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Topic Name: NYAS China Conference reveals latest advances in biomedical sciences

Category: Biomedical

Research persons: Gregory Verdine, David S. Perlin, Ph.D, Professor Bruce T. Lahn, Ph.D.

Location: 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St, 40th Fl, New York, NY 10007-2157, United States

Details

China has experienced tremendous growth within the past decade. Its economic boom and growing domestic market is now paralleled by its ascendancy in the life sciences, and the country’s scientists are rapidly rising to the cutting edge in areas such as neuroscience, chemical biology, and many other fields.

To share the advances that Chinese scientists have made in the sciences and facilitate increased collaboration and partnership among scientists from the U.S., China, Europe, and other parts of Asia, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Institutes of Biomedical Sciences recently hosted the groundbreaking “Frontiers of Biomedical Sciences” conference in Shanghai. This unique meeting brought together noted scientists from China, the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia to discuss the most pressing issues at the cutting edge of biomedical science.

For a comprehensive online report that covers all of the material presented at this unprecedented conference, go to the Academy’s website at www.nyas.org/china for the Frontiers in Biomedical Science eBriefing. The report includes an overview; bulleted highlights and summaries encapsulating every major presentation; chapterized, searchable audio presentations, synchronized with speakers’ slides; links to relevant web sites, books, journal articles; and cross-referenced articles from the Academy on related subjects.

Exciting New Research from East and West
Panel discussions, plenary lectures, and shorter technical talks by leading researchers from China, the United States, and Europe focused on four specific scientific areas: (1) chemical biology (2) infectious diseases (3) genomic medicine, and (4) neuroscience.

The eBriefing reveals the latest research on:

Chemical Biology:
Gregory Verdine, Harvard College professor of chemical biology explained why certain classes of cellular targets previously thought to be “undruggable” might actually offer new opportunities for drug development.

Infectious Diseases:
David Perlin, president and scientific director of the Public Health Research Institute in Newark, New Jersey, explained how popular fears of low-impact diseases like smallpox, plague, and anthrax are distracting attention and funding from diseases like tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS, which continue to have devastating effects around the world.

Genomic Medicine:
Zhu Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert in leukemia research, discussed his lab's efforts to develop a new method of attacking the disease. Rather than using chemotherapy to kill disease-causing cells, he is developing an innovative method that employs the tools of systems biology to identify and target critical components of the cellular regulatory networks that cause cancer.

Neuroscience:
Bruce Lahn of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago and Sun Yat-sen University wove together evidence from anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology to argue that two specific genes might have had a role in accelerating the rapid growth of the human brain through evolution.

Aging and Hormones:
Étienne-Émile Baulieu, past president of the French Academy of Sciences and inventor of RU486 ("the morning-after pill"), focused attention on why an aging population will become an increasingly important public health concern this century, and described evidence suggesting that hormone therapy could help mitigate conditions like memory loss, hypertension, and decreased sense of well-being that are common in this group.

Shanghai conference: The meeting was made possible with funding from: Pfizer, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Affymetrix, Wyeth, Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Nature Publishing Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The Karolinska Institute, Bridge Pharmaceuticals and CMEA Ventures.

More than 400 multimedia eBriefings covering the latest research from every major scientific field are available for viewing at www.nyas.org/ebrief/index.asp

Founded in 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to building communities and advancing science.

About Researchers:
Gregory Verdine
Erving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard College Professor
Department of Chemistry; Harvard University;
12 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138;
Voice: 617/495-5323; Fax: 617/495-8755

David S. Perlin, Ph.D
Director
Public Health Research Institute

Professor Bruce T. Lahn, Ph.D.
929 E. 57th St. #W504 Chicago,
IL 60637 Phone: 773.834.4393
Fax: 773.702.0271

About New York Academy of Sciences

Since 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences has been bringing together scientists of different disciplines from around the world. Their purpose is to advance the understanding of science, technology, and medicine, and to stimulate new ways to think about how their research is applied in society and the world.

An independent, nonprofit, membership-based organization, the Academy has always relied on the generous support of its members and partnering institutions for its vitality. Today the Academy is widely recognized as one of the world's foremost organizers of scientific conferences and symposia. Over time its mission has evolved considerably beyond that of convener to include the roles of communicator, mentor, and gadfly.

Convener: Every year the Academy hosts six to eight major conferences on the most pressing current scientific issues. Additionally, several times a week scientists from the tri-state area's foremost research institutions come to the Academy to discuss recent work in one of the twenty or more sections or discussion groups the Academy has made famous. In public policy the Academy initiated the Harbor Project, a consortium of 40 groups dedicated to developing pollution prevention strategies for the New York-New Jersey harbor.

Communicator: Since 1823 the Academy has published the celebrated Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, which collect proceedings of important scientific conferences. Annals volumes are among the most highly cited of scientific research publications. Members of the Academy have online access to the complete text of hundreds of volumes at Annals Online. Reports of the Academy's conferences and meetings are also posted on its Web site as eBriefings for the benefit of those not able to attend, including the Academy's many foreign members.

Mentor: Taking seriously its responsibility for preparing the next generation of scientists, the Academy has initiated several programs: Science Alliance is an initiative launched in 2003 to offer career mentoring to some 5000 graduate and postgraduate students from 14 institutions in the greater New York-New Jersey area. Since 1948 the Academy has organized the New York Science and Engineering Fair for metropolitan area high school students. The Science Research Training program enables high school students to work alongside area scientists as summer interns.

Gadfly: Since 1978 the Academy's Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists has worked tirelessly to promote the rights of scientists, health professionals, engineers, and educators around the world.

These initiatives enable the Academy to advance the impact of science on several fronts and build on the distinguished legacy of its membership. Since its early days, the Academy has attracted prominent members, including U.S. Presidents Jefferson and Monroe, Charles Darwin and John James Audubon, and Albert Einstein, among many others. Its current President's Council includes 19 Nobel Prize winners and its membership numbers more than 26,000 in some 140 countries.