Gage (USA) is making mini-brains from human stem cells in the lab. But in order for these new tissues to function, they need to become well-connected.
Fred is pioneering research to explore how transplanted human neural organoids (mini-organs) can mature into tissues with blood vessel and nerve connections. This work could lead to methods of replacing brain tissue lost to stroke or disease, and repairing spinal cords damaged by trauma.
Tracing blood back to its beginnings to tackle leukaemia
Right now, the stem cells in your bone marrow are making one billion new red blood cells per minute. Andrew Elefanty (Australia) is studying both embryonic stem cells and more specialised blood-forming stem cells to reveal how our body makes blood and what leads to leukaemia and other blood diseases. He will reveal his team’s latest insights. [continue reading…]
New York, USA; June 20, 2018; and Melbourne, Australia; June 21, 2018:
Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB; Nasdaq:MESO) today announced key Day 100 survival outcomes of its Phase 3 trial for remestemcel-L, an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell product candidate, in children with steroid refractory acute Graft Versus Host Disease (aGVHD). The results are being presented today at the 2018 annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), being held in Melbourne from June 20-23.
The open-label Phase 3 trial enrolled 55 children with steroid-refractory aGVHD (aged between two months and 17 years) in 32 sites across the United States, with 89% of patients suffering from the most severe form, grade C/D aGVHD. The trial was performed under an United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug Application (NCT#02336230). [continue reading…]
Today
It’s Day 2 of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2018 Annual Meeting at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre: more than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers, including:
Treating type 1 diabetes with stem cells
A Harvard team has shown they can control glucose levels in mice using a transplant of insulin-producing cells made from human stem cells. Doug Melton presents his research today.
His effort to fight diabetes involves a 30-person lab at Harvard and a start-up company, Semma Therapeutics, which he named after his children. His son Sam and daughter Emma both have type 1 diabetes.
[continue reading…]
- Could you regrow an arm or a leg? Salamanders can.
- Should you be allowed to try unapproved treatments without the FDA tick when you’re terminally ill? President Trump says yes.
20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: more than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers, including:
Taking stem cell science from the lab to the clinic, and what’s wrong with the US ‘right to try’ legislation—Roger Barker, UK
[continue reading…]
Today:
- Could you regrow an arm or a leg? Salamanders can.
- Should you be allowed to try unapproved treatments—without the FDA tick—when you’re terminally ill? President Trump says yes.
It’s Day 1 of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2018 Annual Meeting at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre: more than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers, including:
Taking stem cell science from the lab to the clinic, and what’s wrong with the US ‘right to try’ legislation—Roger Barker, UK

ISSCR is concerned about ‘right to try’ legislation just signed into law in the US, which allows terminally ill patients to try risky, unproven treatments without regulation or oversight. Doctors and scientists are alarmed. They say current compassionate use provisions allow access.
[continue reading…]
Mending broken hearts and burnt eyes, and much more
- Stem cells are saving lives today—through bone marrow and cord blood transplants
- There are trials making new skin, restoring sight, treating diabetes, repairing the brain
- But we’ll also hear of the dangers of risky treatments, snake oil merchants, and new Australian and US regulations.
More than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries are in Melbourne this week for the massive International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting. It’s taking place from 20-23 June at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Here are some highlights and we’ll have daily alerts for you with more people and ideas through the week.
Media are welcome.
Developing a stem cell product to cure blindness from burning—Michele De Luca and Graziella Pellegrini, Italy
Italian innovators Graziella Pellegrini and Michele De Luca have seen their work lead to patients regaining eyesight after 20 years of blindness. And it’s led to the world’s first non-blood-related commercial stem cell therapy.
[continue reading…]
Here is a selection of images from the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR) Stem Cell Image Competition 2018, being held in conjunction with the International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting.
Images may be used by the media, provided credit is given to the photographer.
For hi-res versions please click on the photo and then right click to download the file.

Human forebrain neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and infected with Australian bat lyssavirus, a type of rabies found in Australian bats. (Credit: Vinod Sundaramoorthy / ASSCR)
[continue reading…]
Media preview

20-23 JUNE 2018 AT THE MELBOURNE CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE
- Stem cells are saving lives today—through bone marrow and cord blood transplants
- We’ll hear about trials making new skin, restoring sight, treating diabetes, repairing the brain
- But we’ll also hear of the dangers of risky treatments, snake oil merchants, and new US regulations
Australia is tightening regulations in an effort to reign in rogue stem cell clinics.
The US is also cracking down on clinics marketing unproven treatments to patients. But ‘right to try’ laws there allow seriously ill patients to try experimental therapies without regulation or oversight. Doctors and scientists are alarmed.
More than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries are in Melbourne next week for the massive International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting. They will hear sound science from 150+ speakers, including: [continue reading…]