ISSCR Board of Directors and Officers Election Results

Abstract

Leadership is a key issue in every organization, but with a relatively young and fast-growing organization such as the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), it is especially important to balance continuity of leadership with the introduction of fresh thinking, as well as to reflect the interests of a global constituency. This year the membership elected the ISSCR's first vice president from Asia, Shinya Yamanaka. The vice presidency constitutes the first year of a 4-year commitment. As with his predecessors, Dr. Yamanaka will serve successive one-year terms as vice president, president elect, president, and immediate past president. Dr. Yamanaka will take on the presidency of the ISSCR following the ISSCR 10th Annual Meeting in 2012 in Yokohama, Japan. In the dynamic field of stem cell research, scientists frequently move around the globe and develop international collaborations. Dr. Yamanaka is a good case in point. He holds dual appointments at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Japan, and at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, USA. The ISSCR's third president, Paul Simmons, started his presidential term in Australia and concluded it 12 months later in Houston, Texas. Likewise, Gordon Keller's presidency coincided with his tenure in New York, but he returned to his native Canada to become Director of the McEwen Centre for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University Health Network, Toronto, during his term as immediate past president. This year, candidates Amy Wagers (USA) and Hans Clevers (Netherlands) were elected as the newest members of the Board of Directors (Table 1). The Nominations Committee proposed a third candidate, Hongkui Deng (China), be appointed as a member of the Board of Directors in the interests of balancing regional representation. The Executive Committee approved that appointment. Thomas Graf (Spain) and Derek van der Kooy (Canada) were reappointed for second 3-year terms.Table 12010 ISSCR Election for Board of Directors and Officer PositionsNew Officer AppointmentShinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, Vice PresidentCenter for iPS Cell Research & Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Japan and Gladstone Institutes, USAReappointments to the Board of DirectorsThomas Graf, PhDCenter for Genomic Regulation, SpainDerek van der Kooy, PhDUniversity of Toronto, CanadaNew Appointments to the Board of DirectorsHans Clevers, MD, PhDHubrecht Institute, the NetherlandsHongkui Deng, PhDPeking University, Peoples Republic of ChinaAmy Wagers, PhDJoslin Diabetes Center, USAElections for positions on the ISSCR Board of Directors were held in February 2010, with the new appointments taking effect following the ISSCR 8th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. Open table in a new tab Elections for positions on the ISSCR Board of Directors were held in February 2010, with the new appointments taking effect following the ISSCR 8th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. The Board of Directors election is preceded by a period for open nominations, after which the Nominations Committee determines the final slate of candidates. Following the committee's selection, all current active and associate members are invited to vote. Nominations Committee Chair Fiona Watt (immediate past president), invited Leonard Zon, Gordon Keller, Paul Simmons, George Daley, Irving Weissman, Elaine Fuchs, and Fred Gage to serve on the committee this year. Voting for the 2010 election was held in February, with 26% of ISSCR's 1422 eligible members participating. The new board members will begin their terms following the ISSCR 8th Annual Meeting (June 16–19) in San Francisco. Elaine Fuchs will succeed Irving Weissman as president of the ISSCR. Dr. Weissman will continue his leadership involvement as immediate past president. Fred Gage, who served as vice president in 2009–2010, will move to the president-elect position. Board officer positions are significant leadership roles in the society, and as Sally Temple, treasurer, and Sir Ian Wilmut, clerk, complete the first year of their 3-year terms in July, they are to be commended for their contributions to the administration and strategic focus of the Society. The incoming members bring unique expertise and perspective to the Board of Directors, and we are happy to take this opportunity to introduce them. Amy J. Wagers, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and an Investigator in the Section on Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center. She is a Principal Faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and serves on its Executive Committee. Dr. Wagers research focuses on defining the factors and mechanisms regulating the migration, expansion, and regenerative potential of blood-forming and muscle-forming stem cells. Her laboratory employs sensitive cell-sorting approaches for direct assessment of stem cell phenotype and function and for developing surrogate in vitro assays that faithfully reflect stem cell potential. Dr. Wagers is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award, the WM Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar Award, the NIH Innovator Award, and an Early Career Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Board of Directors is particularly excited to welcome a relatively early-career principal investigator to its ranks and sees this as an opportunity for Dr. Wagers to represent the opinions and needs of the emerging leaders in the field. Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Molecular Genetics and the Director of the Hubrecht Institute. Dr. Clevers obtained his MD degree in 1984 and his PhD degree in 1985 from the University Utrecht, the Netherlands. His postdoctoral work (1986–1989) was done with Cox Terhorst at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of the Harvard University, Boston. From 1991–2002, Dr. Clevers was a Professor of Immunology at the University Utrecht and, since 2002, a Professor of Molecular Genetics. Since 2002, he has been the director of the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht. Dr. Clevers has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2000 and is the recipient of several awards, including the Dutch Spinoza Award in 2001, the Swiss Louis Jeantet Prize in 2004, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Katharine Berkan Judd Award in 2005, the Israeli Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize in 2006, and the Dutch Josephine Nefkens Prize for Cancer Research and the German Meyenburg Cancer Research Award in 2008. He obtained an ERC Advanced Investigator grant in 2008. He has been Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur since 2005. Dr. Clevers has been selected to serve on the ISSCR's annual meeting program committee twice and instrumental in helping to facilitate the upcoming ISSCR regional meeting in Amsterdam when the ISSCR and the Netherlands Institute of Regenerative Medicine cohost the 4th International Symposium on “Stem Cells, Development and Regulation,” October 12–14, 2010. Hongkui Deng, PhD is a Professor of Cell Biology, and the Associate Director of Chemical Genomics Laboratory, at Peking University. Dr. Deng's laboratory works on cellular reprogramming and directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into functional hepatocytes and insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells. Prior to coming to Peking University, Dr. Deng was the Director of Molecular Biology at Viacell, Inc., and worked on ex vivo expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells. From 1995 to 1997, he was an Aaron Diamond Postdoctoral fellow with Dan R. Littman at the New York University School of Medicine's Skirball Institute, where he identified major coreceptors for HIV entry into cells. He obtained his PhD in Immunology in 1995 from University of California, Los Angeles, where he worked with Eli Sercarz on the function of histocompatibility molecules in antigen presentation. Dr. Deng serves on ISSCR's Task Force on Unproven Stem Cell Therapies and served on the 2007 Program Committee. Thomas Graf and Derek van der Kooy completed their first 3-year term on the Board of Directors and were reappointed by the membership for a second term. Dr. Graf has coordinated the Differentiation and Cancer Programme at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain since October 2006. Dr. van der Kooy is a Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Graf was responsible for bringing the very successful ISSCR 7th Annual Meeting to Barcelona in 2009. Dr. van der Kooy will assist the Board in bringing the Annual Meeting to Canada for the second time when Toronto hosts the ISSCR 9th Annual Meeting in 2011. We would like to thank outgoing board member Ron McKay (USA) for his valuable contributions to the society over the past six years. Fiona Watt (UK) also completed a 6-year term on the Board but will continue to be a critical resource as she begins a 3-year ex officio term. Drs. McKay and Watt will provide additional input to the society through their involvement in committees and other initiatives from which we will continue to benefit. Dr. Yamanaka's appointment as vice president is the only new officer appointment this year. Renowned for his paradigm-shifting work generating first mouse and then human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), Dr. Yamanaka needs little introduction to the stem cell community. He first widely presented his then-unpublished data on mouse iPSCs at the 4th ISSCR Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, in 2006. In his joint position as the Director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University, and Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, Dr. Yamanaka now actively conducts iPSC research with two dozen regenerative medicine researchers and students. Looking forward to his new role on the ISSCR Board of Directors, Dr. Yamanaka notes “important roles of the ISSCR are to provide the latest and hottest scientific findings through its Annual Meetings, and to serve as a world opinion leader in stem cell research, application, ethics, and policy. I hope to advance all of these roles of the ISSCR. In particular, I would like to encourage authors to present unpublished results at Annual Meetings, and to promote internationality of the ISSCR.” Indeed, the leadership of the ISSCR is constantly on the lookout for the buzz of new and unanticipated discovery that Dr. Yamanaka created with his presentation in Toronto. Dr. Yamanaka's research immediately gripped the imagination of the 2200 scientists gathered in the plenary session that day, and the excitement around the possibilities of cell fate reprogramming and lineage conversion has continued to expand with each Annual Meeting since 2006. As the ISSCR prepares to return to Toronto for its 2011 meeting, Dr. Yamanaka has set the challenge—to present new findings that have the potential to again transform the stem cell field.