Transcript Staff

Stem cell research, its bioethics and its potential to repair damaged spinal cords to treat disease will be explored during a conference Oct. 12 at the Cox Convention Center, One Myriad Garden, in Oklahoma City.

"The Stem Cell Challenge" will start with registration at 7:30 a.m., followed by welcoming comments by Beverley Greenwood-Van Meerveld, director of the Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience, and Joseph Ferretti, senior vice president and provost of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Members of the public may register to attend a luncheon panel discussion from noon to 1:30 p.m. that will focus on the topic "Bioethics of Stem Cell Research."?Panelists are Patti Reagan Davis, author and daughter of the late President Reagan; Dr. John Mulvihill, the CMRI Kimberly V. Talley Chair in Genetics, professor and chief, Pediatric Genetics Section, and Program of Human Genetics director at the OU Health Sciences Center; and Sarah Tracy, Honors College associate professor and director of OU's Medical Humanities Program.

The public also is invited to a keynote address following the luncheon featuring Dr. John W. McDonald, associate professor of neurology and director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who will discuss "Repair of the Damaged Spinal Cord: From Stem Cell to Activity-Based Restoration Therapies."

An educational outreach program for the public will be offered from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. titled "The Clinical Application of Stem Cells in Treating Disease." The morning sessions are intended for scientists, professional technical staff and students, and Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience graduate student presentations are scheduled from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Registration is $75 for scientists, $50 for professional technical staff, and $25 for students and members of the public.?For more information, call the Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience at 271-6267 or visit www.okneuroscience.com.

The public also is invited to an address and book signing by Patti Reagan Davis on the family's experiences with Alzheimer's Disease, as recounted in her book "A Long Goodbye." Her presentation is 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11, at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, 7000 N.W. Grand Blvd., in Oklahoma City. Hors d'oeuvres will be served.

Tickets for the event, also sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience, are $75 and can be purchased by calling 271-6267 or online at www.okneuroscience.com.