The 16^th East Asia Joint Conference was held at Shiran Hall of the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University from the 12^th to the 15^th of September hosted by the Institute for Virus Research of Kyoto University. It was originally planned for late June but postponed until September due to circumstances caused by the emergence of H1N1 influenza.

　This symposium started 15 years ago with the aim of deepening exchanges among top Asian biomedical scientists, and the participating institutes rotate hosting duties. Altogether 6 institutes participated. Aside from the Institute for Virus Research of Kyoto University and IMSUT, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of National Taiwan University and the Institute of Molecular Biology & Genetics of Seoul National University also sent delegations. Four faculty members and 5 graduate students or postdoctoral researchers from each institute took part.

　The symposium consisted of 20-minute oral presentations including Q&A by the faculty members and 5-minute poster talks by students and postdoctoral researchers. All attendees presented their work, and so everybody benefited by being able to understand each other’s most recent research in a variety of medical fields. The presentations were very high-level and displayed abundant ingenuity, providing great stimulation. TOMY SEIKO CO., LTD. contributes generous funds each year to this symposium and also provides prizes to excellent student/postdoc speakers. This year, young scientists from the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute for Virus Research of Kyoto University and the Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine received the poster presentation awards.

　After the sessions, we carried on with convivial cross-border exchanges of opinions at a get-together. Understanding of each other’s research might be one of the factors that made us warm to the discussions. The curtain descended on this symposium with a tour of Kyoto City on the last day, promoting deeper mutual exchanges. Next year’s host of this symposium series will be the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of National Taiwan University.

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