A conference focusing on adult and embryonic animal stem cell research will be held at Iowa State this weekend.

The 13th annual Growth Factor and Signal Transduction Conference will take place from Thursday to Sunday in the Scheman Continuing Education Building.

Stem cells are cells that can become specialized and, therefore, have potential to aid regenerative medicine. Ethical problems arise when human embryonic stem cells are used in research because the embryos are killed in the process.

President Bush signed an executive order in August 2001 that eliminated federal funding for research on new embryonic stem cell lines. Federal funding was maintained for the 78 lines that existed then. Bush has in the years since come under fire repeatedly for that order, with proponents of the research saying the United States was losing ground to other countries and losing opportunities to find medical answers through stem cell research.

Iowa State, like many schools, has continued research during the past three years using materials that are legally available.

“There are a number of universities that are able to carry out research on human embryonic stem cells,” said Donald Sakaguchi, associate professor of genetics, development and cell biology. “In my research lab, we’re using adult stem and progenitor cells from animal as well as adult human cells.”

Sakaguchi, symposium committee member, will present his research on retinal and brain-derived progenitor cells at the symposium. He said there is a possibility that research on human stem cells will be presented.

Jitka Ourednik, associate professor of biomedical sciences, will also speak at the symposium.

“It’s really a symposium for researchers — for them to communicate with each other to discuss the latest results, to help them develop the technologies of fusing stem cells and how those stem cells might be applied to resolving diseases,” said Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

People come from all over the world to attend these annual conferences, said symposium coordinator Gulshan Singh, graduate student in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

“The audience will be almost two-thirds non-ISU, non-Iowa,” Nilsen-Hamilton said. “The speakers are international and national, and we have a couple of speakers from Iowa State as well.”

All research presented at the symposium will be published as a volume in the annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Sakaguchi said.

The symposium is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the ISU biotechnology department, the ISU biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology department and industry contributions.

The regular price for attending the symposium is $500, or $375 for students and post-doctorates. ISU students can attend the symposium for only $30, and ISU faculty and staff can attend for $50. Registration for the symposium will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday in the Scheman Building.