intro meeting 2/14/2023 8:00 a.m.- 8:30 a.m. PST

Members present:

⦁ Vatche Sahakyan PhD Professor of Physics, Harvey Mudd College 

⦁ Arshak Alexenyan VMD, PhD   adjunct professor in the Department of Medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin, researcher in neuronal stem cells and Chief Scientific Officer at Cell Reprogramming & Therapeutics LLC and Assoc.     

⦁ Apkar "Vania" Apkarian PhD Director, Center for Translational Pain Research, Professor of Neuroscience, Anesthesiology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 

⦁ Arthur Melkonyan MD  Promtest Research Lab, Yerevan

⦁ Jerry Manoukian MD Internal medicine, Continuing Medical Education

Vatche opened up the meeting and discussed the ASOF model which provides services including conference management, visitor programs, granted management and office services to support our work groups.  Our immediate project is to present a White Paper proposal by the time of the ASOF meeting in Dilijan, Armenia in late June.  We will be given a dedicated Google folder for sharing of templates for proposals.

Arshak discussed the global mesenchymal market which currently amounts to billions of dollars annually.  Mesenchymal stem cells are classified by disease.  There are currently 493 clinical trials in the U.S. and about 1200 world wide.

A rough breakdown of the market for minimally manipulated stem cells:

20 percent bone and cartilage,

18 percent neurology

15 percent cardiovascular

14 percent autoimmune

7.5 percent graft-versus-host

5 percent diabetes mellitus

6 percent hepatology

2 percent renal disease

4 percent lung disease

5 percent hematologic applications

Arshak is applying epigenetic modification to dedifferentiate adult fat cells into mesenchymal stem cells, then differentiate them in to neural cells.  His company is NIH funded, receiving small business grants.  He is training graduate and undergraduate students in the processes involved including transfection and transduction 

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Vania is interested in Neurologic research, currently researching pain pathways at Northwestern University.  He is interested in student Education, to develop scientific and intellectual skills and to train the students for what is to come in their future.  Vania's lab does clinical trials.  Vania has also worked with Yerevan State Medical University Department of Neurology.

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Arthur is interested in developing the culture of clinical trials in Armenia, “it is still not here.”  He has been involved in research at Johns Hopkins and with Armenicum in Armenia and has experience with a company in Yerevan that was doing phase 1 studies but then was either sold or closed and no longer working in Yerevan.

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Arshak and Arthur feel we should be working with the Armenia's National Institute of Health, and have been in contact with the director, Alexander Bazarchyan, who is also invited to our workgroup sessions.

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We have scheduled a follow-up meeting on Tuesday February 21st at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time/9:00 a.m. central time/7:00 p.m. Yerevan time