The Promises and Challenges of Regenerative Medicine, October 20-22, 2004, Kobe, Japan.

This report provides a brief summary of information presented at a workshop on regenerative medicine held in Kobe, Japan, on October 20-22, 2004. A major focus of the workshop was the identification and characterization of adult and embryonic stem cells, including approaches to manipulate these--in terms both of maintaining stemness and of driving differentiation toward a desired phenotype--and current developments toward their therapeutic use in regenerative medicine.