Thursday, May 21, 2026
12:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Orin Smith Auditorium
UW South Lake Union Campus, 850 Republican Street

Join Seattle’s vibrant stem cell community for a series of talks on current issues pertaining to stem cells in development, tissue regeneration and cancer research.

Program

12:00 – 12:10 p.m.      Opening Remarks
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.      Mingxia Gu, MD, PhD
12:40 – 1:15 p.m.        Trainee Lightning Talks
1:15 – 1:35 p.m.          Ru Gunawardane, PhD
1:35 – 2:15 p.m.          Break and Poster Session
2:15 – 2:45 p.m.          Takanori Takebe, PhD
2:45 – 3:10 p.m.          Faculty Lightning Talks
3:10 – 3:40 p.m.          Megan McCain, PhD
3:40 – 4:10 p.m.          Paul Robson, PhD
4:10 – 4:15 p.m.          Closing Remarks
4:15 – 5:00 p.m.          Reception and Poster Session

Presentations

A woman with straight dark hair and a red cardigan smiles at the camera outdoors, with blurred greenery and steps in the background.Mingxia Gu, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine
University of California Los Angeles

Engineering Vascularized Organoids: Decoding Human Development and Disease in a Dish

A woman with straight dark hair and medium skin tone, wearing a teal cardigan and pearl earrings, smiles while sitting in a modern office setting with a blurred background.Ru Gunawardane, PhD
Executive Director
Allen Institute for Cell Science

CellScapes: From Mapping Cell State Transitions to Engineering Morphogenesis

A person with medium-length black hair wearing a patterned sweater is sitting outdoors, looking at the camera with a neutral expression. The background is blurred, showing glass and some blue shapes.Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Rejuvenation-driven Regeneration to Combat Fatal liver Disease Using Organoid Bioartificial Liver System

A woman with short brown hair and blue eyes is smiling at the camera. She is wearing a red cardigan over a white top and a necklace. The background is plain light gray.

Megan McCain, PhD
Professor
Department of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine and Biomedical Engineering
University of Southern California

Engineering Microphysiological Systems to Decode Human Cardiac Disease Mechanisms

A middle-aged man with short gray hair and glasses, wearing a blue patterned button-up shirt, standing indoors against a plain light-colored wall.Paul Robson, PhD
Professor
Department of Molecular Cell Biology
The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine

Insights into the evolution and development of the human placenta utilizing human iPSC models

 

Session Talks

All talks will take place in the Orin Smith Auditorium of SLU Building C. For detailed information about who will be speaking and their topics, please see the schedule of talks.

Poster Session

The Poster Session is scheduled from 1:35 – 2:15 p.m. and 4:15 – 5:00 p.m. in the main lobby / café area located on the first floor of SLU Building C. While the formal sessions are scheduled for 1:35 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., the posters will remain up for the duration of the meeting.

Ten abstracts have been selected for 2-minute lightning talks during the symposium. For poster titles and authors presenting, please see the listing of posters.

Transportation & Parking

SLU campus is located at the UW Medicine Research complex at 850 Republican Street. Parking at the SLU campus is very limited. Everyone is encouraged to use public transportation and/or the UW/SLU shuttle service to get to the event.

For UW permit holders, you may park “out of area” in the SLU garage located off of Republican. Punch a ticket upon entering the garage and bring your permit and/or husky card to the reception desk and they will validate your parking. For non-UW permit holders, there is limited on-street hourly parking around the perimeter of the building. You may park in the garage without a permit, but please note, you will need to pay with a credit card and full day parking charges (~$21.00) will be in effect.