Akihiro Shimosaka, Ph.D.
Chairperson
Dear ACTO participants
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 14th ACTO annual meeting in Fukuoka. We are able to organize this meeting because of huge efforts by the organizing team directed by Meeting President, Dr. Shuichi Taniguchi. We are happy to organize this important meeting in Kyushu University. This is the first face to face meeting after COVID pandemic, last face to face meeting was 2019 Meeting in Sapporo. We are very happy to have speakers from Japanese PMDA and MOHLW as well as regulatory agency staff from many Asian countries and even from EU to share the updated information on regulatory land scape in each country/region. Today CAR-T therapy is hot topics in the field of cellular therapy. We are able to invite speakers who will be able to share the information on various CAR-T technology. The latest information related to gene therapy will be shared, speakers from Japan and Thailand will cover current clinical application. Regarding regenerative therapy, we will share the therapy which is already approved as advanced therapy in Japan. Immune cell therapy is another important area of cellular therapy, we will cover several different approaches to the immune cell therapy such as NK cell therapy. At the technical session, leading edge technology company will disclose their advanced technologies on second day. Updated information related cellular therapy in Asian countries will be reported by the vice president of ACTO from each country. Development of new therapy can be achieved only by the collaboration among academy, industry and regulatory agency. ACTO is a unique society which activity is based on the three key plyers collaboration.
ACTO annual meeting is the best occasion for the members from industry, academy and regulatory agency to exchange information/opinion directly.
ACTO started in 2010 as ISCT Asian Regional Meeting in Miyazaki, Japan. However, registration fee is far lower than ISCT standard and ISCT HQ was not happy to use ISCT name even it was organized by ISCT Asian Regional Team. ISCT Asian region members discussed and finally we have to establish independent society but working together with ISCT. ACTO is responsible for the research and development of cellular therapy for the patients and help Asian countries as well as other countries which need support under collaboration among three key players, academy, industry and regulatory agency. Name of ACTO and operating office location was decided by the member’s discussion. Today registration fee for ACTO is around 20 % of ISCT registration fee. This is important for the Asian countries and only can be made by the support from the industry. I hope you will learn from the meeting and enjoy staying in Fukuoka.