Involving six East Asian biomedical research institutes, the 17^th East Asia Joint Symposium on Biomedical Research was held July 1 ~ 2, 2010 in Taipei, hosted this year by the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Taiwan University (IBMB, Taiwan).

　The two major aims of the symposium are to foster communication and cooperation among medical scientists in East Asia, and to encourage and train young scientists in presenting their research to international audiences. The five other participating institutes were (1) the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCB, China), (2) the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University (IMBG, Korea), (3) the Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University (IVR, Japan), (4) the Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine (SBRI, Korea), and (5) the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo (IMSUT, Japan).

　IMSUT sent five principal investigators (PIs), four young researchers, and one supporting professor. The PIs each gave 20-minute presentations on their research, while the young researchers (all graduate students in doctoral courses this time) each presented a poster of their research results. The five IMSUT PIs were Professor and Vice-Dean Hiroshi Kiyono, Assoc. Prof. Koichi Matsuda, Assoc. Prof. Susumu Nakae, Assoc. Prof. Osamu Higuchi and Assoc. Prof. Tsuneo Ikenoue. The four graduate students sent were Suyoun Chung, Kentaro Ito, Tomoki Katayose and Yusuke Mori.  Once again, TOMY Digital Biology Co., Ltd. generously sponsored the traditional TOMY awards for the top three young scientist presenters, and this year three additional Young Scientist Awards were also handed out. We congratulate Mr. Kentaro Ito for receiving the 2^nd place TOMY award, as well as Mr. Yusuke Mori for receiving a Young Scientist Award.