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ISCT North America Regional Town Hall Recap

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by
Meagan Pasternak, BA
Senior Manager
Workforce Training & Regional Development

The ISCT North America Regional Executive Committee was pleased to host an interactive, member-focused Town Hall Meeting on October 20^th, 2022. Over 60 ISCT Members across North America attended the live event which focused on addressing current issues, gaps, and unmet needs in CGT workforce development, specifically in North America.

The Regional leadership started by introducing themselves and sharing some fun facts (Regional VP Patrick Hanley was a young soccer star!), and provided an overview of their vision for the region, which included:

Supporting the growth of emerging regions by fostering relationships with South & Central America
Driving talent to the field of cell and gene therapy by increasing awareness and building robust training platforms
Serving as a liaison for commercialized products by bridging industry and hospitals/academia

Patrick Hanley, Regional VP, then set the context for the discussion by highlighting unmet needs in workforce, training/ education and job retention and reviewing a landscape of the complex roles and interactions between these roles across cell and gene therapy translation. Led by the regional leadership, the discussion allowed members to submit questions, providing an engaging conversation sharing experiences of the issues members are facing within their institutions/ companies and potential solutions.

The Regional leadership aims to host additional Town Hall meetings focused on critical issues in the region to provide opportunities for regional members to interact and touch base. Stay tuned for the next meeting!

Members suggested the following topics for further discussion:

Conformance and release around UMNs, exceptional release, notifications
Potency testing
Centralized vs decentralized manufacturing
Standardizing, esp product release, processing, reporting data retrospectively
Communication with the FDA and its involvement in the evolution of the field
Engagement with Vendors and what they can do for us
Supply Chain issues
Cryo standards, 2nd containers

We encourage members to post any questions, or topic suggestions for future Town Hall meetings through the North America Members Regional Community Forum on the ISCT website.