According to the news headquarter of the second national festival and international congress of stem cells and regenerative medicine, Amir Ali Hamidieh, secretary of stem cells science and technology development headquarter, expressed the warm welcome of the festival at the closing ceremony of the event, stating: given the warm welcome by the participants, registration for the event ended two weeks after announcing the call due to the great number of referrals. In total, three thousand individuals participated in the second round of this festival.

He continued: 20 educational workshops were held in this festival, which contained startups, technomart, and national prize. In addition, the student section was held for three days in the presence of more than 1200 students.

Hamidieh pointed out: along with holding the second congress of stem cells, students held a separate congress in another floor of the conference center. In this regard, all of the programs performed for individuals aged >18 years were implemented in the student section by individuals aged <18 years.

Secretary of stem cells science and development headquarter mentioned the fact that there was a few number of technology companies in this field, adding: after two years, the number of companies of this area reached 70 companies in Iran.

According to Hamidieh, a significant part of this growth has been due to the technomart of Iran. He continued: contracts were concluded with investors before presenting the ideas in this section, and investors required the companies not to present their ideas so that they could be commercialized separately.

Secretary of stem cells science and technology development headquarter pointed out the extended activities in this field over the past 15 years, affirming: treatment of many incurable diseases by stem cells will be found in the next 5-15 years.

He added: holding such events with the support of the headquarter will eliminate the main problem of the country, which is production and employment. As observed before, a company that was established with two people has been able to increase this number to 25 after two years.

Hamidieh announced that continued support of stem cells can lead to the recognition of this science as the second or third best science that Iran is recognized in the world with.

According to Hamidieh, one of the achievements of this festival is encouraging of enthusiasts of this field. In this regard, he asserted: these individuals need investors, and we are sure that they will find their investor after a while and will no longer require government support.

Secretary of stem cells science and technology development headquarter continued: representative of various countries of the world participated in this event, and we hope that collaboration with these countries will continue in the future.

He affirmed that knowledge has no boarders, and we invite all foreign scholars to collaborate with Iran. We hope that this will lead to improved international activities of our country.

Acceleration in Growth and Development of Knowledge-based Companies in the Area of Stem Cells

During this meeting, head of the exhibition and technomart of the second national festival of stem cells and regenerative medicine recognized the accelerated growth and development of knowledge-based companies in the area of stem cells, in a way that the number of these companies has reached 70 from one over the past few years.

According to the news headquarter of the second national festival and international congress of stem cells and regenerative medicine, Alireza Shoa Hassani, head of the exhibition and technomart of the second festival of stem cells and regenerative medicine, expressed on the closing ceremony of the event: entrance to market and commercialization are important issues of each idea and research project, for which proper management systems must be provided in the country. Over the past three years, we have had acceptable activities in the field of stem cells, and the number of knowledge-based companies reached 70 from a single-digit. In this regard, all of the companies are product-oriented, and a few of them export products as well.

He continued: due to space limitations, 50 companies had booths in the festival to present their achievements, for some of which great contracts were concluded. In addition, 17 technology projects were presented in technomart. This section was so interesting that two companies were able to find investors for their projects without being present in the technomart and exhibition area.

Shoa Hassani also asserted: in addition to the technomart and exhibition, the technology challenge section was warmly welcomed. Interesting topics were evaluated in this section to be used in the country and were published in a call, so that companies would be able to buy their required products.

In the next section, Samad Mohammad Nejhad, secretary of the national prize section of the festival, provided some explanations, expressing: the stem cells science and technology development headquarter has aimed to provide national stem cells and regenerative medicine prizes to introduce and appreciate this field. This year, the national stem cells prize was carried out along with the second round of the festival.

According to Mohammad Nejhad, the sections of the national prize included the best article, best idea, best patent, best thesis and best veteran. He continued: about 63 ideas, 36 patents and 6 theses were delivered to the festival, which were then evaluated by some of the prominent professors in the field of stem cells over several stages. Finally, the selected works were introduced on the closing ceremony of the event.

Introducing the Best Works of Festival of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

During the closing ceremony, the selected works and individuals of different fields were introduced.

In the student section, which was attended by participants from 37 cities, Sina Nabi, Shahriar Mahmoudi, Zahra Nasirvand, Yalda Yaghouti and Parsa Foroozesh were among the selected individuals, who received a prize and certificate of appreciation from Amir Ali Hamidieh, secretary of stem cells science and technology development headquarter, Ali Zar Afshan, secondary school deputy of ministry of education, and Mohseni, secretary of student section of the festival.

Laureates of Weekend Startup Section of the Festival

In startup section of the event, which was intensively held over three days, the laureates were introduced to be Shekarchian, Roksana Salmani, Mohammad Reza Zarei, Parsa Bazdar, and Karimzadeh, who received their prize and certificate of appreciation from Amir Ali Hamidieh, secretary of the headquarter, and Ali Vatani, deputy for technology development of the scientific and technological department. In addition, work of Peyman Keyhanvar, who was the secretary of this section, was appreciated.

Presenting the Awards of the National Prize Section

In the national prize section, laureates received their prizes from Ali Morteza Birang, deputy for international affairs and technological exchange, Parviz Karami, advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs, Amir Ali Hamidieh, secretary of the headquarter and Seyf Ali. In this regard, appreciation of the work of selected pioneer of stem cells was another section of the closing ceremony, where Abbas Aflatoonian, one of the pioneers in research, received the cash prize and certificate of appreciation.

No one was selected as the first place winner of the best idea section of the festival. However, the second and third place winners were Mehdi Rezaei and Motahareh Arjmand Nejhad, who received cash prize and certificate of appreciation. In addition, Sadat Shojaei and Esmail Sharifi were introduced as the best article and best thesis. On the other hand, no patent was selected as the best project in this area.

Laureates of Best Knowledge-based Company Section

In technology challenge section, which was held in the presence of Alireza Daliri, Amir Ali Hamidieh, and Naser Aghdami, scientific secretary of the festival, the laureates received their prizes. In this regard, Mahdieh Sadat Seyedi was introduced as the second place winner of this section. In addition, in kit challenge section, Mehdi Khodabakhsh and Reza Shirkouhi received the second place. Moreover, Moeed Dehghanpour was selected as the first place winner of apheresis bag challenge section, whereas Ali Ghamari was recognized as the second place winner of the same section.

The second national festival and international congress of stem cells and regenerative medicine was held (July 13^th-15^th, 2017) at Iran international conference center with the support of stem cells science and technology development headquarter.