Lindsay Davies, PhD FHEA.
Chief Scientific Officer
NextCell Pharma AB
Stockholm, Sweden
ISCT Europe 2024 was held for the first time in the Nordics, situated in one of the hotbeds of developing Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMPs) in Gothenburg, Sweden. This year’s event was long anticipated, with a 6 year wait since our last European regional meeting in person!
The hype was not unfounded, with Gothenburg hosting 423 delegates, making the event the largest European Regional meeting to date, with a growth of 97% on the last meeting in 2018. As a co-chair of the meeting, with Massimiliano Gnecchi, we were proud to represent ISCT with an exciting and diverse line up of speakers and exhibitors.
The organizing committee for the event shared our vision to create a Europe-centric meeting focused on the diverse milieu of European ATMP development. This was evident in the high quality of plenary and concurrent sessions covering the full breadth of ATMPs including cell, gene and “cell-free” therapeutics, as well as the regulatory considerations for product development and commercialization.
Delegates covered the whole of Europe, with the majority travelling from Sweden, the UK, German, France and Spain. However, we saw a strong representation from all around the world, with participants from countries such as the US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Brazil. It was fantastic to see so many facets of ATMP development being represented, alongside all stages of career phase, with academia, industry and regulatory present in force.
Of course, amongst all the lectures, talks and roundtables there was plenty of time to network and enjoy a drink with colleagues. Our poster sessions were a hive of activity and discussion, with 119 abstracts submitted, and some fantastic scientific developments, clinical trial data and process development presented.
Partnering played an important role in the meeting this year, with 1000+ meetings coordinated over the 2.5 days. We were happy to be able to incorporate so much time into the schedule for networking, with this being the primary reason our delegates had registered. The global ISCT network represents such a strong hub of competence for the advanced therapy field, we recognize that this is one of the core strengths of our community.
Roundtables were a first this year for the European Regional meetings and we were delighted to see such diverse and poignant topics being debated, and such strong participation from the audience. This is definitely a feature we will keep and grow with future European meetings, having seen the success in Gothenburg.
Gothenburg represented the first for many new additions this year, something we aim to build on for future meetings, with Dublin in 2026 up next! We thank everyone at ISCT, the organizing committee, Head Office and of course our members for their continued support of ISCT and look forward to seeing you at the next international meeting in New Orleans in 2025.
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