The 29th Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (JSGCT2023)
President　Hideki Mochizuki, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine

IWelcome to JSGCT2023 in OSAKA, JAPAN!
It is my great pleasure to announce the 29th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Gene and Cell Therapy being held at the Osaka International Convention Center for three days from Monday, September 11 to Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

The theme of this meeting is “Gene Therapy Making a Leap Forward – A Bridge to the Future through Cooperation between Industry, Government and Academia.” Gene and cell therapy has so far been centered on blood diseases, cancers, and metabolic disorders, but gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, an intractable neurological disease, was also launched in the US and Japan. Early intervention for spinal muscular atrophy is considered important, as medication has become possible even in pre-onset cases. These therapeutic results came as a surprise to me as a doctor who was in charge of cases concerning unapproachable, intractable neurological disorders. However, the single-dose remedy is extremely expensive. This is a big hurdle that must be cleared by the industry and academia through hard work. In addition, regulations must be well discussed with the government, PMDA, and other agencies. This meeting will develop meaningful programs to enable sufficient discussions between stakeholders.

In addition, starting from this meeting, sessions will be organized by the Scientific Program Committee, a new committee established by JSGCT. Specifically, we will have programs co-hosted with ASGCT and ESGCT as well as programs co-hosted with the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine, the Nucleic Acids Therapeutics Society of Japan, and other societies. Sessions involving PMDA and other administrative agencies, such as METI, MEXT, and MHLW are added as JSGCT special programs. Furthermore, as proposed in the previous meeting by Dr. Morishita, the chairman of JSGCT, a certification system is to be established by the Certification System Committee chaired by Dr. Yonemitsu during the next fiscal year. Please enjoy the very fulfilling and new programs.

Aiming to be an academic society that provides a bridge to the future, we will join our efforts not only with academia, but also the government and businesses in order to make gene therapy accessible to many patients, and we will highly appreciate your kind support.