Dear Colleagues, You are invited to participate in the 13th Annual Hilton Head Workshop entitled, Regenerative Medicine: Advancing Next Generation Therapies being held March 5-8, 2009 at the beautiful Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island.  The goals of the workshop are to bring together academic and corporate scientists and their students working at the cutting edge of tissue regenerative technologies and provide an intimate forum for sharing the latest insights and discoveries in this rapidly progressing field. In addition to the 4 day workshop, there will be a one day short course entitled, "Directing and Assyaing Stem Cell Differentiation" on March 4th. An outline for the short course is listed below. Short Course Session 1: Novel Means of Directing Stem Cell Differentiation: Soluble chemical factors - Sheng Ding; Extracellular matrix & cell adhesion regulation - Speaker TBD; Mechanical stimulation - Sean Palecek; Genetic engineering - Thomas Zwaka Short Course Session 2: Integrative, Multiscale Analysis Methods to Assay Differentiation: Epigenetic & karyotypic analyses - Yuhong Fan, Genomic & proteomic expression analyses - Speaker TBD; Cell population analyses -Peter Zandstra; Systems & pathway analyses - Melissa Kemp Abstracts are being solicted for the Regenertive Medicine Workshop, September 15- November 15, 2008. Active researchers, graduate, postdoctoral student researchers, and those interested in keeping pace with the latest developments in regenerative medicine are encouraged to participate.  This workshop has grown over the years and sells out each year to more than 250 participants. The atmosphere provides a unique “Gordon Conference-style” environment and is structured to allow ample opportunity for participants to interact with each other, both within the formal sessions and informally at other times.  On behalf of the scientific committee, Georgia Tech, the Georgia Tech/Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues, and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, I look forward to welcoming you to Hilton Head in March 2009. Sincerely, Robert M. Nerem Professor, Mecahnical Engineering Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience Director, GTEC Georgia Institute of Technology             click here for silver, bronze & other sponsors