Havana- The 1st Inter-American Meeting on Stem Cells began today at the Conference Center in this capital, with the participation of a large delegation from the United States.

Doctor Consuelo Macias, President of the Organizing Committee, told Prensa Latina that about 100 Cuban specialists and almost more than 70 Americans are involved in this event.

Among the American personalities attending the meeting in Havana is Doctor Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest University, North Carolina; and Doctor Robert Nerem, Emeritus Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the School of Mechanical Engineering and Production of Stem Cells, among other recognized academicians and researchers, she said.

Macias, also director of the Institute of Hematology and Immunology (IHI), said that although this is the first Inter-American meeting on stem cells, this is not the first meeting of regenerative medicine taking place in Cuba. That's why, the Fourth International Symposium on that specialty and Cell Therapy will be held parallel to this event.

Sponsored by the IHI, the scientific and logistical organization of the working sessions of the meeting has been conducted, along with the Cuban Society of Hematology and the American company Regenestem, the professor and researcher reported.

The application of regenerative medicine began in the IHI in 2004, directed by Professor Jose Ballester, along with a group of researchers from the specialty of hematology and immunology.