From 13 to 15 May 2025 the PREMSTEM consortium was joined in Barcelona by members of the scientific community, medical professionals, and parent and patient representatives from Europe, North America and Australia for our final conference.
The conference theme ‘Research into neonatal brain repair’ set the scene to present PREMSTEM’s scientific findings to the public after over five years of dedicated research into human mesenchymal stem cells, and their potential to treat brain injury after preterm birth.
The programme centred on topics related to the scientific work carried out by PREMSTEM researchers, but with the aim of going beyond the project’s own work to explore research activities, findings and experiences of leading international researchers working in related topics of brain injury.
Following a call for abstracts, researchers from around the world joined us to present their own important work looking at the vulnerable newborn brain, including events such as hypoxic-ischemia and stroke with lifelong impacts such as cerebral palsy.
The conference was opened by Pierre Gressens and Livia Nagy (pictured), a member of our Patient/Consumer Advisory Board whose preemie son inspired her to become a parent advocate. Describing PREMSTEM as ‘her favourite research project’, Livia talked fondly about her experiences as a participant in our co-creation workshops.
The keynote address was delivered by Atul Malhotra, a senior neonatologist at Monash Children’s Hospital who is the Principal Investigator of three ongoing umbilical cord blood-derived cell therapy trials. In his engaging talk he described some of the learnings that have allowed the work of him and his team to progress to clinical trials.
Over the 2.5-day programme, 35 speakers presented a range of research related to PREMSTEM’s own areas of interest, including imaging modalities, cell therapies in animal studies, and extracellular vesicles. However, thanks to our guest presenters we also discovered international research tackling other health topics.
For example, António Salgado is developing secretome-based therapies for spinal cord injury; András Lakatos is building organoid models to investigate corticospinal injury; Bernard Thebaud (pictured) is trialling stem cells to treat lung diseases; and Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke is researching Niemann–Pick type C (NPC) disease – also known as childhood Alzheimer’s.
The final day started in a unique way as our co-creation facilitator, Enrique Conches, led a group activity where attendees grabbed everyday objects to explain the ‘bold opportunities’ offered by the conference. In the breaks, attendees embraced a Lego challenge to build a vision of how neonatal brain research will benefit society in the future.
Manon Benders, Daan Ophelders, Elisabet Farga Carrera and Nicola Pelizzi were panel members in a chat about stakeholder engagement in research, revealing clinician, researcher, pharma and advocacy perspectives.
Closing remarks were provided by Bobbi Fleiss, research leader for RMIT University, who highlighted the impressive depth of the scientific discussions and networking across the event.
“The conference not only provided an opportunity for us to showcase PREMSTEM’s research endeavours but also discover and share world-leading research from other labs,” added PREMSTEM’s coordinator, Pierre Gressens.
Attendees appreciated the opportunities for networking and interactions, and the diversity and quality of the research presented, with one highlighting the ‘engagement with a diverse cross section of stakeholders, experts and potential collaborators’.
The organisation of the PREMSTEM Conference was led by RMIT Europe, RMIT University, Inserm and Chiesi. It took place at SB Hotel Diagonal Zero.
We thank all attendees, speakers and members of the organising committee for seizing the opportunity for important discussions, knowledge exchange, and establishing the groundwork for future collaborations.
Official photos are available on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmiteurope/albums/72177720326292183/
