Science must go on and so must stem cell meetings 2021 with all those great conferences out there, but this year it’s going to be different, right?
Every year I put up a continually-updated list of stem cell meetings and conferences. I’ve got my 2021 even if most of what’s out there is going to be virtual. There are still some meetings that may end up being held in person or be hybrids, depending, of course, on pandemic issues like vaccination rates and the immunity conferred. You can compare the 2021 list to my 2020 list here.
Hopefully virtual meetings can still be fantastic learning experiences. There certainly have been many great on-line research seminars without a dramatic drop in the experience.
What will be missing is the in-person spontaneous kind of get togethers at stem cell conferences. Talking over lunch. Coffee in the hall? Chatting in the aisles between talks. Drinks and snacks at the reception or a place down the street from the meeting. We just have to do our best to stay connected mostly via the web.
Stem cell conferences list considerations
If you don’t see your meeting here please contact me and I’ll probably happily add it. I don’t charge anything for having meetings listed here.
Also, this list of meetings here is not an endorsement of each of them.
Rather I try to take a big tent approach and include all I can find unless something is clearly a predatory type of meeting.
I also try to avoid listing meetings that are promotional events for unproven stem cell clinics or suppliers.

Stem cell meetings 2021
What is included in the list?
Where possible, I have tried to include information on whether the meeting will be held virtually, in-person, or be a hybrid. Quite a few listings still don’t quite clarify that, however.
Note that even in-person meetings in 2021 are likely to have a major on-line component far beyond past years.
There are also ongoing meetings that are not necessarily on just one given date so I’m listing those first.
Some entities have what seems to be an extra-large number of meetings this year at least somewhat related to stem cells including ISSCR, Keystone, GRC or Gordon Research Conferences. You can see a video from the 2020 ISSCR Annual Meeting below. I wonder if we’ll see more meetings posting on YouTube?
Ongoing stem cell conferences
ISSCR COVID-19 Networking Meetings
January
February
- ISSCR, Stem Cells and Global Sustainability, February 3-20, 2021, Virtual
March
- 2021 SY-Stem symposium, March 3-5, 2021, Virtual
- Keystone, Single Cell Biology | EK26, March 17-19, 2021, Virtual
- 10th International Meeting of the Stem Cell Network NRW, March 29-30, 2021, Virtual
April
- Keystone Meeting: Hematopoiesis, April 12-15, Virtual
- 15th Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium, April 14, 2021, Virtual
- Cell Symposia Express: Engineering Organoids and Organs, April 26, 2021, Virtual
May
- ISSCR, Stem Cell-Based Embryo Models, April 13-May 11, 2021, Virtual
- CSHL, Biology of Genomes (Virtual), May 11-14, 2021, Virtual
- GRC, Stem Cells and Cancer, May 16-21, 2021, Virtual
- Keystone, Cancer Stem Cells: Advances in Biology and Clinical Translation | EK46, May 19-21, 2021, Virtual
- ISCT Global Annual Meeting, May 26-28, New Orleans, LA, USA, Virtual
June
- GRC 2021 Epithelial Differentiation and Keratinization, June 6-11, 2021, Castelldefels, Spain
- GRC, 2021 Myogenesis, June 13-18, 2021, Tuscany, Italy
- World Stem Cell Summit, June 14-17, 2021, Winston-Salem, NC, USA, Virtual and in Person
- ISSCR Annual Meeting, ISSCR 2021 Virtual, June 21-26, 2021, Virtual
- GRC, 2021 Developmental Biology (GRS), June 26-27, South Hadley, MA, USA.
July
- 1st Spermatogenesis Conference- Male germ cells: from stem cells to diseases, July 16-19, 2021, Lisbon, Portugal
- GRC, Roles for Neural Crest Cells and Cranial Placodes in Vertebrate Development, Evolution and Disease, July 25-30, 2021, Lucca (Barga), Italy.
August
- University of Vermont, Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology and Diseases, July 12-15,2021, Burlington, VT, USA
- GRC, 2021 Wnt Signaling, August 1-6, 2021, Castelldefels, Spain.
- GRC, Epigenetic Information: Mechanisms, Memory and Inheritance, August 8-13, 2021, Holderness, NH, USA.
September
- ISSCR/ASGCT Madison International Symposium, September 13-15, 2021 Madison, WI, USA
October
- Abcam, Adult Neurogenesis 2021, October 4-6, 2021, Germany
- Abcam, Building and Repairing the Brain, October 6-8, 2021, Germany
- Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, October 12-14, 2021
- Keystone, Tissue Plasticity: Preservation and Alteration of Cellular Identity | EK6, October 5-7, 2021, Virtual
- The NYSCF Annual Conference, October 19-21, Rockefeller University, NY, NY
- Stem Cells: From Basic Science to Clinical Translation, October 27-29, 2021, Tokyo, Japan
November
- Till & McCulloch Meeting, November 15-17, 2021, Ottawa, Canada
December
- 63rd ASH Meeting, December 11-14, 2021, Atlanta, GA, USA, In-Person/Virtual
Wellcome Genome, Derivation and Culture of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs) (Virtual)
Q: What do they call virtual snacks?
A: Bytes!
Good one!