The 2016 Queenstown Molecular Biology (Shanghai) Meetings, organized by the National Center for Drug Screening and the Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting Society of New Zealand were held at China Financial Information Center located in Lujiazui, Pudong between March 17 and 18, 2016. School of Pharmacy, Fudan University and Shanghai Pudong Engineers Association assisted in the organization. The main theme of this event is “Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine”, which was concurrent with the 8th National Forum on New Technologies in Drug Discovery and the 5th Meeting of Chinese Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation.
Among the sponsors were the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Ministry of Sciences and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, China Financial Information Center (affiliated to Xinhua News Agency), Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, Maurice Wilkins Center of New Zealand, Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark, the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases (IPD), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), the Chinese National Compound Library, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR/WHO), Shanghai Pudong Association for Science and Technology, Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Asian Chemical Biology Initiative, Chinese Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation and Shanghai Research and Development Public Service Platform. Drs. Ming-Wei Wang (Director of the National Center for Drug Screening and Dean of Fudan School of Pharmacy) and Peter Shepherd (Professor of the University of Auckland, New Zealand) co-chaired the 2-day meetings.
Approximately 500 domestic and overseas scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, managers and graduate students attended the meetings. They conducted broad exchanges and interacted enthusiastically surrounding the theme of “Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine”. One hundred and two invited speakers from 16 countries and regions (53% of them were from overseas), including several internationally renowned scholars and 10 young investigators from Japan and China, made their presentations in 10 parallel sessions. Eighteen multinational or domestic instrument/reagent/consumable vendors provided financial support to the event; 8 of them sent their representatives to give oral introductions to the audience covering various hot topics in global drug innovation, ranging from new trends, new strategies, new technologies, to new methods, new tools and new instruments. Ten award-winning young artists brought about their exquisite performances by presenting two memorable concerts during the meetings.
Queenstown Molecular Biology Meetings are a well-known international academic forum with a history of more than 25 years, which have attracted the attendance of numerous scientists, students and entrepreneurs. This is the fourth time to hold such a prestigious event outside of New Zealand, following a successful launching in Shanghai in 2013.
